2020 Giro d'Italia explained

2020 Giro d'Italia
Series:	2020 UCI World Tour
Race No:	16
Season No:	21
Date:	3–25 October 2020
Stages:	21
Distance:	3361.4
Unit:	km
Time:	85h 40' 21"
First:	Tao Geoghegan Hart
First Nat:	GBR
First Color:	pink
Second:	Jai Hindley
Second Nat:	AUS
Third:	Wilco Kelderman
Third Nat:	NED
Points:	Arnaud Démare
Points Nat:	FRA
Points Color:	violet
Mountains:	Ruben Guerreiro
Mountains Nat:	POR
Mountains Color:	blue
Youth:	Tao Geoghegan Hart
Youth Nat:	GBR
Youth Color:	white
Sprints:	Simon Pellaud
Sprints Nat:	SUI
Combativity:	Thomas De Gendt
Combativity Nat:	BEL
Previous:	2019
Next:	2021

The 2020 Giro d'Italia was a road cycling stage race that took place between 3 and 25 October, after initially being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was originally to have taken place from 9 to 31 May 2020, as the 103rd edition of the Giro d'Italia, a three-week Grand Tour. The start of the 2020 Giro (known as the Grande Partenza) had been planned to take place in Budapest, Hungary, which would have been the 14th time the Giro has started outside Italy,^[1] and the first time a Grand Tour has visited Hungary.^[2]

The event was jeopardised by the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy,^[3] and in March 2020 it was postponed, as other early season races in Italy had been.^[4] When the government of Hungary announced they would not allow the Grande Partenza to take place, RCS Sport decided they would postpone the race to a later to-be-determined date.^[5] On 15 April, UCI announced that both Giro and Vuelta would take place in autumn after the 2020 UCI Road World Championships.^[6] On 5 May, UCI announced that the Giro would take place between 3 and 25 October, overlapping with the 2020 Vuelta a España .^[7]

The race was won by Tao Geoghegan Hart of Great Britain and Ineos Grenadiers, who finished 39 seconds ahead of Australia's Jai Hindley, having taken over leadership of his team after pre-race favourite and teammate Geraint Thomas had crashed out at an early stage. Geoghehan Hart also won the young riders' jersey, and became the first rider in Giro history to win the pink jersey outright on the final stage, having never worn it during the race – he entered the decisive final day time-trial level on time, but second on countback, to Hindley. The mountains jersey as won by Ruben Guerreiro and the sprinters' prize went to Simon Pellaud.^[8]

Teams

See main article: List of teams and cyclists in the 2020 Giro d'Italia. Twenty-two teams participated in the 2020 Giro d'Italia. All nineteen UCI WorldTeams are entitled, and obliged, to enter the race. Additionally, three second-tier UCI ProTeams were invited to participate in the event. The teams were announced on 16 January 2020.^[9] On 13 October 2020, ahead of the start of stage 10, Mitchelton-Scott and Jumbo-Visma withdrew all their remaining riders from the race following positive COVID-19 tests.^[10]

The teams participating in the race were:

UCI WorldTeams

UCI ProTeams

Pre-race favourites

Geraint Thomas, the 2018 Tour de France champion, was considered the pre-race favourite. Simon Yates was seen as one of his main challengers after beating Thomas in the lead-up race Tirreno–Adriatico. Steven Kruijswijk, a previous race leader in 2016, was another top contender, as was the only past champion in the field – two-time winner Vincenzo Nibali . 's trio of Jakob Fuglsang, Miguel Ángel López and Aleksandr Vlasov were also seen as top contenders. Other riders considered as contenders included Rafał Majka and Wilco Kelderman . Remco Evenepoel was earlier considered a favourite but did not enter the race due to injuries sustained in Il Lombardia.

Riders believed to be the main contenders for victories on the sprint stages were Arnaud Démare, Fernando Gaviria, Peter Sagan, Elia Viviani and Michael Matthews .^{[11] [12]}

Route and stages

See main article: 2020 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1 to Stage 11 and 2020 Giro d'Italia, Stage 12 to Stage 21.

