Press release - 2010, September 4th
Official leaflet of Tour of Region Friuli Venezia Giulia 2010

It is possible to download the official leaflet of the race:

Press release - 2010, July 26th
Tour of Friuli Venezia Giulia 2010 revealed

Cycling Tour of Region Friuli Venezia Giulia - "Through villas, castles and rural villages", international stage-race for elite and under 23 which will take place from 8th to 11th September, has been revealed yesterday afternoon in the Town Hall of Pordenone.

In front of lots of guests and authorities, the organizing society Gs Giro ciclistico del Friuli Venezia Giulia presented the four stages and explained the reasons why they postponed the Tour in September and why stages will be four instead of five (to follow Uci's request to respect other races that were already present in international calendar in the same days).

The regards of Pordenone's mayor Sergio Bolzanello opened the presentation, and then it was the turn of the president of organizing society, Giovanni Cappanera, who read an article of 1910 which told about the first Tour of Friuli in history. He said that 2010 edition will pass through some of the towns of that first edition, and it will finish in Udine too. He than reminded the values of the race, that this year received a special prize from Republic president: «Our race is not only an important occasion for young talents to become professionists, but also a way to make our Region be known all over the world».

The projection of a video created by Atlandide Videoservice followed, and the four stages have been revealed. After that, the guest of honour of the presentation, the professional cyclist Franco Pellizotti, born in Friuli, talked about the technical aspect of the stages: «It will be a wonderful Tour, like always. It will be very hard even without a stage, and it will highlight the best riders. September is a beautiful period for a stage race, because it's the period of the world championship and a lot of riders would like to test their condition». He spoke also about young talents discovered by this race: «Cyclists that do something good inTour of Friuli Venezia Giulia will have a lot of chances to pass into professionism, because professional teams always take a look at this race. For example I think at Kristjan Koren, who last year won the stage of Pordenone and now rides with me in Liquigas».

Also Gs Caneva sport director, Ezio Piccoli, commented about the course: «I think that this race will be harder than what it seems from the maps, even without a stage. The third stage will give the final classification, because who will win such a stage won't be afraid of the climbs of the last days. The winner will be a complete and hard rider».

Stages
The first stage will start from Gorizia and pass through the area of Collio and Isontino, coming close to Trieste's province, and then it will end in the heart of the Region, in Fagagna (Ud) after 152 km. The only difficulty of the day will be the Gpm of San Michele del Carso, far from the finish; it will be a stage for escapes or for a sprint arrive.
The next day the stage will start from Codroipo (Ud) and pass through the flat area of the southern province of Pordenone, before crossing the frontier with Veneto and going in Treviso province. Here there will be the climb of Cansiglio, 1015 m high. A long and techique descent will follow toward the arrive in Pordenone, after 152,1 km, again after the great success of the third stage of 2009 edition.
On 10th September there will be the harder stage of 2010 Tour: 174 km from Maniago (Ud) to Forni di Sopra (Ud), through two Gpm and arrive uphill. At the beginning of the stage the peloton will go again in Veneto, through Sant'Osvaldo's Gpm, and will arrive in Cadore, and then the first cathegory climb of Sella Ciampigotto will take it again in Friuli. They will pass through Val Pesarina and go toward the arrive in Forni di Sopra at 907 m.
The next day the fourth and last stage will start from Arta Terme (Ud) and finish in Udine after 164,8 km: it will be a nervous stage with three short climbs: San Simeone (at km 33), Subit (at km 115) and Valle (km 135).

Teams
Teams About seventy teams have already sent their participation request to Tour of Friuli Venezia Giulia 2010. Organizing society in the next weeks will choose among them 30 teams.

Press release - 2010, July 12th
It's official: Tour of Friuli Venezia Giulia 2010 will take place in September

Eventually the long-awaited confirm has come: edition 2010 of international cycling Tour of Region Friuli Venezia Giulia will take place in September. Uci gave its approval to postpone the stage race for elite and under 23 from 8th to 11th Semptember 2010.
Official presentation of the race will take place on Monday 26th July at 6 pm in the townhall of Pordenone, where the stages of this edition 2010 will be revealed.

The big change is that stages will be four and not five: Uci asked organizing society, Gs Giro ciclistico del Friuli Venezia Giulia, to do this modification to respect other races that were already present in international calendar in the same days. So, they decided to join together the last two stages, Arta Terme - Forgaria/Monte Prat and Casarsa della Delizia - Udine in a single stage from Arta Terme to Udine, removing the arrive uphill on Monte Prat. Then, the four stages will be:

08/09 Gorizia - Fagagna (152 km)
09/09 Codroipo - Pordenone (152,1 km)
10/09 Maniago - Forni di Sopra (174,3 km)
11/09 Arta Terme - Udine (164,8 km)

To facilitate the teams that on Sunday 12th September will take part to other races, organizing society decided to make the last stage start at 9.30 am, in the way to finish all the operations early in the afternoon.

