1914 Giro d'Italia

1914 Giro d'Italia Giro Italia 1914-map.png Race Route 24 May – 7 June 1914 8 3162 km 135h 17' 56" Alfonso Calzolari ITA 1861 Stucchi Pierino Albini ITA 1861 Globo-Dunlop Luigi Lucotti ITA 1861 Maino Stucchi - Dunlop 1913 1919 The 1914 Giro d'Italia was the sixth Giro; it was organised and sponsored by the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport. The race began on 24 May in Milan with a stage that stretched 420 km 0 on to Cuneo, finishing back in Milan on 6 June after a 420.3 km 0 on stage and a total distance covered of 3162 km 0 on. The race was won by the Italian rider Alfonso Calzolari of the Stucchi team.http://hemeroteca-paginas.mundodeportivo.com/EMD02/HEM/1914/06/11/MD19140611-003.pdf La Vuelta De Italia es 11 June 1914 3 El Mundo Deportivo 12 May 2020 PDF The Giro d'Italia 14 March 2016 https://web.archive.org/web/20160314142949/http://hemeroteca-paginas.mundodeportivo.com/EMD02/HEM/1914/06/11/MD19140611-003.pdf Second and third respectively were the Italian riders Pierino Albini and Luigi Lucotti. It was the last Giro before the Great War and the first one with a final classification based on time rather than points. It is remembered as the hardest Giro of the heroic period of bicycle racing. Besides five stages of over 400 km (and the longest ever average stage length), it included the longest stage ever in the history of the Giro: the Lucca–Rome stage won by Costante Girardengo. This edition of the Giro was run at the lowest average speed (23.374 km/h); marked the highest gap between the first and the second (1 hour, 55 minutes and 26 seconds); saw the longest ever stage by time taken (the Bari–L'Aquila). Only 8 riders (out of 81 participants) finished the race. The sixth stage (Bari–L'Aquila) is remembered as the hardest stage in the history of the Giro, with many riders forced to retire, including the first of the general classification Giuseppe Azzini, who was found the next day resting in a country house. The Giro organisation declared Calzolari winner after the race, but a legal battle started between the Giro organisation and the Italian Cycling Union, who thought Calzolari should have been removed from the race for taking help from a car, making Albini the winner. After 14 months in court, the final decision was in favor of the Giro organisation, thus making Calzolari the definitive winner. Participants List of teams and cyclists in the 1914 Giro d'Italia Before the race started, 98 cyclists had entered themselves in the race, of which 35 were professional cyclists in a team, 41 were professional cyclists without a team, and 22 were amateurs (it aspiranti). Favorites for the race were Lucien Petit-Breton from France, and Ganna, Galetti, Girardengo, Giuseppe Santhià and Azzini from Italy.http://www.archiviolastampa.it/component/option,com_lastampa/task,search/mod,libera/action,viewer/Itemid,3/page,4/articleid,1188_01_1914_0141_0004_24845648/ L'elenco del concorrenti La Stampa it 23 May 1914 20 July 2014 4 There was no fixed number for cyclists per team; teams could decide for themselves how many riders to enter. Bianchi sent eight riders, while Stucchi and Globo only sent four.van den Akker 2023 18 Race director Cougnet decided to allow amateurs due to the low number of cyclists and teams that had registered in the weeks prior to the start.Moore 2015 82 Many of these riders were unemployed and borrowed bikes in order to participate.Moore 2015 82 Umberto Ripamonti was the youngest to enter the race at age nineteen.Moore 2015 83 At 24 May, when the Giro began, 81 of them started the race; only eight of them made it to the finish in Milan on 7 June.http://bikeraceinfo.com/giro/giro1914.html 1914 Giro d'Italia Bike Race Info Bill and Carol McGann Dog Ear Publishing 2012-07-10 https://web.archive.org/web/20150930192729/https://bikeraceinfo.com/giro/giro1914.html September 30, 2015 Riders were allowed to ride on their own or as a member of a team. There were eight teams that competed in the race: Alcyon, Atala, Bianchi, Ganna, Gerbi, Globo, Maino, and Stucchi. The field featured threeSeptember 2026 former Giro d'Italia champions in the 1909 winner Luigi Ganna, three-time winner Carlo Galetti, Eberardo Pavesi who was a member of the 1912 Atala winning team, and returning champion Carlo Oriani. Other notable Italian riders that started the race included Costante Girardengo, Angelo Gremo, Alfonso Calzolari, and Giovanni Gerbi. Race summary The race itself began