Origins and first race (1909) , the winner of the inaugural Giro d'Italia|alt=A cyclist sitting down. The idea of holding a bicycle race that navigated around Italy was inspired by the
Tour de France and the success that ''
L'Auto had gained from it. It was first suggested when La Gazzetta dello Sport'' editor Tullo Morgagni sent a telegram to the paper's owner, Emilio Costamagna, and cycling editor,
Armando Cougnet, stating the need for an Italian tour. At the time
La Gazzettas rival,
Corriere della Sera was planning on holding a bicycle race of its own, after the success they had gained from holding an automobile race. Morgagni then decided to try and hold their race before
Corriere della Sera could hold theirs, but
La Gazzetta lacked the money. Ganna won three individual stages and the General Classification. For the
1914 Giro d'Italia, in which stages were up to long, the scoring format was changed from a points-based system to a simple time-based system, in which the cyclist who had the lowest aggregate time at the end of the race would win. The Giro was suspended for four years from 1915 to 1918, due to the
First World War.
Costante Girardengo was the winner of the first Giro after the war in
1919. The dominant figure in the 1920s was
Alfredo Binda, who won his first Giro in
1925 and followed this up with another victory in
1927, in which he won 12 of the 15 stages. Victory in
1929 came courtesy of eight successive stage wins. At the height of his dominance Binda was called to the head office of
La Gazzetta dello Sport in 1930; the newspaper accused him of ruining the race and offered him 22,000
lire to be less dominant, which he refused. Binda won five Giros before he was usurped as the dominant cyclist by
Gino Bartali. Nicknamed the "Iron Man of
Tuscany" for his endurance, Bartali won two Giros during the 1930s, in
1936 and
1937. Bartali's dominance was challenged in
1940, the last Giro before the
Second World War, when he was defeated by his 20-year-old teammate
Fausto Coppi. Bartali and Coppi's rivalry divided Italy. Bartali, a
conservative, was venerated in the rural, agrarian south, while Coppi, more worldly, secular, innovative in diet and training, was a hero of the industrial north. They became teammates in 1940 when
Eberrardo Pavesi, head of the
Legnano team, took on Coppi to ride for Bartali. Bartali thought Coppi was "as thin as a mutton bone", but accepted. Their rivalry started when Coppi, the helper, won the Giro aged 20 and Bartali, the star, marshalled the two men's team to chase him. The rivalry between Bartali and Coppi intensified after the war. Bartali won his last Giro in
1946, narrowly beating Coppi, now riding for the
Bianchi team. Coppi then won his second Giro the
following year. Coppi abandoned the
1948 Giro d'Italia in protest against the small penalty given to
Fiorenzo Magni. Coppi won a further three Giros and twice, in
1949 and
1952, Coppi won the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same year, the first rider to do so.
1953–1967 (left) and
Felice Gimondi (right, wearing the Maglia Rosa) at the
1967 Giro d'Italia Swiss
Hugo Koblet became the first non-Italian to win the race in
1950. No one dominated the tour during the 1950s, Coppi,
Charly Gaul and
Fiorenzo Magni each won two Giros during the decade. The 1960s were similar. At the
1960 Giro d'Italia,
Jacques Anquetil took advantage of a breakaway he was part of on stage 3 to take the overall lead. Anquetil then led the lead move to
Jos Hoevenaers, who had been part of a breakaway on stage 6. In the long time trial of the race on stage 14, Anquetil retook the lead, finishing 1:27 minutes ahead of Baldini and more than 6 minutes on Gaul. His speed had been so fast that had the organizers applied the usual rules, 70 riders would have missed the time cut. In the event, the rules were loosened and only two riders eliminated. Ahead of the final mountain stages, Anquetil now led Nencini by 3:40 minutes, with Gaul in fifth, 7:32 minutes behind. Stage 20 included the
Gavia Pass for the first time in the race's history. On the ascent, Nencini was able to establish a gap to Anquetil, after the latter had a flat tire. More punctures and three bike changes followed on the dangerous descent, putting Anquetil's race lead in danger. He teamed up with
Agostino Coletto, whom he offered money to help him in the chase effort, to limit his losses. At the finish in
Bormio, Gaul won ahead of Nencini, with Anquetil losing only 2:34 minutes and retaining the pink jersey by 28 seconds. Following a ceremonial final stage, Anquetil arrived in
Milan the winner of the Giro for the first time. Anquetil went on to become the first rider to win all three
Grand Tours and won the Giro again in
1964, while
Franco Balmamion won two successive Giros in
1962 and
1963.
