The Giro visits La Thuile:
The Giro has never finished here before.
May 20th in the Giro:
The 1910 Giro saw the first foreign stage winner on this
date as Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq of France copped the stage
from Udine to Bologna.
In 1927 Domenico Piemontesi took stage 4 to Grosseto. Binda
took second. Binda won the first three stages and also took
the next six. So out of the first ten stages only one guy
in one race could defeat Binda.
Speaking of Grosseto, Adolfo Leoni won the stage to that
town on May 20th, 1940. Then the war intervened. Eight years
later the Giro was back in business and on May 20th the
winner was... Adolfo Leoni.
In 1963 the winner on May 20th was Pierino Baffi. It is
doubtful that his son Adriano remembers the event as he
had only been born the year before. And unfortunately the
elder Baffi died in 1985 so he did not get to celebrate
any of the five Giro stages his son would take in the 1990s.
In 1973 the winner on May 20th was Roger De Vlaeminck in
Luxembourg. In 1974 it was Roger De Vlaeminck in Sapri, In
1975 it was Roger De Vlaeminck in Campobasso. In 1976 the
Giro did not start until the 21st and that screwed up
De Vlaeminck to the point that he only took second to
Patrick Sercu in the first stage.