PHOTOREPORTAGE

The first ever Giro d’italia - the most famous Italian Grand Tour - took off from Milan on May 13, 1909. After eight stages and a total 2,448 kilometers, less than 50 of the 130 participants crossed the finish line and the winner was Luigi Ganna (1883-1957). The event was organized, as it still is, by ‘La Gazzetta dello Sport’, the most popular Italian daily newspaper dedicated to sports coverage. Since then, the Giro d’italia has become one of the three most important races of the Union Cycliste Internationale (International Cycling Union), which has included it in its professional circuit along with the other two equally historic international races, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España.with the exception of the years interrupted by the First and Second World Wars, the multiple-stage bicycle race has been run by riders from all over the world every year since its first edition. If the starting point and the route change from year to year, the three-week-long grand tour has a fixed format, which includes at least two time trials, a passage through the Alps, and the arrival - with few exceptions - into the city of Milan, home of the ‘Gazzetta dello Sport’. A further reference to the newspaper is also the pink jersey worn every day of the race by the current leader of the race’s general ranking, as this is the color of the paper on which ‘La Gazzetta dello Sport’ is printed. In the history of the race the record of 5 victories is held by three great riders: the Italians Alfredo Binda (1927, 1928, 1929, and 1933) and Fausto Coppi (1940, 1947, 1949, 1952, and 1953), and the Belgian Eddy Merckx (1968, 1970, 1972, 1973, and 1974). While the rider who won the most stages is the Tuscan sprinter Mario Cipollini, who has collected 41 victories.