Gs Giro ciclistico del Friuli Venezia Giulia is very satisfied for the enthusiasm of the teams that confirmed their request of participation. «We are very glad to see that so many teams want to be present to our race even in September - says the president of the race, Giovanni Cappanera - many teams confirmed their presence, and many others that in May wouldn't be present, asked to participate». Organizig society decided that every team can bring five athletes, and no more than 30 teams will be selected.

The headquarter of the manifestation will be settled in Grado for the first two days (7th September for the preliminary operations and 8th September), while 9th and 10th September organizers and teams will be accomodated in Arta Terme, like in 2009. There will be no changes in the five jerseys of the different classifications (general, point, intermediate sprints, Gpm and best young rider).
Organizing society is thinking to a special prize to celebrate the "Tour of the Centenary", because it will be 100 years from the first edition in history of a Tour of Friuli, which took place on 20th September 1910.

Gs Giro del Friuli Venezia Giulia specifies that they have already sent to Uci their request to bring back, in 2011, the Tour to its original dates: from 4th to 8th May.

Press release - 2010, April 30th
Tour of Region Friuli Venezia Giulia 2010 maybe in September

After important confirmations from Turism and Productive Activities Department, who assured it will sustein Tour of Region, Gs Giro del Friuli Venezia Giulia decided to go on in the organization of the most ancient stage race for elite and under 23 in Italy, and, considering technical times to organize the event in the best way, it asked Uci to delay the race in the first fifteen days of September.

When Uci will give an answer, organizing society will set the date of official presentation.

Press release - 2010, April 25th
Tour of Region Friuli Venezia Giulia 2010 suspended

It’s with much to regret that Asd Gs Giro del Friuli Venezia Giulia, organizing society of cycling Tour of Region Friuli Venezia Giulia, is forced to suspend the organization of the race, which will would have take place from 5th to 9th May.

They still don't know anything about an important part of the grants that will have sustained the race: the grants of Productive Activities and Turism Department are still missing, and organizing society still doesn't know how much they will be.

To answer to the numerous participations' requests, organizing society asked Uci through Italian Cycling Federation, to delay the race in another moment (near to the original one) and it's working to find a solution. When Uci will give an answer, organizing society will set the date of official presentation and will immediately communicate it.

Press release - 2010, April 21st
Official presentation of Tour of Region Friuli Venezia Giulia 2010 delayed

Gs Giro del Friuli Venezia Giulia, organizing society of Tour of Region Friuli Venezia Giulia, comunicates that the official presentation of 2010 edition, which had to take place in the Town Hall of Pordenone on Thursday 21st April, is delayed.

Other comunications about the new date of the presentation will follow.

Press release - 2010, April 14th
On 22th April official presentation of Tour of Region Friuli Venezia Giulia 2010

Edition 2010 of international cycling Tour of Region Friuli Venezia Giulia will be revealed on Tuesday 22th April, in the town hall of Pordenone.

Organizing society, Asd Gs Giro del Friuli Venezia Giulia, with its president Giovanni Cappanera, it’s working in these days on the last details of the five stages, which are:

05/05 Gorizia - Fagagna
06/05 Codroipo - Pordenone
07/05 Maniago - Forni di Sopra
08/05 Arta Terme - Forgaria/Monte Prat
09/05 Casarsa della Delizia - Udine

All the four provinces of the Region will be interested, and the race will also pass in Veneto throught the provinces of Venezia, Treviso and Belluno. There will be nine Gpm and eleven intermediate sprints, and stages will be very variegated, but the attention will be focused on the third and the fourth stages, where the protagonists will be the mountains and the arrive uphill to Prat Mountain (which will cover the course of the famous uphill time trial from Forgaria to Prat Mountain)

The headquarter of the race will be settled in Grado for the first three days (4th, 5th and 6th May), while 7th and 8th May organizers and race teams will be accomodated in Arta Terme, like in 2009.

Until now, about sixty teams has sent their request of participation, equally divided into italian and foreign teams and national teams (19 nations are represented). Organizing society has decided to mantein also for this edition the criterion of selection based on participants’ age: the 25 teams which will take part to the race will be selected giving priority to the teams which will bring athlets born from 1982 to 1991, while teams which will present riders born before 1982 will follow. There’s also another innovation this year: teams must bring six athletes, and not five like previous editions. Young talents from all over the world are expected to come and fight to conquer a race that has always give to professionism a lot of great riders: the last has been the winner of 2009 edition, Gianluca Brambilla, now professionist with the team Colnago Csf Inox.

This year the manifestation will have a particular subject: “Tour of the Centenary”, because on 20th September 1910 took place the first Tour of Friuli of the history. It was a single-day race of 264 km with start and arrive in Udine, and passed through Tarcento, Spilimbergo, Maniago, Sacile, Pordenone, Codroipo and Palmanova. The winner was Emilio Marchetti. The organizing society wants to remember the origins of present Tour of the Region including in the course some of the towns of the first Tour.