1997 Giro d'Italia

Eighteen teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1997 edition of the Giro d'Italia.[2] Each team sent a squad of ten riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 180 cyclists.[2] From the riders that began the race, 110 made it to the finish in Milan.

The eighteen teams that took part in the race were:

The Passo del Tonale (pictured) was the finish for the 176 km (109 mi) stage 20.

The route for the 1997 Giro d'Italia was unveiled by race director Carmine Castellano on 9 November 1996 in Milan.[3] It contained two time trial events, all of which were individual. There were ten stages containing high mountains, of which three had summit finishes: stage 5, to Monte Terminillo;[4] stage 14, to Breuil-Cervinia;[5] and stage 20, to Passo del Tonale.[6] The organizers chose to include one rest day. When compared to the previous year's race, the race was 78 km (48 mi) shorter, contained the same amount of rest days and stages, as well as one more individual time trial.

List of stages[7][8]

Stage	Date	Course	Distance	Type		Winner
1	17 May	Venezia to Venezia	128 km (80 mi)		Plain stage	Mario Cipollini (ITA)
2	18 May	Mestre to Cervia	211 km (131 mi)		Plain stage	Mario Cipollini (ITA)
3	19 May	Santarcangelo di Romagna to San Marino (San Marino)	18 km (11 mi)		Individual time trial	Pavel Tonkov (RUS)
4	20 May	San Marino (San Marino) to Arezzo	156 km (97 mi)		Plain stage	Mario Cipollini (ITA)
5	21 May	Arezzo to Monte Terminillo	215 km (134 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Pavel Tonkov (RUS)
6	22 May	Rieti to Lanciano	210 km (130 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Roberto Sgambelluri (ITA)
7	23 May	Lanciano to Mondragone	210 km (130 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Marcel Wüst (GER)
8	24 May	Mondragone to Cava de' Tirreni	212 km (132 mi)		Plain stage	Mario Manzoni (ITA)
9	25 May	Cava de' Tirreni to Castrovillari	232 km (144 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Dimitri Konyshev (RUS)
10	26 May	Castrovillari to Taranto	195 km (121 mi)		Plain stage	Mario Cipollini (ITA)
	27 May	Rest day
11	28 May	Lido di Camaiore to Lido di Camaiore	155 km (96 mi)		Plain stage	Gabriele Missaglia (ITA)
12	29 May	La Spezia to Varazze	214 km (133 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Giuseppe Di Grande (ITA)
13	30 May	Varazze to Cuneo	150 km (93 mi)		Plain stage	Glenn Magnusson (SWE)
14	31 May	Racconigi to Breuil-Cervinia	240 km (149 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Ivan Gotti (ITA)
15	1 June	Verrès to Borgomanero	173 km (107 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Alessandro Baronti (ITA)
16	2 June	Borgomanero to Dalmine	158 km (98 mi)		Plain stage	Fabiano Fontanelli (ITA)
17	3 June	Dalmine to Verona	200 km (124 mi)		Plain stage	Mirco Gualdi (ITA)
18	4 June	Baselga di Pinè to Cavalese	40 km (25 mi)		Individual time trial	Serhiy Honchar (UKR)
19	5 June	Predazzo to Pfalzen	222 km (138 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	José Luis Rubiera (ESP)
20	6 June	Bruneck to Passo del Tonale	176 km (109 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	José Jaime González (COL)
21	7 June	Malè to Edolo	238 km (148 mi)		Stage with mountain(s)	Pavel Tonkov (RUS)
22	8 June	Boario Terme to Milan	165 km (103 mi)		Plain stage	Mario Cipollini (ITA)
	Total		3,889 km (2,417 mi)

The Pordoi Pass was the Cima Coppi for the 1997 running of the Giro d'Italia.

Four different jerseys were worn during the 1997 Giro d'Italia. The leader of the general classification – calculated by adding the stage finish times of each rider, and allowing time bonuses for the first three finishers on mass-start stages – wore a pink jersey.[9] This classification is the most important of the race, and its winner is considered as the winner of the Giro.[10]

For the points classification, which awarded a purple (or cyclamen) jersey to its leader,[9] cyclists were given points for finishing a stage in the top 15; additional points could also be won in intermediate sprints. The green jersey was awarded to the mountains classification leader.[9] 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. The Cima Coppi, the race's highest point of elevation, awarded more points than the other first category climbs.[10] The Cima Coppi for this Giro was the Pordoi Pass and was first climbed by the Colombian José Jaime González. The intergiro classification was marked by a blue jersey.[9][10] The calculation for the intergiro is similar to that of the general classification, in each stage there is a midway point that the riders pass through a point and where their time is stopped. As the race goes on, their times compiled and the person with the lowest time is the leader of the intergiro classification and wears the blue jersey.[10] Although no jersey was awarded, there was also one classification for the teams, in which the stage finish times of the best three cyclists per team were added; the leading team was the one with the lowest total time.[10]

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

Classification leadership by stage

Stage	Winner	General classification	Points classification	Mountains classification	Intergiro classification	Trofeo Fast Team
1	Mario Cipollini	Mario Cipollini	Mario Cipollini	not awarded	Dimitri Konyshev	Saeco
2	Mario Cipollini
3	Pavel Tonkov	Pavel Tonkov		Pavel Tonkov		Mapei-GB
4	Mario Cipollini
5	Pavel Tonkov					Saeco
6	Roberto Sgambelluri
7	Marcel Wüst
8	Mario Manzoni			Mariano Piccoli		Asics-C.G.A.
9	Dimitri Konyshev
10	Mario Cipollini
11	Gabriele Missaglia
12	Giuseppe Di Grande
13	Glenn Magnusson
14	Ivan Gotti	Ivan Gotti		José Jaime González		Team Polti
15	Alessandro Baronti					Asics-C.G.A.
16	Fabiano Fontanelli
17	Mirco Gualdi					Team Polti
18	Serhij Hončar
19	José Luis Rubiera					Kelme-Costa Blanca
20	José Jaime González
21	Pavel Tonkov
22	Mario Cipollini
Final		Ivan Gotti	Mario Cipollini	José Jaime González	Dimitri Konyshev	Kelme-Costa Blanca