Giro d’Italia 2022 MAY 6-29 The Giro d’Italia – one of cycling’s prestigious Grand Tours – first set out from Milan in 1909, inspired by the success of the Tour de France. The 2022 race begins in Budapest, Hungary – the 14th time the route has departed from outside of Italy – and ends with a time trial in the historic city of Verona 14 after 21 gruelling days ----------------------------------------- Elite Club Italian legends Alfredo Binda and Fausto Coppi are two of only three riders to have conquered Giro five times. Vincenzo Nibali’s 2016 win – his second overall – provided most recent home victory 5 Alfredo Binda ITA Stage wins 1925, 27, 28, 29, 33 41 5 Eddy Merckx BEL 1968, 70, 72, 73, 74 24 5 Fausto Coppo ITA 1940, 47, 49, 52, 53 22 ----------------------------------------- RECENT CHAMPIONS 2021 Egan Bernal COL Ineos 2020 Tao Geoghegan Hart GBR Ineos 2019 Richard Carapaz ECU Movisar Team 2018 Chris Froome GBR Team Sky 2017 Tom Dumoulin NED Team Sunweb 2016 Vincenzo Nibali ITA Astana 2015 Alberto Contador ESP Tinkoff-Saxo ----------------------------------------- Race Classifications Jersey colours Overall leader: Pink Awarded to race winner and worn by current race leader at start of each stage – calculated by totalling each day’s finishing time Points leader: Purple Fastest sprinters compete for points at end of each stage – points adjusted by terrain, with flat stages awarding most points King of the Mountains: Blue Held by rider who proves to be best climber, with more severe climbs offering most points Best young rider: White Awarded to highest placed rider aged 24 or younger on first day of year. Prize returned in 2007 after 12-year hiatus ----------------------------------------- Maglia Rosa – race leader’s pink jersey – introduced in 1931 by Armando Cougnet, sports journalist at La Gazzetta dello Sport to help spectators identify race leader. It has since been worn by total of 257 different riders ----------------------------------------- HIGHEST NUMBER OF DAYS IN MAGLIA ROSA Eddy Merckx (1968-70, 1972-74) 77 Alfredo Binda (1925, 1927-29, 1931, 1933) 60 Francesco Moser (1976-77, 1979-82, 1984-85) 57 Gino Bartali (1936-37, 1939, 1946-47) 50 Giuseppe Saronni (1979, 1981, 1983, 1985-86) 49 Jacques Anquetil (1959-61, 1964, 1967) 42 ----------------------------------------- Giro: Start to finish 1908: Giro d’Italia first organised to increase sales of newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport 1909: First edition, 8 stages and 2,447km long, is won by Italian Luigi Ganna (right). Four riders excluded for taking train on one stage 1914: Last race before WWI still holds record for longest stage – 430km from Lucca to Rome 1931 Learco Guerra wears first Maglia Rosa – colour chosen because La Gazzetta dello Sport is printed onpink paper 1933 Alfredo Binda becomes first five-time winne 1940 Fausto Coppi becomes youngest winner, at 20 years and 158 days old 1950: Swiss rider Hugo Koblet (below) is first foreign rider to win Giro, ending 40 years of Italian dominance 1956: Over 60 riders forced to abandon race on bitterly cold 21st stage in Dolomites with temperatures near −10°C 1965 Introduction of Cima Coppi – named in honour of Fausto Coppi – title given to highest mountain of each Giro, and worth more points than all other first- category climbs 1966 Points classification introduced, awarded to most consistent sprinters 1968: First drug tests introduced. Belgian Eddy Merckx (inset) wins first of five Giro titles 69 Home favourites have traditionally dominated race – winning 69 of 104 editions 1974: First year jersey is awarded to leader of mountains classification – initially green, changed to blue in 2012 1990 Gianni Bugno (right) becomes only fourth rider to wear Maglia Rosa from start to finish, after Costante Girardengo (1919), Binda (1927) and Merckx (1973) 2009: Centenary race is won by Russia’s Denis Menchov 2017: Tom Dumoulin is first Dutch winner, in 100th edition of Giro d’Italia 2021: Giro returns to traditional May slot. Egan Bernal secures victory – leading race from ninth stage – his second Grand Tour title after winning Tour de France in 2019 ----------------------------------------- 2021 winner Egan Bernal Colombian rider – contracted to Ineos Grenadiers until 2026 – recently returned to cycling two months after horrific crash ----------------------------------------- 2022 Route Stage Stage start Stage finish Stage start / finish Rest day Marmolada Borgo Valsugana Lavarone Ponte di Legno Rivarolo Canavese Cogne Torino Santena Cuneo Genova Sanremo Aprico Saló Parma Reggio Emilia Belluno Treviso Santuario di Castelmonte Marano Lagunare Jesi Santarcangelo di Romagna Pescara Blockhaus Rome Isernia Potenza Napoli Scalea Diamante Palmi Etna Messina Catania Avola Visegrád HUNGARY Kaposvar Visegrád Balatonfüred 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 FINISH: May 21, Verona 2022 edition features six mountain stages, including perennial favourite Monte Zoncolan – one of the hardest climbs in Europe – seven sprint stages and two time trials, and passes through 14 of Italy’s 20 regions Total race distance recent hom5 Alfredo 3,445.6km Altitude gain 50,610 m ----------------------------------------- STAGE BREAKDOWN Individual time-trial Mountain stage Sprint stage Stage Date km 1 May 6 195 2 7 9.2 3 8 201 4 10 172 5 11 174 6 12 192 7 13 196 8 14 153 9 15 191 10 17 196 11 18 203 12 19 204 13 20 150 14 21 147 15 22 178 16 24 202 17 25 168 18 26 152 19 27 177 20 28 168 21 29 17.4 ----------------------------------------- Trofeo Senza Fine ‘The Trophy with No End’ first awarded in 1999 ----------------------------------------- Sources: Giro d’Italia, Gracenote Pictures: AP, Getty Images, Wikimedia Commons, Twitter