Giro d’Italia
Welcome to the start of late, late nights! The Giro is about to roll and we couldn't be more excited.
True to Grand Tour form there has been some team shuffling here and there, but names are of course now well and truly locked in and the pro start list is confirmed once and for all. So let's settle in for the start of the Grand Tour season, and three weeks of gripping viewing.
Heat yourself up some pizza, grab a blanket and settle in for guaranteed thrills and spills. Just make sure you set the alarm - with a string of big nights we're all going to need the wake-up!
Viva l'Italia!
The 2014 Giro d'Italia Route
Just like the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana, the Giro d’Italia route changes each year. One thing’s for sure, it never fails to journey through some of the most incredible sights Italy can offer. So what’s on the menu in 2014?
2014 Giro d'Italia Stage Break Down
Stage 1
Friday, 9th May 2014
Belfast – Belfast
21.7km
Stage 2
Saturday, 10th May 2014
Belfast – Belfast
218km
Stage 3
Sunday, 11th May 2014
Armagh – Dublin
187km
Rest Day
Monday, 12th May 2014
Rest
Stage 4
Tuesday, 13th May 2014
Giovinazzo – Bari
121km
Stage 5
Wednesday, 14th May 2014
Taranto – Viggiano
200km
Stage 6
Thursday, 15th May 2014
Sassano – Montecassino
247km
Stage 7
Friday, 16th May 2014
Frosinone – Foligno
214km
Stage 8
Saturday, 17th May 2014
Foligno – Montecopiolo, Italy
174km
Stage 9
Sunday, 18th May 2014
Lugo – Sestola, Italy
174km
Rest Day
Monday, 19th May 2014
Rest
Stage 10
Tuesday, 20th May 2014
Modena – Salsomaggiore, Italy
184km
Stage 11
Wednesday, 21st May 2014
Corregio – Savona, Italy
249km
Stage 12
Thursday, 22nd May 2014
Barbaresco – Barolo, Italy
46.4km
Stage 13
Friday, 23rd May 2014
Fossano – Rivarolo Canavase, Italy
158km
Stage 14
Saturday, 24th May 2014
Aglie – Oropa, Italy
162km
Stage 15
Sunday, 25th May 2014
Valdengo – Montecampione, Italy
217km
Rest Day
Monday, 26th May 2014
Rest
Stage 16
Tuesday, 27th May 2014
Ponte di Legno – Val Martello, Italy
139km
Stage 17
Wednesday, 28th May 2014
Sarnonico – Vittoria Veneto, Italy
204km
Stage 18
Thursday, 29th May 2014
Belluno – Rifugo Panarotta, Italy
171km
Stage 19
Friday, 30th May 2014
Bassano del Grappa – Monte Grappa, Italy
26.8km
Stage 20
Saturday, 31st May 2014
Maniago – Monte Zoncolan, Italy
167km
Stage 21
Sunday, 1st June 2014
Gemona – Trieste, Italy
169km
Teams Invited to the 2014 Giro d’Italia
Watching a world-class peloton move at incredible speeds, you can be forgiven for having a hard time keeping up with the pace, even if that just means watching it all from the couch!
Get familiar with this year’s teams by knowing who’s wearing what jersey. With exception to the riders who win the right and privilege to wear a special Giro d’Italia jersey (see below), these are the team kits you can expect to see working hard, hard, hard!
