The 1910 Giro d'Italia was the second edition of the Giro d'Italia, a

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tuto ...

organized and sponsored by the

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

La Gazzetta dello Sport ''La Gazzetta dello Sport'' (; "The Sports Gazette") is an Italian daily newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. Founded in 1896, it is the most widely read daily newspaper of any kind in Italy (in 2018). History and profile ''La ...

''. The race began on 18 May in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

with a stage that stretched to

Udine Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with t ...

, finishing back in Milan on 5 June after a stage and a total distance covered of . The race was won by the Italian rider

Carlo Galetti Carlo Galetti (26 August 1882 – 2 April 1949) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist. He was born at Corsico. The highlight of his career was his three consecutive overall wins in the 1910, 1911 and 1912 Giros d'Italia, the la ...

of the

Atala-Continental Atala () was a cycling team that was created in 1908 and officially retired in 1989. In 1912, the 1912 Giro d'Italia was contested by teams, and Team Atala, consisting of Carlo Galetti, Giovanni Micheletto and Eberardo Pavesi emerged as the winne ...

team, with fellow Italians

Eberardo Pavesi Eberardo Pavesi (2 November 1883 – 11 November 1974) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist. Pavesi was born in Colturano, province of Milan. The highlight of his career was at the 1912 Giro d'Italia when he rode with the victorious A ...

and

Luigi Ganna Luigi Ganna (1 December 1883 – 2 October 1957) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular profession ...

coming in second and third respectively. Eberardo Pavesi was the first rider to lead the race after winning the first stage into

. After the second stage, Carlo Galetti took the lead of the race. Galetti then successfully defended the lead all the way to the race's finish in Milan. En route to his overall victory, Galetti won two stages. The Atala-Continental team finished as winners of the team classification.

Changes from the 1909 Giro d'Italia

One major change was made to the calculation for the general classification before the start of the second Giro d'Italia. Originally a point was given to each rider for his placing on each stage, but the organizers chose to give the riders who placed 51st or higher in a stage 51 points and keep the point distribution system the same for the riders who placed 1st through 50th in a stage. The organizers chose to increase the length of their race after the success from the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

. The original race was eight stages long and the 1910 edition was increased by two stages, to ten. The overall length of the race was increased to close to 3,000 kilometers, which made the race close to 500 kilometers longer than the inaugural edition of the race.

Participants

A total of 101 riders started the second Giro d'Italia out of the 118 that signed up to participate. Of the 101 riders that began the Giro d'Italia on 18 May, twenty of them made it to the finish in

on 5 June. Riders were allowed to ride on their own or as a member of a team. There were six teams that competed in the race:

, Atena-Dunlop, Bianchi-Dunlop, Legnano-Dunlop, Otav-Pirelli, and Stucchi-Pirelli. The notable participants included the reigning champion of the Giro d'Italia,

. The peloton also contained some of the most famous Italian cyclists at the time in

Ezio Corlaita Ezio Corlaita (25 October 1889 – 20 September 1967) was an Italian professional racing cyclist. He notably won the 1915 Milan–San Remo and three stages of the Giro d'Italia, in 1911 and 1919. He also won the 1914 Giro dell'Emilia and the 19 ...

Giovanni Rossignoli Giovanni Rossignoli (3 December 1882 – 27 June 1954) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer who won 3 Giro d'Italia stages during his career. Palmares ;1903 : 1st Corsa Nazionale ;1905 : 1st Milano–Torino ;1906 : 1st Milano� ...

, and

. Two-time

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours (the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España), it consists ...

champion

Lucien Petit-Breton Lucien Georges Mazan (18 October 1882 – 20 December 1917) was a French racing cyclist (pseudonym: Lucien Petit-Breton, ), known as the first two-time winner of the Tour de France. He was born in Plessé, Loire-Atlantique, a part of Brittany ...

rode the Giro for the second straight year, along with his fellow countryman

Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq (25 April 1884 Arudy, Pyrénées-Atlantiques – 13 May 1928 Peyrehorade, Landes) was a French road bicycle racer between 1900 and 1910. Dortignacq won seven stages in four Tour de France events. He only competed i ...

who had been successful in the Tour. The Giro also saw its first German participants, neither of whom completed the race.

