User:Green-eyed girl/Giro d'Italia

The Giro d'Italia (English: Tour of Italy) is one of professional cycling's three Grand Tours. It takes place every year in late May and early June in Italy, occasionally visiting other countries. First run in 1909, the Giro is the second-oldest annual cycling event in the world; only the Tour de France is older. The most recent champion is Denis Menchov.

Italian riders have dominated the Giro. They won the first 32 editions of the race, 11 in a row from 1997 through 2007, and 65 of the 92 in total. Several notable cyclists have left their mark on the race through its history, including Alfredo Binda, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain, and Gilberto Simoni, all of whom have won the race more than once. The rivalry of Bartali and Coppi, coming as it did just after the Giro had been suspended for five years because of World War II, is an especially noteworthy part of the race's history. Though today the Giro is mostly only familiar to cycling enthusiasts, it has on occasion in its history been as popular as the Tour de France.

The overall leader of the Giro wears a pink jersey during each stage. As with other professional cycling races, the Giro awards other classifications in addition to the general classification. These, as of 2010, are the mountains classification, whose leader wears a green jersey, the points classification, whose leader wears a red jersey, and the young rider classification, whose leader wears a white jersey. There have also been other awards given over the Giro's history.

As one of cycling's most difficult annual events, the Giro has been part of various season-long cycling competitions, and is, as of 2010, one of 26 events that count toward the UCI World Ranking.