The Giro visits Gemona:
The Giro has been here once, in 1977 as part of a double
stage. Marc Demeyer was the winner.
May 25th in the Giro:
In 1919 Oscar Egg became the first Swiss to take a Giro
stage, from Trieste to Ferrara. And in 1950 Fritz Schaer
broke ground as the first Swiss to appear in pink.
Coppi and Bartali had established their rivalry before
the war, and they picked up where they left off when
racing resumed. Bartali scored a narrow victory over Coppi
in 1946, and he won stage 2 to Genova on the 25th in 1947.
But it would be Coppi that would come out on top in the
end that year.
Only one Luxembourger has ever taken a Giro stage. But he
was a good one. Today we remember Charly Gaul once again,
on the 50th anniversary of his first stage win in
Campobasso.
Things change in a year. In 1973 Merckx and his gang of
Belgian thugs delivered a bone crushing blow to the hopes
of his Giro rivals in the stage to Monte Carpegna. But he
would be dogged by illness a year later, and Jose Manuel
Fuente would challenge Merckx with his in the same city
on May 25th. Merckx would barely squeak by with a 12 second
win over Baronchelli.
And we are 21 years past Acacio Da Silva's first Giro
stage win for Portugal. And 13 years beyond Piotr Ugrumov's
first Giro victory for Latvia.
And our final first is represented by Evgueni Berzin's
stage win in Campitello. It was not the first stage win for
Russia, that belonged to Konychev the year before. But after
the stage Berzin pulled on the first pink jersey for Russia,
and he would go on to become the first Russian to take a
Grand Tour.