1977 Giro d'Italia


The 1977 Giro d'Italia was the 60th running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours races. The Giro started in Bacoli, on 20 May, with a prologue and concluded in Milan, on 13 June, with a mass-start stage. A total of 130 riders from thirteen teams entered the 22-stage race, that was won by Belgian Michel Pollentier of the Flandria team. The second and third places were taken by Italians Francesco Moser and Gianbattista Baronchelli, respectively. Freddy Maertens won 7 of the first 11 stages before abandoning due to a crash on Stage 8B.
Maertens was one of five riders within 1:00 of the lead at the time of his abandonment. This followed his performance of winning 13 stages along with the General Classification at the Vuelta a month earlier.
Moser took the Pink jersey from Maertens in the first week and held it until the high mountains of stage 17 which ended in Cortina d'Ampezzo where Pollentier took a :03 lead by beating Moser by :25. Over the next few stages he built this lead up to about 2:00 before the final time trial where he won the stage by :30 over 2nd place Moser and sealed the Giro victory.
Amongst the other classifications that the race awarded, Sanson's Moser won the points classification, Faustino Fernandez Ovies of KAS won the mountains classification, and Sanson's Mario Beccia completed the Giro as the best neo-professional in the general classification, finishing ninth overall. Flandria finished as the winners of the team points classification.

Teams

A total of 14 teams were invited to participate in the 1977 Giro d'Italia. Each team sent a squad of ten riders, so the Giro began with a peloton of 140 cyclists. Out of the 140 riders that started this edition of the Giro d'Italia, a total of 121 riders made it to the finish in Milan.
The teams entering the race were:

Pre-race favorites

The starting peloton did include the 1976 winner, Felice Gimondi. Freddy Maertens, Gianbattista Baronchelli, and Gimondi were seen by many news outlets to be the favorites to win the race.

Route and stages

The route for the race was revealed on 19 February 1977.

Classification leadership

There were four main individual classifications contested in the 1977 Giro d'Italia, as well as a team competition. Four of them awarded jerseys to their leaders. The general classification was the most important and was calculated by adding each rider's finishing times on each stage. The rider with the lowest cumulative time was the winner of the general classification and was considered the overall winner of the Giro. The rider leading the classification wore a pink jersey to signify the classification's leadership.
The second classification was the points classification. Riders received points for finishing in the top positions in a stage finish, with first place getting the most points, and lower placings getting successively fewer points. The rider leading this classification wore a purple jersey. The mountains classification was the third classification and its leader was denoted by the green jersey. In this ranking, points were won by reaching the summit of a climb ahead of other cyclists. Each climb was ranked as either first, second or third category, with more points available for higher category climbs. Most stages of the race included one or more categorized climbs, in which points were awarded to the riders that reached the summit first. The Cima Coppi, the race's highest point of elevation, awarded more points than the other first category climbs. The Cima Coppi for this Giro was the Valparola Pass. The first rider to cross the Valparola Pass was Spanish rider Faustino Fernández Ovies. The fourth classification, the young rider classification, was decided the same way as the general classification, but exclusive to neo-professional cyclists. The leader of the classification wore a white jersey.
The final classification, the team classification, awarded no jersey to its leaders. This was calculated by adding together points earned by each rider on the team during each stage through the intermediate sprints, the categorized climbs, stage finishes, etc. The team with the most points led the classification.
There were other minor classifications within the race, including the Campionato delle Regioni classification. The leader wore a blue jersey with colored vertical stripes. The Fiat Ritmo classification, which was created in honor Juan Manuel Santisteban who died in stage 1A of 1976 edition. In all stages longer than, there was a banner at that point in the stage to designate a special sprint. The winner of the sprint in each stage received a Fiat 127 in this edition, as opposed to a Fiat 131 in its inaugural year.

Final standings

General classification

RankNameTeamTime
1 Flandria
2 Sanson+ 2' 32"
3Scic+ 4' 02"
4Magniflex+ 7' 50"
5Scic+ 7' 56"
6Brooklyn+ 10' 04"
7Scic+ 12' 28"
8Sanson+ 13' 41"
9Sanson+ 13' 48"
10Magniflex+ 16' 11"

Points classification

RiderTeamPoints
1 Sanson225
2Scic183
3Scic183
4 Flandria153
5Magniflex143
6Flandria141
7Scic133
8Scic123
9Teka105
9Brooklyn105

Mountains classification

RiderTeamPoints
1 Zonca675
2Scic490
3 Flandria340
4Sanson220
5Vibor195
6Scic175
7Magniflex120
8Perletto110
8KAS110
10Scic100

Young rider classification

RiderTeamTime
1Sanson
2G.B.C.+ 7' 34"
3Jolly Ceramica+ 11' 27"
4Fiorella+ 14' 13"
5Fiorella+ 21' 28"

Campionato delle Regioni classification

RiderTeamPoints
1Magniflex37
2Scic12
3Bianchi10
4Brooklyn10
5G.B.C.8
5Sanson8
5Brooklyn8
8G.B.C.6

Traguardo Fiat 127 classification

RiderTeamPoints
1Teka33
2KAS26
3Selle Royal18
4Scic3
4Sanson3
4Teka3
4Scic3
4Brooklyn3
4Magniflex3

Team points classification

TeamPoints
1Flandria11,886
2Sanson11,078
3Scic7,154
4Flandria5,633
5Jolly Ceramica4558?
6Vibor3443
7Bianchi3362
8Brooklyn3209
9Selle Royal3184
10KAS3070

Citations