1977 Giro d'Italia

Teams

Main article: List of teams and cyclists in the 1977 Giro d'Italia

Fourteen teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1977 edition of the Giro d'Italia. In total, 90 riders were from Italy, while the remaining 50 riders came from: Spain (20), Belgium (17), Switzerland (4), Denmark (2), West Germany (2), Australia (1), France (1), Great Britain (1), Norway (1), and Sweden (1). Each team sent a squad of ten riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 140 cyclists.

Of those starting, 52 were riding the Giro d'Italia for the first time. The average age of riders was 27.29 years, ranging from 20–year–old Per Bausager (Zoppas Frag) to 36–year–old Franco Bitossi (Vibor). The team with the youngest average rider age was GBC (24), while the oldest was Brooklyn (30). From those that started, 121 of them finish in Milan.

The teams entering the race were:

• Bianchi
• Brooklyn
• Fiorella
• GBC
• Jolly Ceramica
• KAS
• Flandria
• Magniflex
• Sanson
• Scic
• Selle Royal
• Teka
• Vibor
• Zonca

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 (or cyclamen) 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 (in their first three years of professional racing). The leader of the classification wore a white jersey.

Another classification was 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 ("maglia azzurra con banda tricolore verticale").

The Fiat classification, created the year before, was repeated again In all stages longer than 127 km, 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

Points classification

Mountains classification

Young rider classification

Campionato delle Regioni classification

Traguardo Fiat 127 classification

Team points classification

Doping

There was one positive doping test in the Giro of 1977: Annunzio Colombo received a time penalty of ten minutes following the 12th stage.

References

Citations

Bibliography

References

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