What was a rumor for some and a dream for others is coming true — the 2012 Giro d’Italia will start in the District of Columbia.

According to VeloNation, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and race organizers will make the announcement tomorrow at the Italian Embassy that the famed Giro will take place in Washington.

There is still some confusion over how many stages the District would host, though. VeloNation insists it would only be an opening prologue — usually an individual time-trial — but both CyclingNews and Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore say that the city will see both a prologue and a first stage. (We reported last November that both a prologue and a first stage were under discussion.) Other cities along the East Coast are still being considered for stages of their own.

According to Il Sole 24 Ore, the prologue would start at the Lincoln Memorial, cross the Memorial Bridge toward Arlington National Cemetery and return. The first stage, a circuit race, would start on Pennsylvania Avenue, weave through the city’s federal core and up Rock Creek Parkway before returning.

The three grand tours of professional cycling — the Tour de France, Vuelta a España and the Giro — often start outside the countries that claim them, but this will be the first time any of the tours has traveled across the Atlantic for a start.

As a local competitive cyclist, all I can say is, heck yeah!