The 1939 Giro d'Italia was the 27th edition of the Giro d'Italia, 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 28 April 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

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, finishing back in Milan on 18 May after a split stage and a total distance covered of . The race was won by the Italian rider Giovanni Valetti of the Fréjus team, with fellow Italians

Gino Bartali Gino Bartali (; 18 July 1914 – 5 May 2000), nicknamed Gino the Pious and (in Italy) Ginettaccio, was a champion road cyclist. He was the most renowned Italian cyclist before the Second World War, having won the Giro d'Italia twice, in 19 ...

and

Mario Vicini Mario Vicini (21 February 1913 — 6 December 1995) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer. Vicini won the 1939 Italian road race championship, as well as the Giro del Lazio and the Giro di Toscana. He rode the Tour de France twice, fin ...

coming in second and third respectively. Valetti had the lead halfway the race. Bartali then took over the lead in the mountains, but Valetti took it back in the penultimate stage. Bartali attacked on the last stage, but Valetti stayed in his wake and won the race.

Participants

Of the 89 riders that began the Giro d'Italia on 28 April, 54 of them made it to the finish in

on 18 May. Riders were allowed to ride as a member of a team or group; 56 riders competed as part of a team, while the remaining 33 competed as a part of a group. The eight teams that partook in the race were:

Bianchi Bianchi may refer to: Places *Bianchi, Calabria, a ''comune'' in the Province of Cosenza, Italy Manufacturing *Bianchi Bicycles (F.I.V. Edoardo Bianchi S.p.A.), an Italian manufacturer of bicycles, and former manufacturer of motorcycles and a ...

, Fréjus, Ganna, Gloria,

Legnano Legnano (; or ''Lignàn'') is an Italian town and ''comune'' in the north-westernmost part of the Metropolitan City of Milan, Province of Milan, about from central Milan. With 60,259, it is the thirteenth-most populous township in Lombardy. Le ...

, Lygie, Olympia, and Belgium. The teams ranged from six to eight riders each. There were also seven groups, made up of three to five riders each, that participated in the race. Those groups were: U.S. Azzini, Dopolavoro Di Novi, S.S. Genova 1913, Il Littoriale, La Voce Di Mantova, U.C. Modenese, and S.C. Vigor. The peloton was composed primarily of Italian riders. The field featured three former Giro d'Italia winners with two-time winner

Vasco Bergamaschi Vasco Bergamaschi (29 September 1909 – 24 September 1979) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist. Career Born in San Giacomo delle Segnate, Lombardy, Bergamaschi turned professional in 1930. The highlight of his career was his ov ...

who won the 1935 edition, and reigning champion Giovanni Valetti. Other notable Italian riders included Olimpio Bizzi,

Ezio Cecchi Ezio Cecchi (11 May 1913 – 19 August 1984) was an Italian professional cyclist. Cecchi twice finished second overall in the Giro d'Italia. He finished second in 1938 to Giovanni Valetti. In 1948 Cecchi finished eleven seconds behind the wi ...

, and

Cino Cinelli Cino Cinelli (9 February 1916 – 20 April 2001) was an Italian cyclist who won the 1938 Giro di Lombardia and the 1943 Milan–San Remo. After retiring from professional cycling he founded the Cinelli bicycle company. Palmarès Source: ...

Route and stages

Classification leadership

The leader of 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 ...

– calculated by adding the stage finish times of each rider – wore a pink jersey. This classification is the most important of the race, and its winner is considered as the winner of the Giro. In the mountains classification, the race organizers selected different mountains that the route crossed and awarded points to the riders who crossed them first. The winner of the team classification was determined by adding the finish times of the best three cyclists per team together and the team with the lowest total time was the winner. If a team had fewer than three riders finish, they were not eligible for the classification. The group classification was decided in the same manner, but the classification was exclusive to the competing groups. The rows in the following table correspond to the jerseys awarded after that stage was run.

Final standings

General classification

Group rider classification

Mountains classification

Team classification

Group classification

References

;Notes ;Citations {{Giro_d'Italia

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

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