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The Giro d’Italia is an annual multiple-stage cycling race that is primarily held in Italy, while also beginning in, or passing through, other European countries.
The first race of its kind was organised in 1909 in order to increase sales of the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport. It is still run by a division of that paper’s owner. The Giro has been held once a year since its first edition in 1909, except for during the two world wars. As the race gained prominence and popularity it was made longer and the Giro d’Italia expanded from primarily Italian participation to cyclists from all over the globe.
The Giro is a UCI World Tour event. This means that the teams who compete in the race are mostly UCI World Teams together with some additional teams invited as ‘wild cards’.
At the moment, the 2022 edition of the Giro d’Italia is taking place. Here are some of the highlights.
Stage 8
Aggressive cycling by Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) netted him in the final break on stage 8 of the Giro d’Italia. He took advantage of that position with a well-staged sprint to victory in Naples.
His teammate, Harm Vanhoucke, was deciding on the pace on the front while, 200 metres out, the Belgian expert launched from the back of the small lead group, easily beating second-placed Davide Gabburo (Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè) as well as third-placed Jorge Arcas (Movistar) to the line. It was De Gendt’s second Giro d’Italia stage win, with his first coming atop the Passo dello Stelvio 10 years ago.
Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) began proceedings in stage 8 with a solo attack in the first 10km of the 153km stage. He was primarily chased by De Gendt, Andrea Vendrame (AG2R Citroën Team) and Biniam Girmay (Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert Matériaux) and then others joined up to make it a lead group of 21 riders.
Stage 9
The steep and long slopes of the Blockhaus demonstrated to be the most decisive arena so far in which the overall classification of this year’s Giro d’Italia has been disputed, as Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) claimed victory on stage 9.
Even though Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo) kept the maglia rosa with a daring performance, the whole standings behind him were reshaped by the mountain.
An early breakaway battled to build any significant lead and was slowly mopped up on the approach to and lower down slopes of the Blockhaus. Soon after this as Ineos-Grenadiers assumed their Team Sky mountain-train form and established a fierce pace, GC favourites started to be ejected out of the peloton.
Stage 10
It was an historic win for Biniam Girmay on stage 10 of the Giro d’Italia. Much like wins from a crypto thrills no deposit bonus, the rewards were incredible. The 22-year-old from Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux not only bagged his first Grand Tour stage victory, but also the first for a Black African cyclist.
