Giro 100. Tappa, And The Toughest Giro.





The longest ever stage was the third one of the 1914 edition which ran from Lucca to Rome. It measured a total of 430 km and was won by Costante Girardengo. The race that year is considered to be one of the toughest challenges in cycling history. The shortest stage of the eight that year was 329 km and the average stage length was 395 km. The shear length of the stages were not the only thing which made it difficult. All but one would be considered a high mountain day these days. (Stages weren’t classified as such until later in the race’s history). The first day eased the riders into the race gently by sending them over La Serra and Sestriere but it is the sixth stage between Bari and L’Aquila which was the toughest of them all. 428 km long and containing five tough climbs it took the stage winner Luigi Lucotti 19 hours and 20 minutes to complete with Eberardo Pavesi rounding out the top 10 a further 3 hours back. Many of the riders abandoned the Giro that day including the race leader Giuseppe Azzini who was found the next day sleeping in the barn of a country house, though he may just as easily been hiding. The next and penultimate stage only had eight riders complete it. It took almost 18 hours to complete but the first seven rolled in together with only 41 seconds separating them. They seemed to have thought enough is enough. The eighth and final day seemed to reinforce this idea as the eight remaining riders stuck together all day helping each other reach the finish rather than racing each other (1st and second were separated by nearly 2 hours but there was ‘only’ 7 minutes between 2nd and 3rd) and only 4 seconds separated the group after 429 km. The finishing time for the winner Alfonso Calzolari was just over 135 hours and the average speed 23.4 km/hr is perhaps unsurprisingly the slowest in Giro history.

The winner of the 1914 Giro d’Italia Alfonso Calzolari (on the left).

The photo of Calzolari at the end of the race shows a haunted looking man exuding relief rather than elation.


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