It is a synergy that could be dusted off shortly, one that proved very fruitful in the past, between the Giro d'Italia and the Netherlands. As relaunched in recent hours by the newspaper Destentor, in the coming months the Corsa Rosa and the Dutch nation could indeed rekindle that flourishing thread woven for the first time on the occasion of the start from Groningen in 2002 (and then tightened with the starts in 2010 from Amsterdam and in 2016 from Apeldoorn) by working to prepare a fourth Grand Departure in the land of oranje.

The area that, in particular, would have expressed interest in hosting the event in the coming years would be the central-eastern province of Overijssel, which, thinking of developing a three-day event around the capital Zwolle, would be gathering increasingly enthusiastic opinions regarding bringing an event of international magnitude like the Giro to its roads.

"We will need to verify whether there will be sufficient support and funds from the municipalities, but the situation seems cautiously positive" said Alex van de Vosse, director of Sportnetwerk Overijssel. "In the coming months we will assess whether there will also be interest from social organizations, such as schools and marketing bodies, to play a role because new administrators have taken over in various municipalities. In autumn we hope to arrive at drafting a statement of intent, after which we can draw up a candidacy dossier".

The idea, by hosting such an event and developing a series of collateral initiatives, is to encourage people to use bicycles more frequently and consciously and, at the same time, guarantee new and broader visibility to a province that, to make its proposal more solid, would be ready to involve other localities that are geographically and historically similar.

"Wouldn't it be fantastic if there were a stage between Zwolle and the other Hanseatic city of Münster?" asked van de Vosse, opening the door to collaboration with the well-known German city and beginning to hypothesize the possible form of the stages of this Grand Departure. "Perhaps we could also organize a team time trial on the Zalkerdijk between Zwolle and Kampen: a stage like that would allow us to produce fantastic images that could go around the world".

In Overijssel, therefore, they would already be more than convinced of the soundness of the operation and the positive returns that the presence of the Grand Tour branded RCS Sport, preferred to the "more expensive Tour because it falls in a beautiful period, in spring, and because it is sensitive to beautiful stories" as would be that of the Hanseatic League, would guarantee to a territory that, in any case, is in no hurry to officially submit its candidacy to the scrutiny of the Italian organizers.

"We know that the Giro departures have already been assigned until 2028, but for the years after that there are still possibilities. In 2030 Zwolle will celebrate its 800 years of life and that could be a nice moment to host such an event. We certainly want to do things properly and, even if the project were to be postponed by two years, that would be fine with us too" concluded the head of Sportnetwerk Overijssel, determined to explore fully the possibility of bringing the Giro back to the Netherlands more than ten years after the last time.