115 years have passed since the birth of Italy’s most famous professional cycling stage race. The Giro d’Italia is not just about kilometers of road racing; today, it generates a national economic impact of hundreds of millions of euros. In 2024, that impact was estimated at 620 million euros.
The birth of the Giro d’Italia
The world of road cycling is dominated by three major races: the Tour de France, the Vuelta a España, and the Giro d’Italia. The Italian race was conceived by a group of sports journalists, with the idea first proposed on August 24, 1908. The inaugural edition then took place in May 1909.
The first edition was quite different from today’s races, featuring just 8 stages and a total distance of less than 2,500 km. The winner’s prize? 5,250 lire, which would be roughly equivalent to 100,000 euros today.
But before anything else, let’s get to know the symbol—the very essence—of the race…
The symbol, or rather what everyone associates with the Giro d’Italia, is the iconic pink jersey (the race is also known as the Giro Rosa). The color is actually a tribute to the Gazzetta dello Sport, the sports newspaper printed on pink pages.
The pink color holds great symbolic value: there are four colored jerseys worn by the classification leaders in different categories, and the pink jersey is worn by the leader of the general classification.
The other jerseys are:
- White Jersey: Best-placed Under-25 rider
- Blue Jersey: Leader of the mountain classification
- Cyclamen Jersey: Leader of the points classification, which is based on finishes and intermediate sprints
Each day brings a new stage (except on rest days), and depending on the points earned in the previous stage, these jerseys may be worn by different cyclists.
The characteristics of the course
You race alone, and you win alone. This is the double-edged sword of the Giro d’Italia. It is an extremely challenging physical test that follows the typical format of a stage race: 21 stages in the 2024 edition.
The Giro has taken place annually since its inception, except during the world wars, typically in May.
What sets the Giro apart from the Vuelta and the Tour de France is the steepness of some of its stages, especially those in central Italy. As a result, climbers and cyclists who excel on steep gradients are usually the ones who win the race. The mountain stages can have gradients exceeding 20%, particularly in the Apennines and the Alps.
The mountain stages can have gradients exceeding 20%, particularly in the Apennines and the Alps.
On the left, you can see the Stelvio, one of the most difficult stage.
The 2024 edition featured a program of 21 stages, with an average distance of 158 km per stage and a total of over 3,300 km. As mentioned earlier, the steep gradients are a critical aspect of the Giro d’Italia: the total elevation gain reached a staggering 42,100 meters!
The Hall of Fame
The Giro d’Italia has witnessed young talents bloom and great cyclists falter on some of the most challenging stages. Passionate fans still remember the iconic duels between champions like Simoni, Savoldelli, and Basso in the 2000s, or the historic rivalry between Giuseppe Saronni and Bernard Hinault in the early 1980s. The years 2011-2019 were marked by the impact of cyclists like Nibali and Contador, while in recent years, the spotlight has been on Pogacar, Hindley, and Roglic, to name a few.
Proudly, Italy holds the top spot in the ranking of victories by nation, leading the list with 69 wins. Belgium follows with 7, and France with 6.
