It's time for the 67th Cycling Tour of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. Today the race takes place and fans will have the opportunity to follow the race images on delay from 4:30 PM on the Professional Cycling League website and tuttobiciweb with commentary by Stefano Masi, while RaiSport will broadcast the images tonight at 11 PM with commentary by Silvano Ploner.

THE PRESENTATION. At the launch presentation of the Metropolitan City Tour on Friday, April 11th, Mayor Giuseppe Falcomatà emphasized the importance of a historic sporting event with a future-oriented perspective: "We are proud of the work done so far for organizing the Tour, for which we must highlight the commitment and passion of the Sports Delegate Latella, who strongly wanted the return of a race with historical characteristics that in the past saw the victory of great cycling champions. The city was ready to welcome the organization and teams, in an opportunity to enhance the beauty of the territory through the visibility that events like this provide. We wanted to bring the Tour back to Reggio Calabria, in what we can define as the great classic of the South, to recover tradition while giving value to that element of identity that produces collective history, without giving up a forward-looking vision. Because we know how important it is to promote the timeless beauty of our land in national and international circuits to which cycling refers, and therefore we will work immediately to structure this sporting event over time".

During the presentation, the Sports Delegate for the Municipality of Reggio Calabria, Giovanni Latella, also spoke: "Thanks are due to the ExtraGiro organization, the federation, the Italian national team, and the other important teams that accepted our invitation. The municipal and metropolitan administration of Reggio Calabria believed in this historical, cultural, and sporting event. An initiative to enhance and promote the territory, and above all a unique event in the south of its kind. Tomorrow will be a day of celebration, which will see the Tour caravan touch 2 seas, our beautiful coasts, the slopes of Aspromonte, crossing 30 municipalities and discovering 30 villages and the beauties that the entire territory is able to offer".

Among the race protagonists are also National Coach Marco Villa, at his first official outing as CT of the National Road Cycling Team, and captain Elia Viviani, gold medalist in track cycling at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics and on the podium also in Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.

"We are starting with a team of young riders - stated CT Marco Villa - who have already worn the blue jersey in youth categories. I called Elia Viviani who immediately said 'yes' and for me it's an honor. Viviani is here as a former winner of this race, as an Olympic and World track champion, as a European and Italian road champion: I am honored to have him with me in this first road outing. For the National Team, tomorrow is like a passing of the baton and the goal is to honor the blue jersey and transmit to young riders the great attachment to the jersey that Elia has shown throughout his career".

Present in the room were the blue athletes Alessandro Fancellu ("for this jersey I always give 200 percent") and, of course, Elia Viviani: "The route is beautiful but demanding, in modern cycling it's more difficult for a fast rider with my characteristics to play for victory. However, we have a ready team with climbers for long-distance attacks and, in case of a sprint, to try to compete".

Stefano Piccolo, secretary of the Professional Cycling League: "Cycling is a sport that the public can watch for free on the roads and that allows showcasing and promoting the beauties of territories. With the Italian Regions Cup project, structured in 21 stages, we show Italian territories through a sport with great potential in this Region. We believe we have created a great platform with the Mayor and administration to build important things. Reggio Calabria is an important stage for this project".

In the room also Davide Boifava, a cycling institution, second in the Reggio Calabria Tour in 1973 and three-time winner as team manager with his riders: "Thanks to Mayor Falcomatà and this administration that wanted and believed in this Tour. Thanks to the commitment of administrators like you, this sport manages to be valued, especially by giving recognition to young people approaching cycling and benefiting from opportunities like the Metropolitan City Tour of Reggio Calabria".

Also present were representatives of Sporting Club 1917, the local society that organized the first edition of the race in 1920. Racing on Saturday, April 12th will be 95 riders from 16 different nationalities, representing 14 teams. In addition to the Italian National Team, there are the three Italian Professional teams VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizan, Team Polti VisitMalta and Solution Tech Vini Fantini and ten Continental teams.