1933 Giro d'Italia

Participants

Main article: List of teams and cyclists in the 1933 Giro d'Italia

Of the 97 riders that began the Giro d'Italia on 6 May, 51 of them made it to the finish in Milan on 28 May. Riders were allowed to ride on their own or as a member of a team; 51 riders competed as members of a team, while the remaining 46 were independent riders. There were nine teams that competed in the race: Bestetti-d'Alessandro, Bianchi-Pirelli, Dei-Pirelli, Ganna-Hutchinson, Girardengo-Clément, Gloria-Hutchinson, Legnano-Hutchinson, Maino-Clément, and Olympia-Spiga.

The peloton was primarily composed of Italians. The field featured five former Giro d'Italia champions in four-time winner Alfredo Binda, two-time champion Costante Girardengo, single race winners Luigi Marchisio and Francesco Camusso, and reigning winner Antonio Pesenti. Other notable Italian riders that started the race included Learco Guerra, Giuseppe Olmo, Remo Bertoni, Felice Gremo, and Domenico Piemontesi. Notable non-Italian entrants included: Previous year podium finisher Jef Demuysere, Spanish climber Vicente Trueba, and renowned French cyclist René Vietto. Of all the entrants, Guerra was seen as the favorite to win the race after his victory in the Milan–San Remo earlier in the season.

Race summary

Learco Guerra won the first stage for the third consecutive time. He lost weveral minutes in the second stage, won by Alfredo Binda; Binda became the new leader, with only Jef Demuysere within one minute.

The third and the fourth sprint ended in bunch sprints, so Binda easily kept the lead. The fifth stage saw the first categorized mountain climb ever; Binda reached the top first, but after that was left behind by other riders. Guerra won the sprint, and Demuysere finished in fourth place with the same time; Binda dropped to fourth place in the general classification and Demuysere became the new leader.

The sixth and seventh stages were again bunch sprints, without changes on top of the general classification. In the eighth stage, there was again a categorized mountain; Binda reached the top first, receiving a time bonus of two minutes. The stage itself was also won by Binda in the same time as the competition, but because of the time bonus on the mountain top he won back the pink jersey.

Binda won the ninth and tenth stage, extending his lead in the process. With these three stage wins in a row, the race had changed from a close race to a race where Binda was the clear leader. The next two stages did not change much, but then it was time for the first individual time trial in the Giro, over 62 km. Binda won, beating Demuysere by over one minute and the other riders by over three minutes. Thanks to the additional time bonus, he extended his lead in the general classification to over 6 minutes, and he was practically secured of the victory.

In the next stages, Binda did not get into problems, even securing more time bonuses by reaching the mountain tops in first place.

Route and stages

La Gazzetta announced the route in March 1933. It was considered to delay the Giro by eight days to avoid overlap with the Tour of Germany, so that German riders could start in the Giro. When Hitler took power in Germany, he disbanded the existing cycling organisations and replaced them with the Deutscher Radfahrer-Verband; this meant that no Tour of Germany would be held in 1933, and the Giro did not need to move.

Classification leadership

The leader of the general classification – calculated by adding the stage finish times of each rider – wore a pink jersey. This classification is the most important of the race, and its winner is considered as the winner of the Giro. Race organizers chose to remove time bonuses for the sprint stage winners, the "winner for detachment," the first riders who cross a mountain. The winner of the individual time trial – where riders contest the course starting in three minute increments – awarded a time bonus of two minutes and one minute to the first and second-place finishers, respectively.

The race organizers allowed isolated riders to compete in the race, which had a separate classification calculated the same way as the general classification. For the first time, a white jersey was awarded for the leader of this classification.

In 1933, the Italian cycling organisation had two different types of licences for professional cyclists. The lower-ranked cyclists rode with a licence for 'indipendenti', and a special prize was given to the highest ranked rider amongst these riders in the general classification.

In the mountains classification, the race organizers selected different mountains that the route crossed and awarded points to the three riders who crossed them first. There were four mountains that were given points towards the mountains classification: the Passo del Tonale, the Osteria della Crocetta, the Castelnuovo della Daunia, and the Castelnuovo Val di Cecina. Alfredo Binda was the first rider to cross each of the four mountains.

The winner of the team classification was determined by adding the finish times of the best three cyclists per team together and the team with the lowest total time was the winner. If a team had fewer than three riders finish, they were not eligible for the classification.

Il Trofeo Magno () was a classification for independent Italian riders competing in the race. The riders were divided into teams based on the region of Italy they were from. The calculation of the standings was the same for the team classification. At the end of the race, a trophy was awarded to the winning team and it was then stored at the Federal Secretary of the P.N.P. in their respective province.

The rows in the following table correspond to the jerseys awarded after that stage was run.

Final standings

General classification

Foreign rider classification

Independent rider classification

Isolati rider classification

Mountains classification

Team classification

Il Trofeo Magno classification

References

;Footnotes

;Citations

;Bibliography

References

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2. (29 May 1933). "La Vuelta a Italia". El Mundo Deportivo S.A..
3. (29 May 1988). "Alfredo Binda vince il suo quinto Giro d'Italia". Editrice La Stampa.
4. (6 May 1933). "Il XXI "Giro d'Italia", per cui il Duce ha voluto spronare alla vittoria accoglie il fior fiore del ciclismo nazionale e forti atleti stranieri". Il Littoriale.
5. Bill and Carol McGann. "1933 Giro d'Italia". Dog Ear Publishing.
6. Boyce, Barry. "21th Giro d'Italia 1933 (Italy), Alfredo Binda's 5th". Cycling Revealed.
7. (13 May 2023). "Memories of Emilia, 1933: Binda the first ever time trial". RCS Sport Spa.
8. (13 March 1933). "Il XXI Giro d'Italia si svolgera dal 6 al 28 maggio, in 17 tappe". Il Littoriale.
9. (13 January 1933). "De ronde van Italie". Delpher.
10. Laura Weislo. (13 May 2008). "Giro d'Italia classifications demystified". Future Publishing Limited.
11. (30 May 1933). "Significato e valore delle prove di giovani e di stranieri nel XXI Giro d'Italia che ha celebrato il trionfo di Binda". Il Littoriale.
12. (6 May 1933). "Impressioni e interviste durante la punzonatura". Il Littoriale.
13. (29 May 1933). "Circa trecentomila persone presenziano gli ultimi episodi del XXI "Giro d'Italia" ed Alfredo Binda suggella il trionfo vincendo in volata all'Arena di Milano". Il Littoriale.
14. (14 June 1950). "Il <<Libro d'oro>> del G. P. della Montagna". Corriere dello Sport.
15. (2013). "Archivio Storico - Le edizioni del Giro d'Italia - Edizione del 1933". La Gazetta dello Sport.