The 1996 Giro d'Italia was the 79th edition of the Giro. It began on 18 May with a mass-start stage that began and ended in the Greek capital Athens. The race came to a close on 9 June with a mass-start stage that ended in the Italian city of Milan. Eighteen teams entered the race that was won by the Russian Pavel Tonkov of the Panaria–Vinavil team. Second and third were the Italian rider Enrico Zaina and Spanish rider Abraham Olano.
Silvio Martinello led the race for four of the first five stages because of his victory in the first stage and high-placing on the fourth stage. Stefano Zanini briefly took the lead away from Martinello following the third stage that featured a more mountainous stage profile. After winning the event's sixth stage, Pascal Hervé overtook Zanini for the lead for a single day, after which Davide Rebellin captured the lead with his winning efforts on the seventh day. Eventual winner Tonkov obtained the race leader's maglia rosa () when he finished the thirteenth stage. Tonkov kept the jersey for the rest of the race, except where he lost it to Olano by 46 hundredths of a second at the end of stage 20, but regained it the following day.
In the race's other classifications, Brescialat rider Mariano Piccoli won the mountains classification and Fabrizio Guidi of the team won the points classification and the intergiro classification. finished as the winners of the team classification, ranking each of the eighteen teams contesting the race by lowest cumulative time of each team's top three riders per stage. The other team classification, the team points classification, where the teams' riders are awarded points for placing within the top twenty in each stage and the points are then totaled for each team was won by Panaria–Vinavil.
Teams
Eighteen teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1996 edition of the Giro d'Italia. Each team sent a squad of nine riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 162 cyclists. From the riders that began the race, 98 made it to the finish in Milan.
The teams entering the race were:
Roslotto–ZG Mobili
Pre-race favorites
The starting peloton did not feature the 1995 winner, Tony Rominger. The three main contenders named by the media included: Evgeni Berzin, Abraham Olano, Pavel Tonkov. El País'''s Carlos Arribas felt Olano was a contender, but questioned his ability as an elite rider. Doctor Michele Ferrari named Evgeni Berzin, Olano, and Pavel Tonkov in order of the chance of winning the race. According to Arribas, Berzin was not in great form coming into the race, but his team doctor, Gianni Mazzoni, believed he could regain the form that helped him win the Giro in 1994. Berzin also had a fully committed team to support him this year, unlike in the previous edition where he and his teammate Piotr Ugrumov did not cooperate and worked against each other. Lluis Simon of El Punt felt Olano had performed better than Berzin in the recent Tour de Romandie.
Simon believed that with the absence of Marco Pantani due to a crash at Milano–Torino, the Italian with the best chance to win was Francesco Casagrande. It was thought that the route was designed to allow Pantani a good chance to win. Due to the large amount of mountains in the final week, Swiss Pascal Richard was thought to have a chance for a high ranking in the general classification. Latvian Piotr Ugrumov (Roslotto–ZG Mobili), at age 35, was thought to have a good chance for victory and potentially one of his last good chances to win a Grand Tour. Young Ukrainian Alexander Gontchenkov showed great potential during the early season and many thought he could be a rider to place high in the general classification. Two-time champion Miguel Induráin and Laurent Jalabert did not participate in the race.
Route and stages
On 12 May 1995, Athens was announced as the host of the start of the 1996 Giro d'Italia in order to honor the centennial edition of the Modern Olympics. The complete race route was unveiled by race director Carmine Castellano on 11 November 1995 in Milan. It contained one time trial event, an individual one. There were ten stages containing high mountains, of which four had summit finishes: stage 7, to Massiccio del Sirino; stage 13, to Prato Nevoso; stage 20, to Passo Pordoi; and stage 21, to Aprica. The organizers chose to include one rest day. When compared to the previous year's race, the race was longer, contained two fewer individual time trials, and the same number of stages.
The opening stage (known as the Grande Partenza) started in Athens, Greece, and the race stayed on Greek soil for three stages as it made its way to north-west Ioannina. The race then transferred to Ostuni located in southern Italy and the race gradually moved north. The sixth and seventh stages included a couple higher categorized climbs from the Apennines. The race continued to move north and enter the Alps starting in stage 13. The race's fourteenth stage finished in the French city of Briançon, which also served as the start for the next stage. Stage 14 included the climbing of the Col d'Izoard and the Col de la Madeleine, which was viewed as a key stage in the general classification race. After returning to Italian soil, stage 16 came to an end in the Swiss city of Lausanne, which also was the start for the seventeenth stage. The race traveled back east across Italy and going north into the Dolomites and heading west and turning south to reach the finish in Milan. In total, there were seven stages that start or finished outside Italy.
The 1996 route saw a decrease in the number of kilometers that were dedicated to time trials and the removal of the climbing time trial that had been a staple in years past. Lluis Simon of El Punt felt that the penultimate stage that crossed Mendola, Tonale Pass, Gavia Pass, Mortirolo, and Aprica would be the hardest of the race. Paolo Viberti, a writer for El País, believed that the race would be decided by the final week when the race entered the Alps and the lengthy individual time trial.