This year’s Giro d’Italia provisional start list is as follows:
AG2R La Mondiale (ALM), FRA - Domenico Pozzovivo - Davide Appollonio - Julien Berard - Maxime Bouet - Axel Domont - Hubert Dupont - Patrick Gretsch - Matteo Montaguti - Alexis Vuillermoz
Astana Pro Team (AST), KAZ
- Michele Scarponi
- Valerio Agnoli
- Fabio Aru
- Janez Brakjovic
- Enrico Gasparotto
- Borut Bozic
- Mikel Landa Meana
- Paolo Tiralongo
- Andrey Zeits
Belkin Pro Cycling Team (BEL), NED
- Wilco Kelderman
- Jetse Bol
- Rick Flens
- Marc Goos
- Martijn Keizer
- Steven Kruijswijk
- David Tanner
- Maarten Tjallingii
- Jos Van Emden
BMC Racing Team (BMC), USA
- Cadel Evans
- Brent Bookwalter
- Yannick Eijssen
- Ben Hermans
- Steve Morabito
- Daniel Oss
- Manuel Quinziato
- Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez
- Danilo Wyss
Cannondale (CAN), ITA
- Ivan Basso
- Oscar Gatto
- Michel Koch
- Paolo Longo Borghini
- Alan Marangoni
- Moreno Moser
- Daniele Ratto
- Davide Villella
- Elia Viviani
FDJ.FR (FDJ), FRA
- Nacer Bouhanni
- Sebastien Chavanel
- Arnaud Courteille
- Murilo Antonio Fischer
- Alexandre Geniez
- Johan Le Bon
- Francis Mourey
- Laurent Pichon
- Jussi Veikkanen
Garmin Sharp (GRS), USA
- Ryder Hesjedal
- Andre Fernando S Martins Cardoso
- Thomas Dekker
- Tyler Farrar
- Koldo Fernandez
- Nathan Haas
- Daniel Martin
- Dylan Van Baarle
- Fabian Wegmann
Lampre-Merida (LAM), ITA
- Damiano Cunego
- Winner Anacona Gomez
- Matteo Bono
- Mattia Cattaneo
- Roberto Ferrari
- Manuele Mori
- Przemyslaw Niemiec
- Jan Polanc
- Diego Ulissi
Lotto Belisol (LTB), BEL
- Sander Armee
- Lars Ytting Bak
- Kenny De Haes
- Gert Dockx
- Adam Hansen
- Mixime Monfort
- Tosh Van Der Sande
- Tim Wellens
- Dennis Vanendert
Movistar Team (MOV), ESP
- Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas
- Andrey Amador Bakkazakova
- Igor Anton Hernandez
- Eros Capecchi
- Jonathon Castroviejo Nicolas
- Jose Herrada
- Franciso Ventoso
- Gorka Izaguirre Insausti
- Adriano Malori
Neri Sottoli (NRI), ITA
- Matteo Rabottini
- Giorgio Cecchinel
- Ramon Carretero
- Francesco Chicchi
- Daniele Colli
- Andrea Fedi
- Mauro Finetto
- Yonattah Monsalve
- Simone Ponzi
Omega Pharma – Quick-Step Cycling Team (OPQ), BEL
- Rigoberto Uran Uran
- Gianluca Brambilla
- Thomas De Gendt
- Iljo Keisse
- Serge Pauwels
- Alessandro Petacchi
- Wouter Poels
- Pieter Serry
- Julien Vermote
Orica-GreenEDGE (OGE), AUS
- Brett Lancaster
- Cameron Meyer
- Ivan Santaromita
- Luke Durbridge
- Michael Hepburn
- Michael Matthews
- Mitch Docker
- Pieter Weening
- Svein Tuft
Team Europcar (EUC), FRA
- Pierre Rolland
- Yukiya Arashiro
- Angelo Tulik
- Tony Hurel
- Davide Malacarne
- Maxime Mederel
- Perrig Quemeneur
- Romain Sicard
- Bjorn Thurau
Team Giant – Shimano (GIA), NED
- Marcel Kittel
- Bert de Backer
- Simon Geschke
- Tobias Ludvigsson
- Luka Mezgec
- Georg Preidler
- Tom Stamsnijder
- Albert Timmer
- Tom Veelers
Team Katusha (KAT), RUS
- Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver
- Maxim Belkov
- Giampaolo Caruso
- Vladimir Gusev
- Alberto Losada Alguacil
- Daniel Moreno Fernandez
- Luca Paolini
- Angel Vicioso Arcos
- Eduard Vorganov
Team Sky (SKY), GBR
- Dario Cataldo
- Edvald Boasson Hagen
- Philip Deignan
- Bernhard Eisel
- Sebastian Henao
- Chris Sutton
- Salvatore Puccio
- Kanstantsin Siutsou
- Ben Swift
Tinkoff Saxo (TCS), RUS
- Nicolas Roche
- Christopher Juul Jensen
- Rafal Majka
- Evgeny Petrov
- Pawel Poljanski
- Ivan Rovny
- Chris Anker Sörensen
- Michael Rogers
- Jay Mccarthy
Trek Factory Racing (TFR), USA
- Robert Kiserlovski
- Eugenio Alafaci
- Julian David Arredondo Moreno
- Fabio Felline
- Danilo Hondo
- Giacomo Nizzolo
- Boy Van Poppel
- Fumiyaki Beppu
- Riccardo Zoidl
Wild Cards
Each year ‘wildcard’ teams are invited to participate in the Giro d’Italia. The teams invited to the 2014 event are:
Androni Giocattoli , AND (ITA)
- Franco Pellizotti
- Manuel Belletti
- Marco Frapporti
- Yonder Godoy
- Johnny Hoogerland
- Marco Bandiera
- Jackson Rodriguez
- Diego Rosa
- Emanuele Sella
Bardiani-CSF, BAR (ITA)
- Stefano Pirazzi
- Enrico Battaglin
- Nicola Boem
- Francesco Manuel Bongiorno
- Marco Canola
- Sonny Colbrelli
- Enrico Barbin
- Nicola Ruffoni
- Edoardo Zardini
Colombia
- Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo
- Rodolfo Andres Torres
- Edwin Alcibiades Avila Vanegas
- Robinson Eduardo Chalapud Gomez
- Leonardo Fabio Duque
- Jarlinson Pantano
- Carlos Julian Quintero
- Jeffry Johan Romero Corredor
- Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez
Some Giro d’Italia History…
There’s nothing like a healthy bit of inter-continental competition…
In 1908 Italy’s Gazetta dello Sport newspaper announced the first ‘Giro d’Italia’, an event to take place the following year and to rival its neighbour’s Tour de France.
