The 1932 Giro d'Italia was the 20th 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 ...

, 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 14 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

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

, finishing back in Milan on 5 June after a stage and a total distance covered of . The race was won by the Antonio Pesenti of the Wolsit team. Second and third respectively were the Belgian Jef Demuysere and Italian

Remo Bertoni Remo Bertoni (21 June 1909 – 18 September 1973) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer. Bertoni was born in Borgomanero. He is best known for his silver medal in the elite race of the 1932 UCI Road World Championships. He died, age ...

. It was one of the last participations of

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 ...

, 39 years old, who classified second in the first stage, but then retired during the fifth stage. The 47-year-old age

Giovanni Gerbi Giovanni Gerbi (20 May 1885 – 6 May 1955) was an Italian road racing cyclist. He was nicknamed the "red devil", due to his red jersey and his "never-say-die" attitude. In 1905, he won the first Giro di Lombardia. In 1911, he finished third in ...

, nicknamed "the Red Devil", also took part, but also didn't succeed in concluding the race.

Participants

Of the 109 riders that began the Giro d'Italia on 14 May, 66 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 ten teams that competed in the race: Atala-Hutchinson, Bianchi-Pirelli, France Sport-Pirelli, Ganna-Dunlop, Gloria-Hutchinson, Ilva-Pirelli, Legnano-Hutchinson, Maino-Clément, Olympia-Superga, and Wolsit-Hutchinson. The peloton was primarily composed of Italians. The field featured four former Giro d'Italia champions in four-time winner

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 ...

, two-time champion

1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen in Finland, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its ow ...

winner

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 ...

, and reigning winner Francesco Camusso. Other notable Italian riders that started the race included

Learco Guerra Learco Guerra (14 October 1902 – 7 February 1963) was an Italian professional road racing cyclist. The highlight of his career was his overall win in the 1934 Giro d'Italia. He was born in San Nicolò Po, a ''frazione'' of Bagnolo San Vito in ...

, Felice Gremo, and

Domenico Piemontesi Domenico Piemontesi (11 January 1903 – 31 May 1987) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer. He is most known for his 12-stage wins in the Giro d'Italia and a bronze medal at the 1927 World Championships. The reigning winner of the

Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage cycle sport, bicycle race held primarily in France. It is the oldest and most prestigious of the three Grand Tour (cycling), Grand Tours, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a ...

, Frenchman

Antonin Magne Antonin Magne (; 15 February 1904 – 8 September 1983) was a French cyclist who won the Tour de France in 1931 and 1934. He raced as a professional from 1927 to 1939 and then became a team manager. The French rider and then journalist, Jean Bo ...

, raced started the Giro, along with Belgian Jef Demuysere who finished second at the

1931 Tour de France The 1931 Tour de France was the 25th edition of the Tour de France, which took place from 30 June to 26 July. It consisted of 24 stages over . The race was won by French cyclist Antonin Magne. The sprinters Charles Pélissier and Rafaele di Paco ...

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 cumulati ...

– 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. The race organizers allowed isolated riders to compete in the race, which had a separate classification calculated the same way as the general classification. In addition, there was a classification dedicated to only foreign, non-Italian riders, which was calculated in the same manner. 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. Il Trofeo Magno () was a classification for independent Italian riders competing in the race. The riders were divided into teams based on the region of Italy they were from. The calculation of the standings was the same for the team classification. At the end of the race, a trophy was awarded to the winning team and it was then stored at the Federal Secretary of the P.N.P. in their respective province. The rows in the following table correspond to the jerseys awarded after that stage was run.

Final standings

General classification

There were 66 cyclists who had completed all thirteen stages. For these cyclists, the times they had needed in each stage was added up for the

Participants

Route and stages

Classification leadership

Final standings

General classification

Foreign rider classification

Isolati rider classification

Team classification

Il Trofeo Magno

References