The 1925 Giro d'Italia was the 13th edition of the

Giro d'Italia The Giro d'Italia (; ), also known simply as the Giro, is an annual stage race, multiple-stage bicycle racing, bicycle race primarily held in Italy, while also starting in, or passing through, other countries. The first race was organized in 19 ...

, a Grand Tour organized and sponsored by the

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, 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 poli ...

La Gazzetta dello Sport (; English: "The Sports Gazette") is an Italian Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. Founded in 1896, it is the most widely read daily newspaper of any type in Italy (in 2018). History and profile was fou ...

''. The race began on 16 May in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

with a stage that stretched to

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) 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 from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, finishing back in Milan on 7 June after a stage and a total distance covered of . The race was won by the

Alfredo Binda Alfredo Binda (11 August 1902 – 19 July 1986) was an Italian road bicycle racing, road cyclist of the 1920s and 1930s. He was the first to win five editions of the Giro d'Italia, and a three-time UCI Road World Championships – Men's road rac ...

of the Legnano team. Second and third respectively were the Italian riders

Costante Girardengo Costante Girardengo (; 18 March 1893 – 9 February 1978) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer, considered by many to be one of the finest riders in the history of the sport. He was the first rider to be declared a "Campionissimo" or "c ...

and

Giovanni Brunero Giovanni Giuseppe Brunero (10 April 1895 – 23 November 1934) was an Italian professional road bicycle racing, road racing cyclist. Biography Giovanni Brunero was born in San Maurizio Canavese. He became a professional in 1920, coming fifth in ...

Participants

Of the 126 riders that began the Giro d'Italia on 16 May, 39 of them made it to the finish in

on 7 June. As in the previous Giro, riders entered the race individually, not as part of a team. Most of the disagreements between the professional teams and the Giro organisation were resolved, so most teams agreed to send riders. There were six professional teams that had one ore more riders competing in the race: Aliprandi-Pirelli, Jenis,

Legnano-Pirelli Legnano was an Italian professional cycling team active from 1906 to 1966. It is ranked as the 6th most successful cycling team in history. Many famous cyclists rode for the team including Alfredo Binda, Learco Guerra, Gino Bartali and Fausto Copp ...

, Olympia-Pirelli, Peugeot-Pirelli, and Wolsit-Pirelli. The peloton was completely composed of Italians, a trend which continued until the 1950s because of Italy's

fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...

policies and political climate. The field featured two former Giro d'Italia champions in the

1919 Giro d'Italia The 1919 Giro d'Italia was the seventh edition of the Giro d'Italia, a Grand Tour organized and sponsored by the newspaper ''La Gazzetta dello Sport''. The race began on 21 May in Milan with a stage that stretched to Trento, finishing back i ...

winner

and returning champion

. Other notable Italian riders that started the race included

Gaetano Belloni Gaetano Belloni (26 August 1892 – 9 January 1980) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist. The highlights of his career were his overall win in the 1920 Giro d'Italia, the two victories in Milan–San Remo (1917 and 1920), and the three ...

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

, and

Pietro Bestetti Pietro Bestetti (2 December 1898 – 3 January 1936) was an Italian cyclist. He competed in two events at the 1920 Summer Olympics. He finished in second place in the 1925 Paris–Roubaix and rode in four editions of the Giro d'Italia ...

. This was the first Giro d'Italia that

competed in. The winner of 1924, Giuseppe Enrici, did not start this race, as he had moved to the French Armor-Dunlop team, and targeted the

1925 Tour de France Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' D ...

Race summary

In the first stage, eighteen riders rode away, taking almost five minutes on the others. Linari won the stage and became the leader, the main favourites were behind him in this group. In the second stage, a group of four riders was away. The sprint was won by Girardengo, who then became the new leader based on his stage positions, Binda and Brunero were second and third in the general classification with the same time. Girardengo and Binda finished in the first groups in the third and fourth stage, such that Girardengo was still leading with Binda in second place in the same time. Girardengo helped his team mate Bestetti to win the third stage, and won the fourth stage himself. Another team mate of Girardengo was

, the winner of the 1920 Giro d'Italia. Belloni was not satisfied with Girardengo's support for Bestetti in a stage where Belloni struggled. In the fifth stage, Girardengo had a flat tire; Belloni decided to not help his team mate, but to help Binda escape. Belloni won the stage, but Girardengo lost more than five minutes, making Binda the new leader. Girardengo tried to win back the lead in the next stages. He only won back seconds in the seventh stage. Despite winning six stages, he ended in second place in the general classification, with Binda as winner.

Final standings

Stage results

General classification

There were 39 cyclists who had completed all twelve stages. For these cyclists, the times they had needed in each stage was 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 cumulati ...

. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the winner; there were no time bonuses for stage winners. Riccardo Gagliardi won the prize for best ranked "indipendente" rider in the general classification, this was a category in between professional and amateur.

Aftermath

Girardengo lost the Giro despite winning a plurality of stages. In the next year, the Giro organization introduced a time bonus of 1:30 for the stage winner; had this been in place in 1925, Girardengo would have won the Giro.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{Giro d'Italia general classification winners

1925 Events January * January 1 – The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini m ...