8th Giro d'Italia 1920 (Italy)

A Classic Giro Battle: Belloni vs Gremo

A brave field of 49 riders set out from Milan for the 1920 Giro d'Italia but only 10 riders finished.

The first stage of the Giro briefly went into Switzerland, which was the first time the Giro had ever left its home country of Italy.

SPECIAL NOTE: the heavy favorite and defending champion Constante Girardengo started the race, but after a heavy crash on stage 1, he abandoned the Giro during stage 2.

Teams:

There were 3 Professional teams competing in the race, along with 4 Independent teams and 25 Isolati/Independent riders:

Race Summary:

Stage 1: (Sunday, May 23, 1920) 328 km from Milan to Torino featured a race route that went outside the borders of Italy, when the Giro went over the Swiss climb of Monte Ceneri. Heavy favorite Campionissimo Constante Girardengo crashed heavily. In heavy rain he repaired his bike and slowly continued the race. Gaetano Belloni’s Bianchi team attacked Girardengo’s misfortune. At the finish Giuseppe Oliveri beat his two teammates Gremo and Belloni in the sprint. They breakaway distanced the rest of the field by more than ten minutes. Belloni finished third on the stage. The defending champion Costante Girardengo losing 11’40”.

Stage 2: (Tuesday, May 25, 1920) 378 km from Turin to Lucca, still suffering from his stage 1 crash, Girardengo crashed heavily again!?!? Injured in the fall he bravely continued the stage but was clearly in difficulty. The bad road conditions made his high-speed descent very painful. In a hilly stretch north of Genova Girardengo climbed off the bike and abandoned the Giro. Race leader Giuseppe Oliveri also struggled and abandoned the race. Gaetano Belloni won the stage in Lucca and took the GC lead.

Stage 4: (Saturday, May 29, 1920) 234 km from Rome to Chieti, Frenchman Jean Alavoine attacked early, and rode solo to win the stage by more than half an hour. Gaetano Belloni remained the race leader.

Stage 5: (Monday, May 31, 1920) 231 km from Chieti to Macerata, Jean Alavoine aggressively rode in a 3-rider breakaway and won the sprint in Macerata. However, second placed Leopoldo Torricelli filed a protest for overly aggressive sprinting. The race jury accepted Torricelli's protest and awarded Torricelli the stage win. Alavoine was relegated to third place. Race leader Belloni lost time and handed the GC lead to Angelo Gremo.

SPECIAL NOTE: After the determination by the jury, Torricelli’s Legnano team thought the penalty was insufficient and withdrew from the race.

SPECIAL NOTE: the media reports labeled the 1920 race as sick after the stage 2 abandonment of Girardengo. After stage 5 controversy the media attacks called the 1920 Giro dead.

Stage 7: (Friday, June 4, 1920) 349 km from Bologna to Trieste, trailing in the GC by 9’58” Gaetano Belloni aggressively attacked and rode away from the race leader. In Trieste Belloni won the stage by 2’04” AND 42’23” ahead of the race leader. Belloni entered the final stage with a 32’24” lead on second placed Angelo Gremo.

Stage 8: (Sunday, June 6, 1920) The finial stage, 421 km from Trieste to Milan, demonstrated the chaos that affected bicycle racing of the post-war years. In Milan, the first nine riders dropped Domenico Schierano and entered the hippodrome for the sprint. Before the finish could happen the nine riders were directed to the wrong entrance to the hippodrome. At the correct entrance Schierano entered before the nine and reached the finish line first. Because of the mistake, the race jury decided to nullify the results. They took the GC times at the entrance of the hippodrome, the official stage results reflected nine riders in alphabetical order, and stage prizes were shared among all riders.

SPECIAL NOTE: Gaetano Belloni took the 1920 Giro with an average speed of 25.64 kms per hour. He was not the eternal second anymore.

General Classification:

GdI 1921

Return to the Timeline ToC

Return to the Race Snippets ToC