Felice Gimondi won the
1967 Giro d'Italia and went on to become the second rider, after Anquetil, to win all three Grand Tours.
1968–1996 Belgian
Eddy Merckx was the dominant figure during the 1970s. His first victory came in
1968, a race which saw two important firsts: the first tests for drug use and the first prologue. A total of eight riders tested positive during the Giro. En route to the overall victory, he won four stages. He tested positive for a banned substance after the stage and was disqualified from the race; he always denied any wrongdoing. Merckx came back the
following year at the request of his sponsor. He took the lead after stage five and never relinquished it; he dominated the lengthy stage nine time trial. He went on to win the
Tour de France, and in doing so became the third rider to win two
Grand Tours in a single calendar year. Felice Gimondi lost substantial time early on in the race to put him out of contention, while fellow Italian and teammate
Gianni Motta tested positive for banned substances and was disqualified. Pettersson became the first Swedish cyclist to win a Grand Tour. He led the
1973 Giro d'Italia from start to finish, a feat that had not been achieved since
Alfredo Binda did so in
1927. In
1976,
Juan Manuel Santisteban died after an accident early in the race. By the third week it seemed as though Belgian rider
Johan De Muynck was going to claim victory, but Gimondi rode a strong final individual time trial to win his third Giro by a very small margin. He had not been considered a contender before the race. Belgians
Michel Pollentier and Johan De Muynck won the two subsequent Giros in
1977 and
1978. In
1980, Frenchman
Bernard Hinault became France's first winner since Anquetil in 1964. He would win another two Giros in
1982 and
1985. The
1987 edition saw controversy between 's two general classification riders Roberto Visentini and
Stephen Roche. Roche led the race early on but lost the lead to Visentini after crashing during the thirteenth stage. Roche attacked on the race's mountainous fifteenth stage despite orders from Carrera team management not to. Roche took the lead and wound up winning the race.
Franco Chioccioli led the race at the start of the fabled fourteenth stage. On the slopes of the Gavia,
Andrew Hampsten and
Erik Breukink rode away from their fellow riders; Breukink won the stage, but Hampsten took the overall lead. Hampsten went on to win the race and became the first non-European to win the race. Spaniard
Miguel Indurain, winner of five Tours, won successive Giros in
1991 and
1992.
1997–2016 Ivan Gotti's wins in
1997 and
1999 were either side of the first win by
Marco Pantani's win in
1998. Pantani was considered a favorite to win the
Giro d'Italia Other contenders included Gotti,
Alex Zülle and
1996 winner
Pavel Tonkov. Pantani lost time in the initial
prologue in Nice and further time to his main rivals during the fifteenth stage, an individual time trial in
Trieste. By that point, Pantani faced a disadvantage of almost four minutes to Zülle before the
Dolomites mountain stages and an individual time trial on the penultimate stage, a discipline that favored Zülle and Tonkov. In the seventeenth stage to
Selva di Val Gardena, Pantani took the
maglia rosa, the leader's jersey, for the first time in his career after attacking Zülle on the
Marmolada climb. Although Pantani crossed the finish line behind
Giuseppe Guerini, he finished over four minutes ahead of Zülle, maintaining an advantage of thirty seconds on the general classification over Tonkov, thirty-one seconds on Guerini and over a minute on Zülle. In the following stage to
Alpe di Pampeago, he finished second behind Tonkov but maintained the general classification lead over him and gained further time on Zülle and Guerini. In the eighteenth stage to
Plan di Montecampione, Pantani repeatedly attacked Tonkov, dropping him in the last three kilometers and winning the stage to face the individual time trial on the penultimate stage with a lead of almost a minute and a half. Having won over two minutes on Pantani in the previous time trial, Tonkov was considered superior to Pantani on the time trial discipline, but the Italian finished third in the penultimate stage, gaining an additional five seconds on Tonkov. Pantani was thus able to maintain his lead to win the Giro d'Italia with a minute and a half over Tonkov and more than six minutes over Guerini. He also won the
Mountains classification and finished second in the
Points classification. Pantani subsequently went on to win the
1998 Tour de France, thus completing the rare feat of winning the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France in the same calendar year. Pantani returned to the Giro in
1999 while in peak physical form. Pantani gained the lead after the race's fourteenth stage and as the race hit the high mountains, he extended his lead with three stage wins. a race during which
Wouter Weylandt suffered a fatal crash on the third stage, but he was later stripped of the title after he was found guilty of doping in the
2010 Tour de France, and runner-up
Michele Scarponi was awarded the victory. The first South American winner was
Nairo Quintana of Colombia in
2014.