List of stages

Stage	Date	Course	Distance	Type		Winner
1	3 October	Monreale to Palermo	15km (09miles)		Individual time trial
2	4 October	Alcamo to Agrigento	149km (93miles)		Hilly stage
3	5 October	Enna to Etna	150km (90miles)		Mountain stage
4	6 October	Catania to Villafranca Tirrena	140km (90miles)		Flat stage
5	7 October	Mileto to Camigliatello Silano	225km (140miles)		Intermediate stage
6	8 October	Castrovillari to Matera	188km (117miles)		Flat stage
7	9 October	Matera to Brindisi	143km (89miles)		Flat stage
8	10 October	Giovinazzo to Vieste	200km (100miles)		Intermediate stage
9	11 October	San Salvo to Roccaraso (Aremogna)	207km (129miles)		Mountain stage
	12 October				Rest day
10	13 October	Lanciano to Tortoreto	177km (110miles)		Intermediate stage
11	14 October	Porto Sant'Elpidio to Rimini	182km (113miles)		Flat stage
12	15 October	Cesenatico to Cesenatico	204km (127miles)		Intermediate stage
13	16 October	Cervia to Monselice	192km (119miles)		Hilly stage
14	17 October	Conegliano to Valdobbiadene	34.1km (21.2miles)		Individual time trial
15	18 October	Base Aerea Rivolto to Piancavallo	185km (115miles)		Mountain stage
	19 October				Rest day
16	20 October	Udine to San Daniele del Friuli	229km (142miles)		Intermediate stage
17	21 October	Bassano del Grappa to Madonna di Campiglio	203km (126miles)		Mountain stage
18	22 October	Pinzolo to Laghi di Cancano	207km (129miles)		Mountain stage
19	23 October	Morbegno Abbiategrasso to Asti	124.5km (77.4miles)		Flat stage
20	24 October	Alba to Sestriere	190km (120miles)		Mountain stage
21	25 October	Cernusco sul Naviglio to Milano	15.7km (09.8miles)		Individual time trial
	Total		3361.4km (2,088.7miles)

Classification leadership

Classification leadership by stage

Stage	Winner	General classification	Points classification	Mountains classification	Young rider classification	General Super Team	Intermediate sprint classification	Combativity classification	Breakaway classification	Fair play classification
1	Filippo Ganna	Filippo Ganna	Filippo Ganna	Rick Zabel	Filippo Ganna		Not awarded	Filippo Ganna	Not awarded
2	Diego Ulissi		Diego Ulissi	Peter Sagan			Thomas De Gendt	Thomas De Gendt	Ben Gastauer
3	Jonathan Caicedo	João Almeida		Jonathan Caicedo	João Almeida			Jonathan Caicedo	Giovanni Visconti
4	Arnaud Démare		Peter Sagan
5	Filippo Ganna			Filippo Ganna					Filippo Ganna
6	Arnaud Démare		Arnaud Démare				Mattia Bais		Mattia Bais
7	Arnaud Démare						Marco Frapporti	Arnaud Démare
8	Alex Dowsett
9	Ruben Guerreiro			Ruben Guerreiro				Ruben Guerreiro	Salvatore Puccio
10	Peter Sagan							Peter Sagan
11	Arnaud Démare								Mattia Bais
12	Jhonatan Narváez
13	Diego Ulissi						Simon Pellaud	Simon Pellaud
14	Filippo Ganna
15	Tao Geoghegan Hart			Giovanni Visconti
16	Jan Tratnik
17	Ben O'Connor			Ruben Guerreiro				Thomas De Gendt
18	Jai Hindley	Wilco Kelderman			Jai Hindley
19	Josef Černý
20	Tao Geoghegan Hart	Jai Hindley
21	Filippo Ganna	Tao Geoghegan Hart			Tao Geoghegan Hart
Final		Tao Geoghegan Hart			Tao Geoghegan Hart		Simon Pellaud		Mattia Bais

• On stage 2, João Almeida, who was second in the points classification, wore the cyclamen jersey, because first placed Filippo Ganna wore the pink jersey as the leader of the general classification. Because Ganna and Almeida were also the first two riders in the young rider classification, Mikkel Bjerg, who was third in the young rider classification, wore the white jersey.
• On stage 3, João Almeida, who was second in the young rider classification, wore the white jersey, because first placed Filippo Ganna wore the pink jersey as the leader of the general classification.
• On stages 4–10, Harm Vanhoucke, who was second in the young rider classification, wore the white jersey, because first placed João Almeida wore the pink jersey as the leader of the general classification. On stages 11–14 and 16–18, Jai Hindley wore the white jersey for the same reason, as did Brandon McNulty on stage 15.
• On stage 21, Tao Geoghegan Hart, who was second in the young rider classification, wore the white jersey, because first placed Jai Hindley wore the pink jersey as the leader of the general classification.

