Giro D’Italia a Montaione May 13th 2019

Giro D’Italia a Montaione May 13th 2019

The name “Giro d’Italia” simply means “tour of Italy,” an apt name for the stage bicycle race Italy puts on each year in May.  The first race was organized in 1909 to increase sales of the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport .   The color of that paper, then as now, was pink –pink remains the color associated with the Giro. The leader  dons a pink jersey each day.

The race has been held annually since its first edition , except when it was stopped for the two world wars. As the Giro gained prominence and popularity the race was lengthened, and the peloton expanded from primarily Italian participation to riders from all over the world.

Along with the Tour de France  the Giro makes up cycling’s prestigious Grand Tours. While the route changes each year, the format of the race stays the same, with the appearance of at least two time trials, and a passage through the mountains of the Alps and  Dolomites. Like the other Grand Tours, the modern editions of the Giro d’Italia normally consist of 21 day-long segments.

With any stage race, there are daily winners and overall winners. Time for each stage is accumulated throughout the entire race, and the rider who completes the entire course in the least overall time is the winner. There are other competitions for sprinters, climbers, and young riders, some of which are based on points earned at certain parts of the race. The rider with the lowest time is the leader of the race and gets the pink jersey.

The third stage this year was  carried out  along the Tuscan hills ,  from. Vinci the birthplace of the greatest genius of the Italian Renaissance: Leonardo da Vinci, to Orbetello.

The profile is rolling and flattens out towards the finish. The route crosses the hills around Montaione before reaching the plain around Grosseto.

You don’t need to understand the intricacies of points, accumulated time, or team tactics to have fun watching a stage of the Giro d’Italia. Part of this is because watching a stage can be an all-day event. There are official vehicles and sponsor vehicles that precede the riders on almost every stage, some of them throwing goodies to spectators .  There’s a camaraderie among spectators, too, even if you don’t share a common language. There’s lots of eating, day-drinking, listening to the race over the radio before it gets to your spot, and (hopefully) enjoying the sun on a spring day, which was not really what happened in Montaione on 13th of May.

DOWNLOAD VIDEO “Giro d’Italia a Montaione”

But as you can see, we had a lot of  fun anyway !

Fernando Gaviria was declared the winner of stage 3 to Orbetello after Elia Viviani.

Montaione has celebrated  the passage of cyclist in the best way , before , during and even after the race!

 



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