The 1940 Giro d'Italia was the 28th 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 17 May 1940 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 9 June 1940 after a stage and a total distance covered of . The race was won by

Fausto Coppi Angelo Fausto Coppi (; 15 September 1919 – 2 January 1960) was an Italian cyclist, the dominant international cyclist of the years after the World War II, Second World War. His successes earned him the title ''Il Campionissimo'' ("Champio ...

(at his first participation) of the Legnano team, with fellow Italians Enrico Mollo and Giordano Cottur coming in second and third respectively. Coppi, who was 20 years old at the time, is the youngest winner of the Giro.

Participants

Of the 91 riders that began the Giro d'Italia on 17 May 1940, 47 of them made it to the finish in

on 9 June May. Riders were allowed to ride as a member of a team or group; 41 riders competed as part of a team, while the remaining 50 competed as a part of a group. The eight teams that partook in the race were: Bianchi, Legnano, Gloria, Olympia, Lygie, Gerbi. Each team started with either six or seven riders. The Ganna team did not start the race due to the team's Belgian riders not being cleared to enter the country. There were also seven groups, made up of three to five riders each, that participated in the race. Those groups were: S. C. Binda, G. S. Battisti-Aquilano, U. S. Azzini-Universal, Cicli Viscontea,Cicli Viscontea was also known as Comando Generale M.V.S.N. or M.V.S.N.-Viscontea. Dopolavoro Az. Bemberg, U. C. Modenese, Il Littoriale, Dopolavoro Az. Vismara, S. S. Parioli, and G. S. Mater. The peloton was composed primarily of Italian riders. The field featured two former Giro d'Italia winners with two-time winners

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 Giovanni Valetti, who was the reigning champion. Bartali studied the route for the Giro intensely during the winter before the race and during reconnaissance rides, he befriended local business owners with the hopes of contacting for local road and weather conditions during the race. 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

. The only non-Italian riders to compete in the race were Luxembourgian Christophe Didier and Swiss rider Walter Diggelmann. Bartali and Valetti were both seen a strong contenders for the overall title.

Route and stages

Race overview

During the second stage, Bartali crashed into a dog that ran onto the road, throwing him from the bike. He returned to his bike, but a doctor examination after finishing the stage, led the diagnosis of a strained muscle and a recommendation to withdraw from the race. Bartali elected to remain the race, but knew he could not win.

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

Giovanni De Stefanis won the special category prize which was the best ranked group rider in the general classification.