2017–present The
2017 Giro d'Italia was the 100th edition of the race.
Tom Dumoulin won stage 10, a
individual time trial (ITT) from
Foligno to
Montefalco, to take the overall race lead by 2 minutes and 23 seconds over Quintana. Dumoulin won Stage 14, which featured a mountain top finish at
Santuario di Oropa to extend his lead over Quintana by a further 14 seconds. On Stage 16, Dumoulin experienced stomach problems and had to take a
comfort break at the foot of the
Umbrail Pass; none of the other contenders waited for Dumoulin and he finished more than two minutes down on stage winner
Vincenzo Nibali, keeping his race lead by just 31 seconds over Quintana. Dumoulin defended his lead until the stage 19 mountain finish in Piancavallo, where he crossed the line over a minute behind Quintana, the new race leader. However, Dumoulin's performance on stage 21, a individual time trial from
Monza Circuit to
Milan in which he finished second, took him from fourth to first place in the general classification. He was also the first Dutchman to win the overall in a Grand Tour since
Joop Zoetemelk won the 1980 Tour de France. In
2018 Simon Yates seemed to be in very good position to become the first British rider to win, winning 3 individual stages and holding the Maglia Rosa from Stage 6 onwards, with Dumoulin lying second overall for much of the race. However, on Stage 19, Yates cracked and
Chris Froome then launched an audacious 80 km solo breakaway, attacking the small group of leaders including Dumoulin on the
Cima Coppi of the 2018 Giro, the graveled climb of the
Colle delle Finestre, he continued to extend his lead over the
Sestriere and to the summit finish of
Bardonecchia and overturned a more than three minute deficit to take both the pink jersey, the Cima Coppi prize and the mountains classification. The solo win, and the simultaneous implosion of Yates, who lost more than 30 minutes on the day having lost contact on the first climb of the day, was described as "one of the most extraordinary days in Giro d'Italia history". Froome became the first British rider to ever win the Giro, as well as the first rider since 1983 to hold all three Grand Tour titles simultaneously, as well as becoming the seventh man to have completed the career Grand Tour grand slam. In
2019 Richard Carapaz, from Ecuador, became the first rider from his country to win the race. In
2020, the
COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the Giro to October, marking the only time in history that the Giro was not raced in May or June. This race was won by
Tao Geoghegan Hart, making him the second British rider to win the race; then in the
2021 edition
Egan Bernal became the second Colombian to ever win and in
2022 Jai Hindley became the first ever Australian to win. He held onto it on the final, largely ceremonial stage into Rome to win the Giro d'Italia for the first time in his career. In
2024,
Tadej Pogačar, from Slovenia, won the race on his debut. He narrowly lost out on the lead after the first stage to
Jhonatan Narváez, but took the pink jersey on the second stage and held it until the end. Pogačar executed a dominant victory, with a winning margin of almost 10 minutes, the
mountains classification and 6 stage wins. The winning margin of 9:56 over his closest competitor,
Daniel Martínez was the biggest since the
1965 edition and the fourth largest in the post-
World War II era. Pogačar went on to win the
2024 Tour de France, becoming the first rider to win both the Giro and Tour in the same year since
Marco Pantani in 1998. On the penultimate stage of
2025 Giro d'Italia, third-placed Simon Yates took the race lead by overturning a 1:21 minute deficit on
UAE Team Emirates XRG's
Isaac del Toro. ==Classifications==