Montevergine is located near Avellino, in the comune of Mercogliano, in Campania, central Italy. The mountain is a limestone massif and part of the Apennine chain. Under the peak, at some 1,270 meters, is the Sanctuary of Montevergine (see notes 1), where the climb ends.
Mount Etna is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy. With a height of currently 3,329 meters / 10,922 ft (this varies with summit eruptions), it is the highest active volcano in Europe outside the Caucasus, and also the highest peak in Italy south of the Alps. To date, the Giro d’Italia has visited the volcano four times, three times to the Rifugio Sapienza and once to Piano Bottaro lower down. The last visit was in 2017, where Jan Polanc, the Slovenian rider of UAE Team Emirates won stage 4, as the last survivor of a four-man breakaway. The fifth visit will be in the 2018 edition.
Between 1946 and 1951, the Giro d’Italia had a special jersey, “maglia nera” (English: black jersey), for the last-placed rider. There was a real competition between many riders, to win this highly-coveted jersey. The last-placed rider would ride the final victory lap with the race winner each year around the historic Vigorelli Velodrome in Milan.
Stage 17 of the Giro d’Italia 2017 was won by Pierre Rolland, the French rider of Cannondale-Drapac. Rolland and his team were really needed this victory: Rolland’s last Grand Tour stage win was back in 2012 (Stage 11 of the Tour de France), and the American Squad didn’t win a single World Tour race for the last two years (actually, Andrew Talansky won Stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California atop Mt. Baldy on Thursday, May 18, 2017 – but before that, the last two years were empty).
The moment the race was won was interesting: Rolland stopped pedaling and waited for the big chasing group – this was the decisive “move” of the race.
Hugo Koblet, “Pédaleur de charme“, and Fausto Coppi, “Il Campionissimo”, two post-war era giants. They were good friends, until the Giro d’Italia 1953 edition. After that Giro, they would never speak to each other again. But, what happened?
Giro d’Italia 2017, the 100th edition of the race will start on May 5, Friday in Alghero, a town in northwestern Sardinia, next to the Mediterranean Sea. The route is completely within the borders of Italy. The iconic Passo dello Stelvio (Stelvio Pass) is the 2017 Cima Coppi. The final stage will be a time trial, from the famous Monza racetrack to the Milan Cathedral.
The Giro d’Italia is the first of the three grand tours in the cycling calendar and is generally regarded as the second most important race in cycling. Here is a short history of Giro with numbers. Overall winners, mountain, points, young rider, and team classifications.
With the conclusion of Vuelta a España 2016, Lotto-Soudal’s Australian rider Adam Hansen has extended the record of completing the most number of consecutive grand tours which already belong to him.
Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali: two cycling legends of Italy. The rivalry between them is perhaps the most famous sporting duel in history. It has been started during World War II and continued afterward.
In December 2012, RCS Sport, the organizer of the Giro d’Italia, has put together 100 journalists to rate the greatest moments of the race’s 103-year history. The fifth question was “Which are the biggest sporting rivalries in the Giro d’Italia?”, and the obvious answer was: “The rivalry between Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali.”
Starting with the Vuelta a España in 2011, Lotto Belisol’s Adam Hansen has ridden 10 consecutive Grand Tours, winning 2 stages in the process (Stage 7 of the Giro d’Italia 2014 and stage 19 of the Vuelta a España 2014), and finishing all of them. Tonight he will ride the final time trial of the Vuelta a España with a special Campagnolo Bora disk wheel to mark his record-equaling 10th consecutive Grand Tour finish.
Only two other riders have completed 10 consecutive Grand Tours in history: Bernardo Ruiz did it between 1955 and 1957 and Marino Lejarreta completed his between 1989 and 1991.