Like the Tour, the Giro usually features a stage in another country, before journeying extensively through its home country, showcasing some of the most spectacular scenery and challenging terrain that Italy can deliver.
The Giro has been responsible for creating legendary names in Italian cycling including Fausto Coppi, Fiorenzo Magni and Gino Bartali and indeed, it was not until 1950 that the Italian stronghold was broken, with Swiss Hugo Koblet becoming the first foreigner to win the great race.
Coppi, Alfredo Binda and Eddy Merckx remain Giro d’Italia demigods, having each taken the leader board five times during their cycling careers.
Snapshots from The Giro d’Italia Historic Leader Board:
So what have been some of the stand-out wins and milestones during the course of the Giro d’Italia?
1909 – Luigi Ganna, Italy takes out the very first Giro d’Italia
1915-1918 – The Giro is suspended during World War I
1940 – Fuasto Coppi wins at 20, the youngest ever
1941-1945 – The Giro is suspended during World War II
1950 – Hugo Koblet, Switzerland (first non-Italian to win)
1960 – From this date on the place of departure for the Giro has changed each year
1987 – Stephen Roche wins and becomes the first native English speaker to do so
2010 – Ivan Basso, Italy
2011 – Michele Scarponi, Italy (originally won by Alberto Contodor who was stripped of the title)
2012 – Ryder Hesjedal, Canada
2013 – Vincenzo Nibali, Italy
2014 – The Giro’s ‘grande partenza’, or ‘big start’ commences in Belfast, Ireland and the Irish have been encouraged to wear pink in celebration
Irish have been encouraged to wear pink in celebration
The Giro d’Italia Jersey Code
What’s with all this jersey talk and what on earth does it mean? Here we clarify who wears what and why. But let’s start with an Italian lesson – “maglia” is something you’ll probably hear a fair bit of during race coverage. It is Italian for jersey.
Giro d’Italia Pink Jersey
Or ‘maglia rosa’ as it is known in Italian, is inspired by the colour of Giro d’Italia founding sponsor Gazzetta dello Sport and is worn by the rider at the top of the leader board (therefore the rider with the lowest aggregated time). In short - pink is the colour of the Giro d’Italia! ‘Fight for pink’ is a slogan commonly associated with this event; riders fight hard on the bike to win the most coveted colour on this grand tour.
Giro d’Italia Blue Jersey
Or ‘maglia azzurra’ goes to the fastest climber in the race. This jersey was green until last year. There are 39 categorised climbs in the Giro d’Italia ranging from first category (hardest) to fourth category. The famous ‘Cima Coppi’ or king of the mountain goes to the first rider to reach the highest pass.
Giro d’Italia Red Jersey
Or ‘maglia rosso’ is much like the Tour de France’s green jersey, and is worn by the Giro d’Italia rider to accumulate the most number of points during intermediate sprint and stage finishes.
Giro d’Italia White Jersey
Or ‘maglia bianca’ goes to the young up and comer – the Giro d’Italia rider under the age of 26 with the lowest aggregate time on general classification.
Giro d’Italia Types of Stages
Is the Giro d’Italia all about mountain climbs? Is it all about super speedy sprints to the finishing line? Or is it all about Individual or Group Time Trials? Well it’s a combination of all these, and each is referred to as a ‘stage’.
Mass Start Stages
This is the predominant way of starting a Giro d’Italia stage, and requires the full peloton (or full number of riders) to begin as a group.
Mountain Stages
This is where some of the biggest upsets can occur in terms of changes to the leader board. Mountain stages play to the strengths of riders who are specifically strong mountain climbers. Riders can be eliminated during mountain stages if they fail to finish within the allocated time.
Individual Time Trial Stages A time trial is essentially a race against time – to cover as much distance as possible within a set time. Start times are staggered at three-minute intervals and cyclists must commence this stage alone.
Team Time Trial Stages
Similar to the individual time trial stage, but applies to team starts versus individual starts. Team Time Trials enable team members to work strategically and to play to each other’s strengths/ minimise each other’s weaknesses.
So there you have it – the who/what/where/when of this year’s Giro d’Italia. Let the Fight for Pink begin!
