1955 Giro d'Italia

The 1955 Giro d'Italia was the 38th edition of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Giro started off in Milan on 14 May with a 163 km flat stage and concluded back in Milan with a 141 km relatively flat mass-start stage on 5 June. Fourteen teams entered the race, which was won by Italian Fiorenzo Magni of the Nivea-Fuchs team. Second and third respectively were Italian riders Fausto Coppi and Gastone Nencini.

In the 20th stage, arriving in San Pellegrino Terme, Magni and Coppi attacked Gastone Nencini (who was leading the general classification) taking advantage of a puncture he suffered in an unpaved road section. Coppi won the stage (his last victory in the Giro) and Magni took the lead in the general classification.

Teams
In December 1954 when the initial plans for the 1955 edition were announced, the organization announced they would invite ten Italian based teams and six foreign teams: France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and England whom by December had confirmed participation. Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and France, after missing the previous edition, sent teams to compete in the race. Fourteen teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1955 edition of the Giro d'Italia. The Spanish team missed the pre-race ceremony because they missed their flight into Milan and had to take a train into the city. Each team sent a squad of seven riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 98 cyclists. From the riders that began the race, 72 made it to the finish in Milan.

The teams entering the race were:


 * Bianchi
 * Doniselli
 * Faema
 * France
 * Legnano
 * France
 * Legnano
 * Legnano
 * Legnano
 * Legnano

Pre-race favorites
Five-time champion Fausto Coppi (Bianchi) and Hugo Koblet (Faema) were named by most as the primary favorites to win the race overall. Coppi who was now 35 years old notably had won the Giro dell'Appennino and finished second at Paris–Roubaix. Serge Lang wrote that Coppi was the public's favorite to win, but most other riders did not him as much of an overall threat due his age. Novelliste Valaisan also named Pasquale Fornara their favorites to win the race. Fornara's best finish came in 1953 when he placed third overall, while Koblet won in 1950 and had three other top ten finishes. 1948 winner Fiorenzo Magni finished the Vuelta a España on 8 May and was viewed as contender for the general classification.

It was believed reigning champion Carlo Clerici (Faema) would be marked heavily this race after the nature of his victory the previous year when he gained significant time through a breakaway. Clerici was thought to be in good form. Faema did not include Fritz Schär who had injured his knee. Despite being a favorite to some, Koblet was not seen as a favorite by Swiss writer Serge Lang who believed he does not like climb he did when he won the race in 1950.

Young Italians including the likes of Mauro Gianneschi (Arbos), Nino Defilippis (Torpado), Giuseppe Minardi (Legnano), Agostino Coletto were thought to be outside contenders for the general classification and were the team's leaders. Coletto was perceived by some to be the next great Italian general classification rider. Atala's best chances were seent with Giancarlo Astrua and Bruno Monti, the latter of which impressed at the Tour de Romandie. Astrua was perceived as a good climber and a rouler. Gastone Nencini was a younger rider whom many felt showed a lot of promise and was known for his descending prowess.

A Nouvelliste Valaisan writer felt the Spanish team had riders that can climb very well, but lacked maturity and team comradery to obtain a high general classification ranking. The French team was believed to be very strong and in good shape prior to start. They were thought to have its best chances with Raphaël Géminiani and recent Vuelta a Espana winner Jean Dotto who both were in great form, but it was thought Géminiani could lose several minutes in the time trial stages.

Doniselli, the Dutch team, was thought to have great riders who could animate the race like Wout Wagtmans, Hein Van Breenen, and Gerrit Voorting. Notably Thijs Roks, van Breenen, and Wagtmans composed the podium for the Dutch national road race championship. Doniselli sports director Kees Pellenaars stated that Wagtmans gave the best chance for the overall victory, but instead of surrounding the whole team with him throughout the race as other Italian teams do, he would allow two to three riders to attempt attacks. Expectations of the Belgian team by a Nouvelliste Valaisan writer were unknown as the writer cited a previous difficulty by Belgian riders in the Giro d'Italia. A notable omission from the team was Rik van Steenbergen. The teams' young riders Joseph Schils and Carl Borgmans were expected to have a good performance. In addition, the team brought a new flahute Rik Van Looy.

Other notable riders that did not participate were Frenchman Louison Bobet and Swiss rider Ferdinand Kübler. In addition, this was the first Giro d'Italia without two-time winner Gino Bartali participating. Bartali retired following the previous season, but returned to the Giro d'Italia to provide commentary for several newspapers.

Route and stages


The route's general structure was announced on December 29, 1954 at the Palazzo Marino in Milan in front of local dignitaries. The finalized route was revealed on 9 March 1955. The route was designed in a counter-clockwise direction across twenty-one days of racing and two rest days,It contained two time trial events, one individual and one team event. The team time trial rode over the cobbled roads of Genoa. This race featured the first stage finish and start in France. The tenth stage utilized the route used in the 1955 UCI World Championships men's road race that were to be held in Frascati, Italy August that year in a 20.4 km loop that was traversed ten times. The highest climb was the Passo Pordoi. In total the route had roughly 25000 m of elevation change of which five stages contained eight categorized climbs that awarded points for the mountains classification. The nineteenth stage was deemed the queen stage as it featured the climbs of the Falzarego Pass, the Col de Rolle, the Pordoi, and the Col de Brocon. Five stages ended in a velodrome.

Due to complaints from the riders about the previous year's race, the organizers reduced the amount of kilometers in the race by approximately 500 km. Further, race organizers decided to reduce the length of the stages within the Giro d'Italia closer to 200 km, similar to the Tour de France at the time. The stages had become known as "Italian stages" for their extreme length in hundreds of kilometers, only to have the racing start in the final 10km. Through the reduction in stage length, the organizers hoped to have more attacking done by riders. The intermediate sprints or "flying checks" as they were known were well received and thought to have helped animate the race, with several stage winners coming from those that won the sprints of the day. The amount of intermediate sprints has been reduced by 30 this race, leaving 30 to be taken. If you win the prize you must be within the first five positions of the general classification.

A writer for Nouvelliste Valaisan felt a rouler could win the general classification if they could take advantage of the course before the race hits the Dolomites. The Gazette de Lausanne writer Serge Lang wrote that the route was the hardest since World War II and felt the general public and most newspapers felt the route was well designed.

Classification leadership
One jersey was worn during the 1955 Giro d'Italia. The leader of the general classification – 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 mountains classification leader. The climbs all awarded three points to the first rider and one point to the second rider to cross the summit. Although no jerseys were awarded, there was also two classification for the teams, in which the teams were awarded points for their rider's performance during the stages. One classification was for the teams based inside Italy and the other was for teams based outside of Italy.