at midnight along the Corso Sempione in Milan.Moore 2015 83 Rain began quickly after the riders started.Moore 2015 83 Angelo Gremo won the first stage ahead of Carlo Durando and Alfonso Calzolari who finished over thirteen minutes in arrears. After those three finishers, 34 more crossed the line with the last rider finishing seven hours after Calzolari.Moore 2015 133 Only three aspiranti riders remained.Moore 2015 133 Three riders were disqualified for being pulled by cars, which meant that half of the cyclists were already out of the race after the first stage.https://www.touretappe.nl/giro-historisch/1914-zwaarste-giro/ 1914 de zwaarste Giro ooit Dutch Touretappe.nl Lucas Bezembinder All non-Italian starters did not finish the first stage of which British rider Freddie Grubb withdrew after around 11 hours of racing because of mechanicals he stated were from Italian competitors.Moore 2015 142–3 In an early stage, nails were thrown on to the route and forced many punctures and led to many abandonments.Moore 2015 93 The organizers offered a reward of 1,000 lire to find the culprit.Moore 2015 93 Calzolari won the second stage, leaving all other riders so far behind that he took the lead. He stayed safe in the third stage. In that third stage, Lauro Bordin escaped after 15 km, and rode alone for 350 km, which made it the longest (unsuccessful) breakaway in the history of the Giro.https://archivio.giroditalia.it/eng/editions/1909-1922/ giroditalia.it La Gazzetta dello Sport Giro d'Italia - All previous editions 2016 Calzolari seemed to be the strongest rider, and was at that point expected to win. From then on, Calzolari's tires started to puncture more than normal. Sometimes at a checkpoint where riders had to place their signatures, or when they had to carry their bicycles. In this way, Calzolari's competition won back some time in the fourth stage, which was won by Giuseppe Azzini, with a margin of over 36 minutes. The fifth stage was also won by Giuseppe Azzini as it poured rain over the finish of the race,Moore 2015 263 this time more than an hour ahead of the next cyclist. This is the biggest stage-winning margin in Giro history,van den Akker 2023 48 a record that is practically impossible to be broken. Azzini had won back enough time to lead the general classification, and was announced as new leader. Later that evening, he was given a penalty of one minute for taking a shortcut, which would have put him back in second place. Due to unclarity about when this penalty should take effect, he is often still regarded as leader after the fifth stage.van den Akker 2023 71 Calzolari was accused of having been pulled by a car during stage 5 or 6. Previously riders had been expelled from the race for this infraction, but the jury decided to give Calzolari a time penalty of three hours. Bianchi and Globo accused Calzolari and his teammates Durando and Canepari of being towed by a red car up the climb of the Svolte.Moore 2015 283 A Bologna-based newspaper Il Resto del Carlino published an article positing rumors that the three riders actually got in the car and were driven to the top of the climb.Moore 2015 283–4 While being aided by the red car, a race official drove up and passed the riders.Moore 2015 284 In front of the race jury Canepari stated the trio only held on for roughly 100m.Moore 2015 284 When asked who drove the car, Canepari replied "Oh, some friend of Alfonzo's."Moore 2015 284 Calzolari denied holding on to the car, while stating his two teammates held on after being asked to by the operator of the car.Moore 2015 284–5 The jury found them guilty and awarded them the same time of the last finisher of the stage, Luigi Lucotti who finished three hours and twenty-two minutes down.Moore 2015 286 The next stage, stage 6, is regarded as the toughest stage in the Giro ever. It was very long, and the weather was terrible. Giuseppe Azzini did not finish this stage; he had last been seen 30 km from the finish. The organisation started a search for Azzini, who was found the next morning, in a barn miles off the route with a fever.Moore 2015 287–8 Azzini was taken to a hospital and recovered quickly, but did not continue the race and took the train home.Moore 2015 287–8 Newspapers reported he had broncho-pneumonia, but Paolo Facchinetti (journalist) Paolo Facchinetti it Paolo Facchinetti later stated he felt it was from overuse of the drug strychnineMoore 2015 288–9 Because Azzini had not finished the stage, this