Race overview

The first stage of the second Giro d'Italia began with a large send off in the start city of

. The finish in

was hotly contested as five riders came to the finish line in a pack.

Ernesto Azzini Ernesto Azzini (17 October 1885 – 14 July 1923) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer. He was the first Italian cyclist to win a stage in the Tour de France, in 1910. Major results ;1907 :GP Peugeot ;1908 :Milan-Verona :Sanremo- ...

managed to out-sprint the other four riders in the leading group to win the stage. The next stage saw the first non-Italian stage winner in the history of the Giro d'Italia, the Frenchman

. Dortignacq managed to breakaway from his fellow group member

and then solo to the stage victory while five other riders chased close behind. Galetti's second-place finish on the stage was high enough for him to take the lead of the race. The French success enraged the Italian fans and led the competing riders to ban unite against the foreign riders. The third stage saw three major Italian riders,

, Carlo Galetti, and

, and attack early on in the stage. The three riders then rode together all the way to the finish in

Teramo Teramo (; nap, label= Abruzzese, Tèreme ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Abruzzo, the capital of the province of Teramo. The city, from Rome, is situated between the highest mountains of the Apennines (Gran Sasso d'Italia) ...

. Galetti went on to win the stage, with Ganna and Pavesi following in quick succession. The Giro's fourth stage saw a tough stage with poor conditions for the riders, which ultimately led to the withdrawal of many riders including the likes of

- who was ranked third overall at the time. The peloton's pace was slower due to the w poor conditions, which caused the riders to arrive two hours later than expected in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

. Pierino Albini beat out the Frenchman

Maurice Brocco Maurice Brocco (28 January 1883, in Fismes – 26 June 1965, in Mûrs-Erigné) was a French professional road bicycle racer between 1906 and 1927. He was born into a family of Swiss-Italian immigrants. In 1911 he won a stage in the Tour de ...

by 36 seconds for stage victory. Prior to the fifth stage's start, Frenchman

withdrew from the race after citing an illness. The police suspected foul play and looked into the situation, but their results are disputed through contradicting stories. Due to impassable roads, the start of the fifth stage was moved from Naples to

Capua Capua ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Caserta, in the region of Campania, southern Italy, situated north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. History Ancient era The name of Capua comes from the Etrusc ...

and decreased the distance of the stage from to . Eberardo Pavesi won the fifth stage after leading for most of the race. The peloton remained intact for roughly the first half of the sixth stage. Luigi Ganna and Carlo Galetti broke away from the pack and made it to the finish in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

where Ganna then edged out Galetti for the stage victory. During the next stage, a group of six riders lead for the most part before Galetti and Ganna broke away again. The two riders made their way to the finish in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, where a large crowd of spectators came to see the finish. Ganna went on to win his second consecutive stage, while Galetti extended his lead over the rest of the field. The race's eighth stage contained some harsh climbs, most notably the Giovi. The finish of the stage was hotly contested as Galetti, Ganna, and Eberardo Pavesi finished at the same time, with Galetti winning the stage in the end. Eberardo Pavesi dominated the difficult ninth stage that contained the major climbs of the Nava, Tenda, and San Bartolomeo. Pavesi went on to win the stage by close to six minutes over the second-place finisher Luigi Ganna. The race's tenth and final stage was marred by rain. Race leader Carlo Galetti crashed into a hay wagon early on in the stage and sustained some heavy wounds, he would get back on his bike and finish the stage in fifth place. Despite the rain in Milan, many spectators still came to watch the riders arrive. Luigi Ganna was the first rider to cross the finish line in Milan and in doing so, he won his third stage of the 1910 Giro d'Italia. Carlo Galetti won the Giro d'Italia by a margin of eighteen points over Pavesi. Galetti and his team, Atala-Continental, won the team classification.

Final standings

Stage results

General classification

There were 20 cyclists who had completed all ten stages. For these cyclists, the points they received from each of their stage placing's were added up for the

general classification The general classification (or the GC) in road bicycle racing is the category that tracks overall times for riders in multi-stage races. Each stage will have a stage winner, but the overall winner in the GC is the rider who has the fastest cumulat ...

. The cyclist with the least accumulated points was the winner.

won the prize for best ranked isolati rider in the general classification.

References

Footnotes

Citations

{{Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia by year Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia