The Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy), also known as the Giro or Corsa Rosa (pink race), is one of the three Grand Tours, along with the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España. The Giro attracts many people because a "giro" (tour) through Italy means stunning views while the course is crossing big parts of one of the countries blessed with a rich history and unique culture. If you want to have a word with the real cycling fanatics about the Giro d'Italia, then a bit of Italian bicibolario (cycling vocabulary) is certainly an asset.
The Giro is a gara a tappe (stage race) over 3 weeks where the types of races and the percorso (route) are defined in the garibaldi (roadbook). Besides mainly corse in linea (road race where all riders start together), a Grand Tour in general has one or more other types of races: cronometro (individual time trial), cronoscalata (uphill time trial) and cronosquadra (team time trial).
The corridore (rider) with the lowest aggregate time is the leader of the general classification and wears the Maglia Rosa (pink jersey) while the leader in the points classification wears the Maglia Ciclamino (purple jersey), the best climber wears the Maglia Azzurra (blue jersey) and the best-ranked young rider wears the Maglia Bianca (white jersey).
The races in line are often characterised by early breakaway riders who are thus angling for a stage win. Squadre (Teams) with a velocista (sprinter) in their ranks then put their gregari (domestiques) to work to catch up with the battistrada (breakaway rider(s)) at the latest in the ultimo chilometro (last kilometer) and when they do a volata (bunch sprint) will decide who crosses the traguardo (finish line) first.
The Giro is often decided in the tappe in montagna (mountain stages) where the best scalatori (climbers) try to gain as much time as possible in the GC. The hardest, most demanding mountain stage of the Giro, most often containing the Cima Coppi (highest peak of the Giro), is called the tappone or tappa regina (queen stage).
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