was the first time in Giro history that the winner of a stage did not finish the next stage.van den Akker 2023 38 Carlo Oriani also abandoned in that stage, which meant that there was no longer any previous Giro winner in the race.van den Akker 2023 70 Calzolari stayed in the race, and he led the race again by a margin of two hours.Moore 2015 290 & 293 The seventh leg started in L'Aquila. Following Azzini's departure the remaining two riders of the Bianchi team withdrew from the race before the day's start, leaving ten riders.Moore 2015 301 Before the start, the Italian Cycling Union had telegrammed to invalidate the race if the three cheating riders started the stage; however, the message was not received by the organizers in time and the race started.Moore 2015 300–1 There is speculation that the start was rushed that morning to allow for the race to continue.Moore 2015 301 The riders stayed together for most of the stage, until Durando became sick during the stage and stopped to throw up, only to have to ride the remaining 300k alone after teammate Giosue Lombardi initially slowed to help pace him back, only to have Durando refuse the help and tell him to return to the front.Moore 2015 314–5 The group rode on until Calzolari had a flat tire, but the remaining eight slowed their pace to allow him to rejoin.Moore 2015 314 Later isolati rider Maggiore Albani suffered a flat, but was left behind by the group and eventually abandoned.Moore 2015 314 Lombardi withdrew after passing Pesaro and having rejoined the group due to exhaustion.Moore 2015 315 The eighth stage finished in the Sempione open-air velodrome where Albini again won a sprint.Moore 2015 336 By winning the race, Calzolari won 3,000 lire.Moore 2015 342 Calzolari did not get into any more problems in the last two stages, and thereby won the 1914 Giro d'Italia. Final standings The race compared to the previous year's had fewer stages and a greater total distance.Moore 2015 81 The route covered the whole stretch of the country from northwest to southeast in Bari.Moore 2015 81 The stages in the 1914 Giro were unusually long; stages 1, 3, 6, 7 and 8 are the longest five in the history of the Giro d'Italia, each over 420 km.van den Akker 2023 43 Race director Armando Cougnet decided to abandon the points system for calculating the general classification in favor of a purely time-based approach where the leader was the rider with the lowest total time raced for all stages – a decision the Tour de France director Henri Desgrange had made in 1913.Moore 2015 82 The prize for winning the race in 1914 was 3,000 lire.Moore 2015 82 Stage results + Stage resultsStageDateCourseDistanceTypeIn 1914, there was no distinction in the rules between plain stages and mountain stages; the icons shown here indicate that the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth stages included major mountains.WinnerRace Leader1 24 May Milan to Cuneo 420 km 0 on 22px|link=|alt=Stage with mountain(s) Angelo Gremo ITA 1861 Angelo Gremo ITA 18612 26 May Cuneo to Lucca 340.5 km 0 on 22px|link=|alt=Plain stage Alfonso Calzolari ITA 1861 Alfonso Calzolari ITA 18613 28 May Lucca to Rome 430 km 0 on 22px|link=|alt=Stage with mountain(s) Costante Girardengo ITA 1861 Alfonso Calzolari ITA 18614 30 May Rome to Avellino 365.4 km 0 on 22px|link=|alt=Stage with mountain(s) Giuseppe Azzini ITA 1861 Alfonso Calzolari ITA 18615 1 June Avellino to Bari 328.7 km 0 on 22px|link=|alt=Stage with mountain(s) Giuseppe Azzini ITA 1861 Giuseppe Azzini ITA 18616 3 June Bari to L'Aquila 428 km 0 on 22px|link=|alt=Stage with mountain(s) Luigi Lucotti ITA 1861 Alfonso Calzolari ITA 18617 5 June L'Aquila to Lugo 429.1 km 0 on 22px|link=|alt=Stage with mountain(s) Pierino Albini ITA 1861 Alfonso Calzolari ITA 18618 7 June Lugo to Milan 420.3 km 0 on 22px|link=|alt=Stage with mountain(s) Pierino Albini ITA 1861 Alfonso Calzolari ITA 1861 Total 3162 km 0 on General classification Eight cyclists who completed all eight stages. For these cyclists, the times they had needed in each stage was added up for the general classification. The cyclist with the lowest total was the winner. Enrico Sala won the prize for best-ranked isolati rider in the general classification.http://dlib.coninet.it/bookreader.php?&c=1&f=7924&p=5#page/5/mode/2up I vincitori delle categorie speciali Corriere dello Sport 14 June 1950 6 7 July 2013 it The winners of the special categories https://web.archive.org/web/20141222201219/http://dlib.coninet.it/bookreader.php?