+Stage characteristics and resultsStageDateCourseDistanceTypeWinner118 MayAthens (Greece) to Athens (Greece) Plain stage219 MayEleusis (Greece) to Naupactus (Greece) Plain stage320 MayMissolonghi (Greece) to Ioannina (Greece) Plain stage21 May Rest day422 MayOstuni to Ostuni Plain stage523 MayMetaponto to Crotone Plain stage624 MayCrotone to Catanzaro Stage with mountain(s)725 MayAmantea to Massiccio del Sirino Stage with mountain(s)826 MayPolla to Naples Plain stage927 MayNaples to Fiuggi Stage with mountain(s)1028 MayArezzo to Prato Stage with mountain(s)1129 MayPrato to Marina di Massa Plain stage1230 MayAulla to Loano Plain stage1331 MayLoano to Prato Nevoso Stage with mountain(s)141 JuneSanctuary of Vicoforte to Briançon (France) Stage with mountain(s)152 JuneBriançon (France) to Aosta Plain stage163 JuneAosta to Lausanne (Switzerland) Stage with mountain(s)174 JuneLausanne (Switzerland) to Biella Stage with mountain(s)185 JuneMeda to Vicenza Plain stage196 JuneVicenza to Marostica Individual time trial207 JuneMarostica to Passo Pordoi Stage with mountain(s)218 JuneCavalese to Aprica Stage with mountain(s)229 JuneSondrio to Milan Plain stage Total
Race overview
The first three stages took place in Greece, with several crashes on the opening stage due to the poor road conditions and encroachment from cars that resulted in the abandonment of a few riders. The day's breakaway obtained a maximum advantage of two minutes over the peloton, before being caught with left. Following an unsuccessful solo-attack by Serguei Outschakov, the stage culminated with a bunch sprint taken by 's Silvio Martinello. The riders protested the conditions they were subjected to on the first stage by riding the second stage at a significantly slower pace than usual. The stage ended with a bunch sprint, won by Glenn Magnusson, that was limited in terms of organization for each team because of the narrowness of the roads. The third stage ended in the same fashion, with Giovanni Lombardi winning the day, while the race lead moved to Stefano Zanini because of time bonuses he earned for finishing high in the stage.
A rest day allowed the race to return to Italy by ferry – however, news leaked that the Carabinieri would search teams upon arrival in Italy for drugs (specifically, EPO). To avoid being caught, some teams returned to Italy by driving through the Balkans, and other teams "dumped their drugs over the side of the ferry".
During the fourth stage, several breakaways formed and were caught, with the final one being caught with under a kilometer remaining. Saeco took control of the peloton and successfully conducted a lead out for their sprinter Mario Cipollini who claimed victory. In addition, Martinello regained the race lead and with it, the race leader's maglia rosa (). Ángel Edo of team won his first sprint victory since the 1994 season on stage five. The sixth leg of the race was the first to feature several higher categorized climbs. 's Pascal Hervé won the stage by a margin of four seconds and moved into the first place in the general classification. The seventh day of racing featured the first summit finish, to Massiccio del Sirino. Latvian Piotr Ugrumov attacked with seven kilometers to go and was able to distance himself from a group of contenders that included Abraham Olano, Hervé, Pavel Tonkov, and Davide Rebellin. Berzin made a move to follow with five kilometers remaining, a move that dropped Olano and Hervé. Rebellin attacked with three kilometers to go, which only Tonkov and Stefano Faustini could mark. As the trio reached the line, Rebelling edged out the other two for the win while also obtaining the race lead. In what was thought to be an easy day in the saddle, Claudio Chiappucci and two teammates made a move with ninety kilometers left in the flat, eighth stage. The trio of riders established a large enough lead to give Chiappucci the virtual race lead. Amore & Vita-Galatron and Saeco took control of the peloton and lifted the pace with under twenty kilometers left. Chiappucci's group was caught before the finish and the sprinter's set up for a field sprint, which was won by Cipollini.
The ninth leg featured more attacks from the Carrera team, particularly from Enrico Zaina who attacked throughout the stage's closing kilometers. The peloton finished in fragments to the numerous attacks that occurred in the final fifteen kilometers, with the winning attack coming from Zaina and Gontchenkov. Zaina dropped Gontchenkov near the finish and won the stage by four seconds over a large chasing group. The tenth leg was a mountainous stage that navigated through Tuscany. A group of six formed at the front of the race with eleven kilometers left from which Rodolfo Massi attacked and went on to win the stage. Behind the leaders, several general classification contenders made attacks, but all failed to produce any significant time gains. The eleventh stage resulted in a sprint finish won by Cipollini, as the race prepared to enter the higher and more difficult mountains. The twelfth stage witnessed the day's breakaway survive the encroaching peloton by two seconds. Fabiano Fontanelli won the sprint to the line between the surviving members of the original eight-man lead group, it was his fifth victory of the season that came from participating in a breakaway.