4th Giro d'Italia 1912 (Italy)

The Giro in 1912...A Team Competition

The 1912 Giro d’Italia returned the Grande Partenza (Great Start) to Milan.

The organizers of the Giro d'Italia instituted a new format in 1912 contesting the race by trade-teams. Fourteen teams of 4 riders each were awarded points based on their stage placings. 56 riders were on the start list and 54 officially starting the race.

SPECIAL NOTE: the Team Stucchi was composed of 4 military riders, who were active duty. They did not ride competitively in the overall General Classification. Team Stucchi did feature future Giro d'Italia winner Carlo Oriani.

The extremely powerful Atala-Dunlop team (nicknamed "The Four Musketeers"), was led by Giro d'Italia champions Luigi Ganna (1909) and Carlo Galetti (1910, 1911). They dominated stage 1 and controlled the overall race from start to finish.

Changes from the 1911 Giro d'Italia:

The yearly changes in 1912: the race route- Milan to Milan (Bergamo added late), length- 2,435 Km down from 3,526 Km, and number of stages- 9 stages down from 12, AND the biggest change was in how the General Classification was calculated.

The new Team point system for the General Classification was met with resistance. Most of the tifosi were very confused by the new system. In response to the confusion surrounding the GC format, the race organizers (newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport released a supplement to help better explain how the new points system operated.
The Team that finished first in GC won a grand prize of 4000 lire. The runner-up Team received 2000 lire, third place was rewarded with 1000 lire, fourth place got 600 lire, and fifth place received 400 lire. Each stage winner received 600 lire and second place on the day got 300 lire.

Teams:

There were a total of 13 teams that started the 1912 Giro d'Italia. A French team was planning on competing in the race but opted out before the start. All the teams on the start list were based in Italy.

SPECIAL NOTE: The increased popularity of the Giro led organizers to attract the first teams that were not sponsored by a bicycle-related industry.

The 12 teams that took part in the race were:

Race Summary:

Stage 1: (Sunday, May 19, 1912, flat stage) 399 km from Milan to Padova, the race was planned to begin at 2:30 AM local time by the organizers, but due to large crowds delaying some riders getting to the start, the race officially was forced to start the stage at 2:43.

Aggressive racing saw the riders in three groups on the road. The first group contained twenty riders when they passed through the checkpoint in Brescia. The group increased to sixteen by the time it reached the checkpoint in Verona. The breakaway thinned to eleven when it arrived at the checkpoint in Vicenza. When the breakaway came into the finish in Padova the sprint was contested by Giovanni Micheletto and Bianchi’s Giuseppe Santhia. Atala-Dunlop's Micheletto won the stage with his teammate Carlo Galetti finishing third. Atala-Dunlop scored seven points and took the early lead in the GC.

Stage 2: (Tuesday, May 21, 1912, mountain stage) the second stage was 329 km from Padova to Bologna and saw a large group of forty riders enter Mantua after over one hundred kilometers of racing. Attacks and a large crash broke the group into five smaller groups. A heavy fog on the course caused chaos at the front of the race. A group of seven riders were the first to reach the stage finish in Bologna, where Bianchi's Vincenzo Borgarello won the sprint to the line.

Stage 3: (Thursday, May 23, 1912, flat stage) 362 km from Bologna to Pescara, the stage began under heavy cloud coverage. When the lead group reached the hillier portions of the stage riders began to lose contact with the leader. Legnano’s Ernesto Azzini edged out Eberardo Pavesi to take the stage win.

Stage 4: (Saturday, May 25, 1912, flat stage) the race's fourth stage saw very rainy conditions throughout the day. The roads turned into muddy quagmires with streams flowing along the roads. The thirty riders that began the stage took the wrong turn onto Sabina and rode for over 50 km before they realized their errors. With the nasty weather and horrible road conditions, along with the added 50 km extension to the stage riders protested. The race jury deliberated and cancelled the stage. The riders were taken by train to Rome for the start of the next stage.

SPECIAL NOTE: At the finish in Rome there were over 20,000 paying spectators waiting to see the stage finish. When news broke that the stage was cancelled, angry fans threatened to lynch race organizers and demanded the return of ticket fees. The organizers refunded their tickets.

Stage 5: (Monday, May 27, 1912, mountain stage) Atala-Dunlop's Luigi Ganna was forced to abandon the race due to injuries suffered from a heavy crash on the muddy roads of the fourth stage. Galetti won the fifth stage, but with the team placings on the stage, Peugeot took the GC lead from Atala-Dunlop.

Stage 6: (Wednesday, May 29, 1912, mountain stage) Rain spoiled the start of the sixth stage at 6:40AM local time and made most of the stage miserable. A breakaway group of sixteen riders formed at the front of the race. Later the group was reduced to ten before passing through the checkpoint at Lucca. Team Gerbi’s Lauro Bordin attacked and broke away solo. He reached the checkpoint in Spezia fifteen minutes ahead of the Azzini, Cocchi, and Agostoni group. Gallantly Bordin rode into the finish first, more than eighteen minutes ahead of the second-place finisher Carlo Galetti.

Stage 7: (Friday, May 31, 1912, mountain stage) Vincenzo Borgarello won his second stage with his victory on stage 7. He out-sprinted Giovanni Micheletto and Carlo Durando. In the final sprint Micheletto felt that Durando infringed on him and gained an advantage. Durando was relegated to fifth place. This action caused the angry Italian fans to rush on to the track. The police then moved the two riders to a bar, until the crowd dispersed.

Stage 8: (Sunday, June 2,1912, mountain stage) Giovanni Micheletto won his second stage of the race two days later.

Stage 9: (Tuesday, June 4, 1912, mountain stage)

SPECIAL NOTE: Because of the stage 4 cancellation, stage 9 was added to the Giro. The route was adapted from the classics course of the Giro di Lombardia. The classics promoters, Italian Velocopie Union, protested the use of their racecourse.
Before the start of the final stage Atala-Dunlop’s Micheletto became ill and wanted to abandon. Teammate Eberardo Pavesi convinced him to continue the race and finish the final stage. As the GC team leader, the rules required 3 riders to complete the race. Micheletto continued to race.
Borgarello won his third stage, while Atala-Dunlop consolidated their Team GC lead
There were five teams that completed all nine stages with the required number of riders. The team with the most accumulated points was the winner.

Post-Race Notes:
The race organizers, La Gazzetta dello Sport, recognized the Team point system was not a success. The General Classification for the 1913 edition reverted to the individual rider point-based system.

Despite the failure of the Team system, the La Gazzetta dello Sport still achieved circulation success with the race. They shifted newspaper to a daily newspaper rather than three times a week.

Again, this year the race unofficially recorded the rider’s time and if it had been contested based upon the time, the race would have been won by Carlo Galetti.

General Classification:

GdI 1913

Return to the Timeline ToC

Return to the Race Snippets ToC