How does one land such a significant role?
Dr. Virelli explains: “I studied management with a more cultural focus, which included event organization. My decision naturally gravitated toward sporting events. I started from there, and from my time at the university radio station."
“While I was still studying, I had already gained experience: an internship at a cultural festival in Catanzaro, where I was born, and a shorter stint working on a film project about the Milan marathon,” recalls Virelli. “After that, I went to Radio 24, graduated, and a year and a half later, I got the chance to intern at RCS Sport.”
RCS Sport, specialized in organizing and promoting sporting events, manages major cycling races like the Giro d’Italia, the classic races such as Strade Bianche, Milano-Torino, and Tirreno-Adriatico, as well as marathons in cities like Rome, Milan, and Abu Dhabi. This year, it also became an advisor for Italy’s premier basketball team, Olimpia Milano.
But what is it like to work at RCS?
“I had this opportunity… I didn’t know much about cycling, but I seized the chance and started working in marketing, focusing on promotion and branding for the Giro d’Italia and other races. After a year and a half, and an internal rotation, I moved into event organization. I started at the base and worked my way up,” Virelli says.
RCS and Dr. Mauro Vegni—a person of immense experience, and a pioneer not only in cycling organization but beyond.
“Mauro is my mentor,” Virelli enthusiastically shares. “He’s the one who brought me into event organization. That wasn’t my background; I was working in marketing. But I got to know Mauro and the entire organizational team better when I started doing site visits with them. I was managing relationships with institutions from the promotional side, explaining the communication opportunities to the committees. That’s when I saw how the sports side of things worked.”
Virelli explains that organizing events like the Giro d’Italia involves a wide range of roles: “Sporting events like the Giro involve significant logistics, including financial aspects, so the skills needed are diverse. Whether or not you’ve raced a bike is important in some areas, but in reality, you also need people with managerial, planning, project management, and, above all, institutional relationship skills.”
In 2024, alongside the men’s Giro d’Italia, Giusy Virelli will also be the organizer of the Giro d’Italia Women: “This year marks the 35th edition of the Giro d’Italia Femminile,” Virelli explains. “The event is owned by the Federation, but RCS won the bid to organize it. We were very eager to take on this event, not only for women’s sport but because the company saw business potential. Interest in women’s cycling is growing, but this was already noticed back in the 1990s when there was a women’s Milano-Sanremo race, called Primavera Rosa. In 2015, we were asked to organize a race alongside the final stage of the men’s Giro d’Italia, but Mauro had the insight to say no because the focus would have been solely on the men’s race. Instead, we aimed for something more substantial and chose the Strade Bianche. It was the right call to prove that women can also race on the rough terrains.”
RCS Sport’s approach to women’s races is with the same commitment and dedication as the men’s, and Virelli continues: “This is how we approached it—organizing the Giro d’Italia Women just like all the other races. Of course, there are things that need to be considered, like regulations. For example, women race shorter distances than men, but the care and attention to detail are the same as for other professional races. The differences are mostly in the side activities that come with the Giro, like the caravan, but the event is absolutely comparable to something like the Tirreno-Adriatico, which is also a major multi-stage race.”
But how is the course of such a significant professional competition designed and envisioned?
“In the planning phase, we start by reviewing the applications and defining the geographical area, the region, and the starting city,” the organizer explains. “We work closely with the regions because we can often create a multi-year plan. Once we’ve chosen the starting region, we identify the region for the final stage. Then, based on sporting criteria, we decide what kind of event it will be—how challenging, with how many sprints, time trials, and mountain stages. Afterward, we discuss the mileage for each stage, the total distance, and the average length, and then we connect the dots.”
However, establishing a course, even one that seems almost predetermined, is not as simple as it may appear. “You have to consider other factors: This year, we’re doing a race that starts in Lombardy and ends in Abruzzo. Given that it’s in July, we had to take into account that having several stages along the coast could be a problem because it’s vacation season, so obtaining permits could be more difficult. We aimed for a route that stayed more inland, and that influenced the choice of routes and sprints,” says Virelli.
The race, taking place from July 7 to 14, will increase in difficulty, with two sprints for the Giro Women, one in Lombardy and one in Umbria, and a tough route that will test all the riders, especially on the challenging Blockhaus stage. “If we want to see the sport grow, we need to make sure the women are capable of tackling such demanding stages. I believe they are. I’m a strong feminist, and I think we can do anything—maybe at different speeds in this case—but we can absolutely do the same things as men,” concludes Dr. Giusy Virelli proudly.
