The 1974 Giro d'Italia was the 57th running of the Giro, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started in Vatican City, on 16 May, with a stage and concluded in Milan, on 8 June, with leg. A total of 140 riders from fourteen teams entered the 22-stage race, that was won by Belgian Eddy Merckx of the Molteni team. The second and third places were taken by Italians Gianbattista Baronchelli (Scic) and Felice Gimondi (Bianchi), respectively.
Amongst the other classifications that the race awarded, Roger De Vlaeminck () won the points classification and José Manuel Fuente of KAS won the mountains classification. KAS finished as the winners of the team points classification. Merckx's victory in the 1974 Giro was his first step in completing the Triple Crown of Cycling–winning the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France, and the World Championship road race in one calendar year–becoming the first rider ever to do so.
Teams
Fourteen teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1974 edition of the Giro d'Italia In total, 87 riders were from Italy, while the remaining 53 riders came from: Belgium (20), Spain (11), Switzerland (7), Germany (6), Colombia (2), Denmark (2), Luxembourg (1), the Netherlands (1), New Zealand (1), Norway (1), and Sweden (1). Each team sent a squad of ten riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 140 cyclists.
Of those starting, 36 were riding the Giro d'Italia for the first time. The average age of riders was 27 years, ranging from 20–year–old Gianbattista Baronchelli (Scic) to 34–year–old Victor Van Schil (). The team with the youngest average rider age was Jollj Ceramica (24), while the oldest was Bianchi (28). From those that started, 96 made it to the finish in Milan.
The teams entering the race were:
Bianchi
Dreherforte Filcas Filotex Jollj Ceramica KAS Magniflex
Ovest Rokado Sammontana Scic Vibor Zonca
Pre-race favorites
Reigning champion and four-time winner Eddy Merckx () returned to the race in 1974 to defend his crown and to claim fifth victory and join the likes of Alfredo Binda and Fausto Coppi who also had five Giro victories. He arrived to the race the day before after racing in the Four Days of Dunkirk. Merckx came into the Giro d'Italia after not having won a single spring classic for the first time since 1965. In March, he was forced to take a rest from cycling due to a respiratory ailment. Merckx gradually returned to racing after beating the illness in late March, and writer Giuliano Califano stated that several experts found him to be in great form coming into the Giro. La Stampa writer Gianni Pignata felt Merckx's form and his poor performances in the early season would provide motivation for this race. In particular, he referenced Merckx's poor sprinting in the early season and how the Giro was his first race longer than seven stages this season. Merckx himself told a radiohost "After my long illness, I am now in an increasing form and I estimate myself already for 80 hundred of my means," before the race started.
José Manuel Fuente (Kas) was thought to have entered the Giro in good form after winning the Vuelta a España weeks earlier. Pignata commented that Fuente would provide Merckx a stiff opposition through his ability to attack in the mountains, but his poor time trialing ability was his weakness. l'Unita interviewed several of the riders and many named Merckx as the favorite to take the victory. The third main contender to win the race named by the media was reigning world champion Felice Gimondi (Bianchi). Gimondi was viewed to have a strong team for support which included former world champion and sprinter Marino Basso, Antoine Houbrechts, and Martín Emilio Rodríguez, among others. Gimondi downplayed his chances stating that he was not 20 year-old anymore and "... it takes me a long time to get into action."
Scic's Gianbattista Baronchelli, Tour de l'Avenir winner Giovanni Battaglin (Jolly Ceramica), and Francesco Moser (Filcas) as three young riders who have the potential to become stars during the race. Despite suffering an accident early in the season, Pignata believed Battaglin's participation in the Tour de Romandie provided a great lead-up into the Giro. Moser was thought to have a strong season and showed a sprinting prowess as evidenced by his second place in Paris–Roubaix. Pignata ultimately concluded that these younger riders should not be cautious during the race as it would play into the hands of Merckx, who then would only have to react to Fuente's attacks. Amid rumors of not participating, Luis Ocaña confirmed his absence due to bronchitis three days prior to the start. La Stampa columnist Maurizio Caravella gave Merckx a 60% chance to win, while giving Gimondi, Fuente, and Battaglin at 10% chance and Baronchelli and Moser a 5% chance at victory. The peloton also featured 1971 winner Gösta Pettersson (Magniflex).
Route and stages
The route for the 1974 edition of the Giro d'Italia was revealed to the public by race director Vincenzo Torriani on 29 March 1974. It contained one were individual time trial. There were eleven stages containing twenty three categorized climbs, of which four had summit finishes: stage 11a, to Il Cioccio; stage 16, to Monte Generoso; stage 18, to Borgo Valsugana; and stage 20, to Tre Cime di Lavaredo. In total the race route contained of official climbing across the twenty-three climbs. The organizers chose to include two rest days, in Capri and Sanremo. When compared to the previous year's race, the race was longer, lacked a prologue, and had the same number of rest days and individual time trials. In addition, this race contained two more stages, as well as one more set of half stages. In Italy, the race was televised daily in thirty-minute segments at during the evening on the second channel of RAI. The race, however, was still to be broadcast normally over radio.
Upon the release of the route in March, La Stampa writer Gianni Pignata believed that the first leg of the split eleventh stage, to Il Cioccio, along with stages 20 and 21, which featured eight total climbs in the Dolomites, would be decisive in determining the race's winner. Pignata believed this edition of the Giro d'Italia was geared towards climbers. He added that if a rider wanted to best Merckx, he would need to make his move earlier in the race and not wait for the Dolomites, as Merckx would likely be in top form by then. After looking over the race route, Italian rider Basso stated that there were few opportunities for sprinters to try and win a stage. Two-time winner Gimondi felt the race started off hard and agreed with Pignata and Basso, in that the race favored climbers and lacked chances for sprint finishes. He stated that the route suited the riding styles of Ocaña, Merckx, and Jose Manuel Fuente. In addition, Gimondi criticized Torriani for placing a rest day in after the third day of racing, stating that there was no justification for it there. The route did not enter the high mountains until 27 May, which was thought to work against Fuente's chances to win the race and take advantage of Merckx's unknown condition.
+ Stage characteristics and resultsStageDateCourseDistanceTypeWinner 1 16 May Vatican City (Vatican City) to Formia Plain stage 2 17 May Formia to Pompei Plain stage 3 18 May Pompei to Sorrento Stage with mountain(s) 19 May Rest day 4 20 May Sorrento to Sapri Plain stage 5 21 May Sapri to Taranto Plain stage 6 22 May Taranto to Foggia Plain stage 7 23 May Foggia to Chieti Plain stage 8 24 May Chieti to Macerata Plain stage 9 25 May Macerata to Carpegna Stage with mountain(s) 10 26 May Carpegna to Modena Plain stage 11a 27 May Modena to Il Ciocco Stage with mountain(s) 11b Il Ciocco to Forte dei Marmi Plain stage 12 28 May Forte dei Marmi to Forte dei Marmi Individual time trial 13 29 May Forte dei Marmi to Pietra Ligure Plain stage 14 30 May Pietra Ligure to Sanremo Stage with mountain(s) 15 31 May Sanremo to Valenza Plain stage 1 June Rest day 16 2 June Valenza to Monte Generoso Stage with mountain(s) 17 3 June Como to Iseo Stage with mountain(s) 18 4 June Iseo to Sella Valsugana Stage with mountain(s) 19 5 June Borgo Valsugana to Pordenone Plain stage 20 6 June Pordenone to Tre Cime di Lavaredo Stage with mountain(s) 21 7 June Misurina to Bassano del Grappa Stage with mountain(s) 22 8 June Bassano del Grappa to Milan Plain stage Total
Race overview
The first day of racing was gearing up to finish with a bunch sprint, when neo-professional cyclist Wilfried Reybrouck attacked with 400 meters to go. Reybrouck managed to hold off the chasing sprinters Roger De Vlaeminck and Basso, among others to win the stage. A strike had been rumored to happen on the race route near Naples, which caused the riders to stick together and not attack. The pack of riders finished together, with Belgian Patrick Sercu taking the stage victory. The third stage featured a late climb of Mount Faito, where José Manuel Fuente attacked ten kilometers from the summit and rode 25 kilometers solo to the finish. Merckx, Baronchelli, Gimondi, Moser, and other general classification hopefuls remained behind and attacked each other within the group until the finish. The group finished 33 seconds after Fuente, but Merckx, who had been dropped, lost 42 seconds to Fuente, along with some other riders. Race leader Reybrouck lost the lead to Fuente upon finishing thirty minutes behind and ultimately being eliminated from the race because he finished outside the time limit. This was the first time a rider had gone from leading the race to being disqualified after the next stage in the race's history.
The following stage was interrupted 102 kilometers into the day for five minutes because of a strike conducted in response to a dam built. Pierino Gavazzi won the first stage of his career upon beating the likes of De Vlaeminck and Franco Bitossi. During the sprint, José Gonzales Linares and Jos Huysmans led out their teammates respective teammates Fuente and Merckx, but were found guilty of illegally boosting their teammates during the sprint. The four riders were fined 50,000 lire each and relegated to 37th position on the stage. The sixth leg had little action until the final twenty kilometers, when the headwinds picked up and splintered the peloton into several groups just hundreds of meters apart. Giacinto Santambrogio made a move closer to the finish line and rode solo until Bitossi joined him. Eventually Bitossi dropped Santambrogio and then held off the charging sprinters in order to win the day, which was his 100th career victory.
Ugo Colombo won the race's seventh leg after telling race leader Fuente he was riding up the road to greet some family - as is custom - although none of his family lived anywhere near the region. Colombo was allowed a maximum advantage of around thirteen minutes before the peloton closed the gap to within one minute. The race for second place brought out the general classification contenders as there was a slight incline near the end of the stage. In particular, Francesco Moser, Merckx, and De Vlaeminck attacked several times and Fuente could not counter, allowing the riders to gain seven seconds on the race lead. The eighth leg of the race was a rather flat stage that featured heavy winds throughout the stage. During the stage a dog ran in the road and caused a reaction in the peloton, but no injuries or falls were reported. As the main field rode under the kilometer to go banner, they had just caught the leading rider Zilioli who had made a last ditch solo effort to win the stage. Merckx opened up the sprint as the group made the final bend into the final 200 meters. His wheel skidded out and forced him to ride and graze the barriers, which hindered several sprinters who had been using his slipstream. Bitossi and Martín Emilio Rodríguez (Bianchi) contested the sprint the best, with Bitossi taking the day after coming of Rodríguez' wheel.
Doping