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.
Tour de France 2017, the 104th edition of the French Grand Tour‘s route has been revealed by the ASO, the organizer of the race.
Il Lombardia (formerly known as the Giro di Lombardia), “Classica delle foglie morte” (the classic of the dead [falling] leaves), is traditionally the last of the five classic “Monuments” of the cycling season.
The first edition was 1905. It was then called Milan-Milan. It gained the name “Giro di Lombardia” in 1907. The route has changed many times. Milan, Sesto San Giovanni, Bergamo, Varese, Monza, Como have been start or finish place.
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.
After finishing fifth in the Olympic road race in his first Olympic appearance in Rio, Katusha’s Spanish rider Joaquim Rodríguez confirmed that he would retire immediately, rather than continuing to the end of the year. Canyon, the bike supplier of the Russian team produced a special “Purito” Canyon bike for him.
Katusha team announced on their Facebook account that “Amazing bike for a great rider! Unbelievable special edition Canyon bike for Joaquim Purito Rodríguez!”
On August 6, 2016, BMC Racing Team’s Belgian rider Greg Van Avermaet won the gold medal in the men’s individual road race event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. The Swiss bike manufacturer has gifted him a special golden-painted BMC Teammachine-SLR01 bike to honor his success.
On their Twitter account, the BMC Racing Team has published this beautiful bike’s photos. Its power meter and fi’zi:k saddle gets some gold touches as well. On the side of the top tube, the colors of the Olympic rings have also been painted. The bike is equipped with the team issue Shimano Dura-Ace C35 wheels and Dura-Ace Di2 groupset.
Colnago, the legendary Italian bike manufacturer has announced its first proper aero bike, named “Colnago Concept”. The new bike’s motto is “the combination of pure power and speed”.
The frame took its last shape via a series of wind tunnel tests: Ernesto Colnago worked through 41 variations of the Concept frameset, to find the best aero version. The frame weight (claimed, without paint) is 990 grams, and the fork is 400 grams. Like the Colnago V1-r, the framesets are manufactured in Taiwan and finished in Italy.
“Luigi!!” was the only reaction by Lance Armstrong to Fabian Cancellara’s Olympics Time Trial victory. He wrote this comment on his Twitter account in response to the message posted by the US-based team Trek-Segafredo, who congratulated their rider on his victory. The message of the Texan was an innuendo, can be interpreted as an accusation of doping.
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.”
In his final year as a pro, Fabian Cancellara got a special-edition Trek Madone for his last Tour de France. The bike is specially painted for him, and it celebrates Spartacus’ entire career.