Stat Attack: The Giro d'Italia in numbers

Cillian Kelly counts down to the start in Turin with 10 stats about the race and peloton

11:00, Saturday 4th May 2024

Cillian Kelly

GCN's stat expert

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Cillian counts down to the Giro the only way he knows how: with stats

The countdown towards the start of the 2024 Giro d’Italia is finally close to an end, with the race getting underway this Saturday afternnon in Turin. But let’s not let the counting down stop there. Oh no. Pour yourself a nice espresso, or a cappuccino if it’s after 11am, and slurp up one last Giro countdown. This time it’s a descending ticker of fantastical facts and fabulous figures…

10

There are ten riders in the history of the Giro who managed to finish on the podium despite it being their first ever taste of a Grand Tour. The list contains some of the greatest riders of all time – Alfredo Binda, Fausto Coppi, Vito Ortelli, Hugo Koblet, Ercole Baldini, Felice Gimondi, Giovanni Battaglin, Giambattista Baronchelli, Jose Rujano and most recently, Andy Schleck did it in 2007.

There are 29 riders at this year’s race making their Grand Tour debuts. It’s hard to see any of them adding their names to the list. Although Florian Lipowitz did look quite good at the Tour de Romandie.

9

It feels almost certain that Tadej Pogačar will complete the Grand Tour stage win triplet at the Giro

Nine riders at the Giro, having already won at least one stage of the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, have a chance to complete the Grand Tour stage winning hat-trick. They are Tadej Pogačar, Julian Alaphilippe, Fabio Jakobsen, Michael Woods, Rafał Majka, Romain Bardet, Simon Clarke, Lilian Calmejane and Alexey Lutsenko.

8

Eight is the number of teammates that Ivan Basso had left at the end of the Giro that he won in 2010 while riding for Liquigas. In those days there were nine riders on each team, which meant all of Basso’s teammates finished the Giro. Liquigas managed to complete all three Grand Tours that year with a full complement of riders. At the time, Liquigas were the first team ever to do this in the history of cycling.

7

The oldest rider in the race, Domenico Pozzovivo is seven years older than the oldest ever Giro winner. Pozzovivo is 41 now, riding in his 18th Giro which equals the record set by Wladimiro Panizza. Fiorenzo Magni, the oldest ever winner, was 34 when he won his third and final Giro in 1955.

6

Home star Filippo Ganna once had a tight grip on Giro time trials – can he repeat that this year?

The rider in the race with the most Giro stage wins is Filippo Ganna who has won six – four in 2020 and two in 2021. One of those wins was a road stage, which obviously means that five of them were time trials. He was also world time trial champion when he won all of them. That’s the most ever Grand Tour time trial stage wins while wearing the rainbow jersey.

5

There are, rather staggeringly, only five riders from Spain taking part in the Giro this year, the fewest since 1986 when there was only one! Pedro Muñoz was the sole Spanish representative in that race, but he certainly did represent because he won a stage and the King of the Mountains classification.

The five Spaniards in this year's race

4

Four riders have won the Giro and also won the young riders classification in the same year. Evgeni Berzin in 1994, Nairo Quintana in 2014, Tao Geoghegan Hart in 2020 and most recently Egan Bernal in 2021.

Pogačar is finally no longer eligible for young rider's jerseys. He’ll be riding his first ever Grand Tour where there is a jersey he is not allowed to win. Most likely candidates to repeat the feat of the four riders that came before are Thymen Arensman or Cian Uijtdebroeks.

3

There are three riders in the race who have finished second and have never won it. Damiano Caruso, who was runner-up behind Bernal in 2021, is 36 now and is likely too old to take a step further on to the top spot on the podium. Esteban Chaves finished second behind Vincenzo Nibali when The Shark attacked Steven Kruijswijk so hard he smashed into a wall of ice in 2016. It is utterly absurd to say because Chaves still looks like a 15 year old, but he is also likely too old to consider winning the Giro. And that leaves Geraint Thomas, last year’s runner-up who is, on paper, also certainly too old to try and win the Giro. But no Giro has ever been won on paper.

2

There are two rest days in this year’s Giro. There are sometimes three. In recent years when there has been a foreign Grande Partenza, as we had in Hungary in 2022, the race organisers slot in an extra one to allow for travel time back to Italy.

We know that Pogačar is aiming for the Giro/Tour double this year. The last time this was done was by Marco Pantani in 1998. And amazingly, the Giro that year had no rest days. 23 stages, straight through, no hanging around. It was the last ever Grand Tour to have no rest days.

1

Nairo Quintana lifted the iconic Giro trophy in 2014

And finally, there is one former winner of the Giro in this year’s race. The last six winners are all still active pros – Primož Roglič, Jai Hindley, Egan Bernal, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Richard Carapaz and Chris Froome. All six of them are focusing on the Tour de France this year instead. Which means the only former winner present is the 2014 winner Nairo Quintana.

The Colombian’s presence at the Giro continues a remarkable streak of having at least one former winner every year going all the way back to 1930. In fact, apart from the first ever edition in 1909 (obviously), 1930 has been the only ever edition of the Giro which had no former winners on the startline. And the only reason for that was because the organisers had gotten so sick of Alfredo Binda winning it all the time, they paid him not to ride it.

For everything you need to know about the 2024 Giro d'Italia, from the history of the race to this year's route and start list, be sure to check out our dedicated race hub.