Final classification standings

General classification

Final general classification (1–10)^[13]

Rank	Rider	Team	Time
1			85h 40' 21"
2			+ 39"
3			+ 1' 29"
4			+ 2' 57"
5			+ 3' 09"
6			+ 7' 02"
7			+ 8' 15"
8			+ 8' 42"
9			+ 9' 57"
10			+ 11' 05"

Final general classification (11–133)
Rank	Rider	Team	Time
11			+ 11' 52"
12			+ 20' 31"
13			+ 35' 29"
14			+ 37' 41"
15			+ 38' 10"
16			+ 45' 04"
17			+ 53' 25"
18			+ 57' 36"
19			+ 59' 36"
20			+ 1h 02' 57"
21			+ 1h 03' 46"
22			+ 1h 06' 11"
23			+ 1h 13' 49"
24			+ 1h 16' 15"
25			+ 1h 25' 14"
26			+ 1h 25' 34"
27			+ 1h 30' 13"
28			+ 1h 30' 54"
29			+ 1h 32' 26"
30			+ 1h 34' 49"
31			+ 1h 48' 45"
32			+ 1h 55' 57"
33			+ 1h 58' 58"
34			+ 2h 00' 42"
35			+ 2h 04' 26"
36			+ 2h 05' 51"
37			+ 2h 05' 56"
38			+ 2h 06' 59"
39			+ 2h 07' 36"
40			+ 2h 10' 28"
41			+ 2h 14' 51"
42			+ 2h 20' 58"
43			+ 2h 23' 09"
44			+ 2h 27' 05"
45			+ 2h 32' 17"
46			+ 2h 32' 44"
47			+ 2h 32' 48"
48			+ 2h 37' 43"
49			+ 2h 38' 53"
50			+ 2h 39' 38"
51			+ 2h 42' 25"
52			+ 2h 43' 56"
53			+ 2h 44' 59"
54			+ 2h 47' 05"
55			+ 2h 47' 38"
56			+ 2h 50' 11"
57			+ 2h 50' 15"
58			+ 2h 51' 20"
59			+ 2h 54' 22"
60			+ 2h 55' 25"
61			+ 3h 03' 16"
62			+ 3h 05' 27"
63			+ 3h 08' 54"
64			+ 3h 10' 30"
65			+ 3h 14' 47"
66			+ 3h 21' 44"
67			+ 3h 22' 39"
68			+ 3h 23' 03"
69			+ 3h 23' 06"
70			+ 3h 25' 54"
71			+ 3h 28' 32"
72			+ 3h 30' 50"
73			+ 3h 35' 23"
74			+ 3h 38' 15"
75			+ 3h 41' 04"
76			+ 3h 41' 58"
77			+ 3h 45' 21"
78			+ 3h 49' 05"
79			+ 3h 54' 39"
80			+ 4h 00' 46"
81			+ 4h 01' 45"
82			+ 4h 02' 55"
83			+ 4h 03' 03"
84			+ 4h 03' 24"
85			+ 4h 03' 58"
86			+ 4h 04' 57"
87			+ 4h 05' 17"
88			+ 4h 07' 49"
89			+ 4h 10' 07"
90			+ 4h 15' 50"
91			+ 4h 18' 52"
92			+ 4h 21' 56"
93			+ 4h 22' 59"
94			+ 4h 23' 22"
95			+ 4h 27' 30"
96			+ 4h 30' 02"
97			+ 4h 31' 02"
98			+ 4h 33' 10"
99			+ 4h 34' 38"
100			+ 4h 45' 29"
101			+ 4h 45' 35"
102			+ 4h 49' 25"
103			+ 4h 52' 03"
104			+ 4h 56' 07"
105			+ 4h 57' 54"
106			+ 4h 59' 30"
107			+ 5h 04' 10"
108			+ 5h 05' 15"
109			+ 5h 08' 17"
110			+ 5h 08' 22"
111			+ 5h 09' 44"
112			+ 5h 10' 26"
113			+ 5h 13' 09"
114			+ 5h 13' 54"
115			+ 5h 16' 07"
116			+ 5h 16' 48"
117			+ 5h 17' 02"
118			+ 5h 19' 10"
119			+ 5h 20' 50"
120			+ 5h 23' 04"
121			+ 5h 26' 45"
122			+ 5h 32' 08"
123			+ 5h 32' 22"
124			+ 5h 36' 34"
125			+ 5h 41' 00"
126			+ 5h 42' 40"
127			+ 5h 45' 25"
128			+ 5h 46' 03"
129			+ 5h 48' 10"
130			+ 5h 51' 35"
131			+ 5h 53' 47"
132			+ 6h 12' 07"
133			+ 6h 13' 59"

