World class cyclists will meet Pope Leo the Fourteenth and circle Vatican City on Sunday before beginning the final stage of the Giro d'Italia, a multistage bicycle race that concludes in Rome.This professional competition, which began in Albania on May ninth, ranks among the top three most significant international multistage races globally, alongside the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana. The race features twenty one stages, primarily taking place throughout Italy.The final stage of the one hundred eighth edition will occur on June first, beginning at the Caracalla Baths, located just south of the Coliseum, then proceeding toward the Vatican.The one point eight mile noncompetitive ride through Vatican territory will commence from Petriano Square, situated just south of Saint Peter's Basilica within the city state, where Pope Leo the Fourteenth will welcome the athletes at the starting line.The racing route will follow the Vatican walls past the basilica, climbing toward the Vatican Gardens to reach the heliport, which represents the highest and westernmost point of the territory.Cyclists will then pedal through green spaces decorated with Marian imagery, including a replica of the Lourdes grotto and a mosaic of Our Lady of Good Counsel, a devotion particularly favored by Pope Leo. After descending toward the Vatican Museums and the Square Garden, the riders will circle back along the rear of Saint Peter's Basilica before exiting through a side gate on Vatican City's southern side.This cycling competition traces its origins to nineteen oh nine. The annual race has occurred over three weeks between May and June each year since its inception, interrupted only during the First and Second World Wars. In nineteen forty six and twenty twenty, the event was postponed but still conducted.Among the legendary winners of the Giro d'Italia stands Italian cycling champion Gino Bartali, a devout Catholic who helped rescue more than eight hundred Jews during World War Two.
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