&c=1&f=7924&p=5 22 December 2014 live + Final general classification (1–8)http://www.cyclingarchives.com/ritfiche.php?ritid=9422#first https://web.archive.org/web/20110824062530/http://www.cyclingarchives.com/ritfiche.php?ritid=9422#first usurped August 24, 2011 Giro d'Italia 1914 Cycling Archives 16 April 2013http://www.archiviolastampa.it/component/option,com_lastampa/task,search/mod,libera/action,viewer/Itemid,3/page,5/articleid,1188_01_1914_0157_0005_24846047/ Albini primo nell' ultima tappa it 8 June 1914 5 La Stampa Editrice La Stampa 27 May 2012 PDF Albini first in the final stageRankNameTeamTime 1 Alfonso Calzolari ITA 1861 Stucchi 135h 17′ 56″ 2 Pierino Albini ITA 1861 Globo + 1h 57′ 26″" 3 Luigi Lucotti ITA 1861 Maino + 2h 04′ 23″ 4 Clemente Canepari ITA 1861 Stucchi + 3h 01′ 12″ 5 Enrico Sala ITA 1861 — + 3h 59′ 45″ 6 Carlo Durando ITA 1861 Maino + 5h 12′ 12″ 7 Ottavio Pratesi ITA 1861 Alcyon + 9h 34′ 47″ 8 Umberto Ripamonti ITA 1861 — + 17h 21′ 08″ Of the two cyclists without a team, Sala rode as a professional it isolato and Ripamonti as an amateur it aspirante.Moore 2015 9 The winning team was Stucchi.Moore 2015 360 Aftermath During the race, Calzolari, Canepari and Durando had been given a penalty of 3 hours, for taking help from a car. After the race, the Italian Cycling Union said that the Giro jury had made a wrong decision, and that the three cyclists should have been removed from the race, declaring Albini the winner. The Giro organisation did not agree, and declared that Calzolari stayed the winner. The two parties went to court, and in February 1915 the Giro organisation won, and again after an appeal in July 1915, making Calzolari the definitive winner.http://www.podiumcafe.com/book-corner/2014/5/6/5686434/Giro-dItalia-1914 The 1914 Giro d'Italia: Il più duro di tutti Feargal McKay 6 May 2014 20 July 2014 Podiumcafe SBNation Vox Media When the riders crossed the finish line in Milan, their appearance was worn, some appeared "emaciated", and several had wounds from recent crashes.Moore 2015 336 Writers for newspapers condemned the route and conditions, saying that the organisers had no right to call this inhuman spectacle a success.Moore 2015 337 One wrote "An event that seeks to destroy its comepetitors has no place in this sport."Moore 2015 337 Meanwhile La Gazzetta dello Sporta stated "An army left Milan; only a brave patrol has returned."Moore 2015 337 Several weeks after the 1914 Giro ended, World War I started. Italy initially stayed neutral, but Italy entered the war in early 1915, which made it impossible to organize a Giro in the next years, and the planned 1915 edition was cancelled. Lucien Petit-Breton, who raced in this edition but abandoned, was killed during the war.Moore 2015 338 The 1914 Giro has since been regarded as the hardest Grand Tour of all time.Moore 2015 9 It set many records that are unlikely to be broken due to how the race has changed since.Moore 2015 9 These include the edition with the fewest finishers (eight) and the highest percentage of abandoned riders (90%).Moore 2015 9 As mentioned above, it included five of the longest stages in the history of the Giro d'Italia,van den Akker 2023 43 of which the third stage from Lucca to Rome 430 km 0 on was the longest ever and the race itself had the highest-ever average stage length of 396.25 km 0 on.Moore 2015 9 The sixth stage holds the record for the longest individual stage by time at 19h 34′ 47″.Moore 2015 9 Due to the race's reputation, British author Tim Moore rode the route in autumn of 2012.Moore 2015 1–9 He elected to ride the course in period attire and on a period bicycle;Moore 2015 1–9 then publishing a book about it titled Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy. Paolo Facchinetti interviewed Calzolari in April 1972 for a book, Giro 1914, il più duro di tutti. Calzolari described the race, saying: "It was a massacre that only eight of us survived, and somehow, in spite of everything. I beat them all."Moore 2015 45–6 References Footnotes "Notes" Citations 30em Bibliography Moore Tim Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy https://archive.org/details/gironimoridingve0000moor registration Pegasus Books New York, New York 2015 978-1-6817-7128-1 van den Akker Pieter Giro d'Italia, Rules and Statistics 2023 979-8863173719 1914 Giro d'Italia 1 4 5 8 Category:Giro d'Italia by year Giro Ditalia, 1914 Giro Ditalia, 1914 Giro d'Italia Giro d'Italia