Points classification

Final points classification (1–10)

Rank	Rider	Team	Points
1			233
2			184
3			108
4			87
5			78
6			78
7			77
8			70
9			66
10			61

Mountains classification

Final mountains classification (1–10)

Rank	Rider	Team	Points
1			234
2			157
3			122
4			119
5			71
6			71
7			55
8			48
9			45
10			44

Young rider classification

Final young rider classification (1–10)

Rank	Rider	Team	Time
1			85h 40' 21"
2			+ 39"
3			+ 2' 57"
4			+ 35' 29"
5			+ 37' 41"
6			+ 38' 10"
7			+ 45' 04"
8			+ 1h 02' 57"
9			+ 1h 03' 46"
10			+ 1h 13' 49"

Team classification

Final team classification (1–10)

Rank	Team	Time
1
2		+ 22' 32"
3		+ 28' 50"
4		+ 32' 50"
5		+ 1h 12' 34"
6		+ 1h 49' 59"
7		+ 2h 04' 38"
8		+ 2h 08' 26"
9		+ 2h 29' 44"
10		+ 2h 42' 36"

Intermediate sprint classification

Final intermediate sprint classification (1–10)

Rank	Rider	Team	Points
1			78
2			56
3			44
4			34
5			28
6			25
7			21
8			20
9			19
10			17

Combativity classification

Final combativity classification (1–10)

Rank	Rider	Team	Points
1			55
2			52
3			45
4			45
5			40
6			39
7			37
8			36
9			35
10			33

Breakaway classification

Final breakaway classification (1–10)

Rank	Rider	Team	Kilometers
1			458
2			428
3			352
4			336
5			320
6			307
7			304
8			304
9			263
10			237

Fair play classification

Final fair play classification (1–10)

Rank	Team	Points
1		0
2		0.5
3		20
4		20
5		20
6		40
7		60
8		70
9		85
10		100

External links

• Official site

Notes and References

1. News: Giro d'Italia to start in Budapest in 2020. Cycling News. 15 April 2019. 11 May 2019.
2. News: Giro d'Italia to start in Budapest in 2020 . Cycling Weekly. 15 April 2019. 11 May 2019.
3. News: Milan-San Remo, Tirreno-Adriatico and Giro d'Italia all under threat after Italian coronavirus outbreak. Cycling Weekly. 24 February 2020. 28 February 2020.
4. Web site: Milan San Remo and Tirreno-Adriatico have been postponed. Cycling Weekly. 6 March 2020 .
5. Web site: CYCLING NEWS: FIRST THREE STAGES OF GIRO D'ITALIA IN HUNGARY CANCELLED DUE TO CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC. Eurosport. 13 March 2020. 13 March 2020.
6. News: Tour de France saved by 29 August shift as Grand Tours jostle for space. The Guardian. 15 April 2020. 30 April 2020.
7. News: UCI reveal new men's and women's post-COVID-19 race calendar. Farrand. Stephen. Cycling News. 5 May 2020. 5 May 2020.
8. News: Giro d'Italia: Tao Geoghegan Hart wins first Grand Tour . BBC Sport . 25 October 2020.
9. Web site: 2020 UCI WorldTour races Wild Cards: RCS Sport choices. RCS Sport. 16 January 2020. 22 February 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200222145503/http://www.giroditalia.it/eng/news/2020-uci-worldtour-races-wild-cards-rcs-sport-choices. dead.
10. News: Giro d'Italia: Mitchelton-Scott & Jumbo-Visma withdraw after positive Covid results . BBC Sport . 13 October 2020.
11. Web site: Preview: Your guide to the 2020 Giro d'Italia contenders, sprinters and more. Matt. de Neef. Cyclingtips. 1 October 2020. 2 October 2020.
12. Web site: Giro d'Italia 2020 – Preview. Stephen. Farrand. Cyclingnews. 29 September 2020. 2 October 2020.
13. Web site: Official classifications of Giro d'Italia 2020. 25 October 2020. Giro d'Italia. RCS Sport.