The Tour of Italy is a race in the men's cycling road stages that takes place along the Italian roads annually. Occasionally, the path may be of interest to locations outside the Italian borders (overdrafts, arrivals or departures stage, first stage). Also called the Corsa Rosa, set up in 1909 on an idea of the journalist Tullo Morgagni, since then it has always disputed, except for interruptions due to the first and second world war, over three weeks during the month of May. While the starting point is usually different every time, arrival, with exceptions such as Naples, Florence, Verona, Roma, Brescia, Trieste and Turin, is in Milan, the city where the headquarters of La Gazzetta dello Sport, the sports daily that organizes the race since its establishment.
The Giro is one of the three races in the most important stages of the calendar, and the International Cycling Union has included in its professional circuit UCI World Tour along with the other two major international races, the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. Historically is considered the second most prestigious stage race after the French, although, at the turn of the forties and fifties (at the time of the Coppi-Bartali duels) and during the seventies, the prestige and the number of large cyclists enrolled they brought the Tour to be as important as that of the tour.
The birth of the Giro is formalized with an announcement on the "Gazzetta dello Sport" on August 24, 1908, with the promise of 25,000 pounds of prize to the winner and the will to organize "one of the most sought-after trials and major international cycling." In the organization of the Tour the Gazzetta dello Sport anticipated by little the Corriere della Sera, which was about to launch the initiative. The first Tour of Italy departed May 13, 1909 at 2:53 from Milan for the first leg of all time, won by Dario Beni on the Bologna goal after 397 km at average speed of 28.090.
Armando Cougnet, true creator and factotum of the Tour of Italy since its establishment and until 1948, he decided in 1931 to set up for the race leader a symbol that made him instantly recognizable amid the dense platoon. It was thus introduced the "pink jersey", who came dressed as Learco Guerra first, at the end of the first stage of the Tour in 1931 between Milan and Mantua.
Learco Guerra (October 14, 1902 - February 7, 1963) was an Italian professional cyclist on the road. The highlight of his career was his overall win in the Tour of Italy in 1934.
Learco Guerra, born in San Nicolò Po, a fraction of Bagnolo San Vito in Lombardy, has earned the nickname of "human locomotive" for its enduring quality in flat stages. After mediocre attempts to play football, Guerra became a professional cyclist in 1928, to 26. The following year he became Italian champion, running as an independent or semi-professional.
In 1930 he won his first Italian championships in road cycling, the first of five consecutive victories. In the same year he finished second in the Tour de France after the leader in Italy, Alfredo Binda, demonstrated in bad shape. The race was won by the French, André Leducq. In 1931 Guerra has won four stages of the Tour of Italy, but not the final victory. The same year he won the world cycling championship.
info by wikipedia ita/eng.