World-class cyclists will greet Pope Leo XIV and circle Vatican City on Sunday before embarking on the final lap of the Giro d’Italia, a multistage bicycle race that concludes in Rome.

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The professional race, which started in Albania on May 9, is among the top three most important international multistage races in the world, together with the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana. It includes 21 stages, mostly in Italy.

The last stage of the 108th edition of the race will take place on June 1, starting from the Caracalla Baths, just south of the Coliseum, and proceeding toward the Vatican.

The 1.8-mile noncompetitive ride through the Vatican will start from the Petriano Square, just south of St. Peter’s Basilica inside the city state, where Pope Leo XIV will greet the athletes at the starting line.  

The path of the race will then follow the Vatican walls past the basilica to climb toward the Vatican Gardens and arrive at the heliport, the highest, westernmost point of the territory.

The racers will then pedal through a green space dotted with Marian images, including a replica of the Lourdes grotto and a mosaic of Our Lady of Good Counsel — a favorite devotion of Pope Leo. After descending toward the Vatican Museums and the “Square Garden,” the cyclists will double back along the rear of St. Peter’s Basilica to exit out a side gate on the south side of Vatican City.

The history of the cycling competition dates back to 1909. The annual race has taken place over three weeks between May and June every year since its beginning, with interruptions only for the First and Second World Wars. In 1946 and 2020 it was postponed but still took place.

Among the storied winners of the Giro d’Italia is Italian cycling champion Gino Bartali, a devout Catholic who helped save more than 800 Jews during World War II.

Bartali, who was declared “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem in 2013, won the Giro d’Italia twice between 1936 and the outbreak of the Second World War. He was also a twice winner of the Tour de France.

Using cycling training as a cover, during World War II, the road cyclist transported photographs and forged documents between Florence and Franciscan convents in the surrounding regions where Jews were hidden. He also carried messages and documents for the Italian Resistance.

Bartali also assisted the Assisi Network, an underground network of Catholic clergy who hid Jews in convents and monasteries during World War II by taking Jews from the hiding places to the Swiss Alps in a wagon with a secret compartment attached to his bicycle. If he was stopped, he said that the wagon was for training.

The champion’s reputation and popularity as Italy’s top cyclist meant that he was largely left alone by the Fascist police and German troops, who did not want to risk upsetting his numerous fans by arresting him.

The cyclist used to say: “Good is done, but not said. And certain medals hang on the soul, not on the jacket.”

The husband and father of three children died in 2000 at the age of 85. His cause for beatification was opened in 2018.

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This article was originally published by CNA.