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100 Years of Giro Winners

Posted on 3 May 201029 June 2021 by cosmo

Ah, the Giro—first Grand Tour of the season. Though it will always be second fiddle to the TdF, the Giro is a unique entity in its own right, hallmarked by dangerous finishing circuits, an occasionally pedestrian pace, and heaps of snow still clinging to the Alpine peaks.

While the Tour was designed as a race of survival, the Giro is an at times intellectual pursuit, and this choreographed environment has birthed no shortage of drama and intrigue through the years; above all else, the Giro is about history. And with that in mind, I’ve created this infographic:

[all sizes – buy the poster – buy the shirt] – Updated June 2010

The graphic is word cloud of Giro winners in the shape of Italy, running more or less chronologically from Sicily to the Austrian border. Text sizes correspond to the number of victories, and dates are provided as well. Colors are from the Italian flag, and pink from the maglia rosa worn by the race’s GC Leader.

thoughts on “100 Years of Giro Winners”

  1. EDnl says:
    3 May 2010 at 9:15 am

    Excellent! Very nice graphic, man, although the large white rectangle is a bit distracting.

    Reply
  2. skippy says:
    3 May 2010 at 11:56 am

    Lovelly piece of art but wonder who decided where the names would land and are all winners on the map?
    Going to miss visiting sicilly this year, amsterdam is no substitute with the weather as it is today.

    Reply
  3. joran says:
    3 May 2010 at 12:40 pm

    Damn, Cosmo, you got so close to a valid graph coloring (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_coloring). Rominger and Basso ruined it!

    Oh well. It’s still an awesome graphic.

    Reply
  4. josh squadraprofessore.com says:
    3 May 2010 at 12:54 pm

    I’m buying a few t-shirts of this monster.

    Bravo!

    Reply
  5. Jack Daniels says:
    3 May 2010 at 1:13 pm

    A couple of minor typos: it’s Stefano Garzelli, not Stephano, and you mistyped Saronni’s name.

    But anyway, it’s just brilliant!

    Reply
  6. cosmo says:
    3 May 2010 at 4:04 pm

    @Jack Daniels—ARGH. I uploaded an old draft. *facepalm*. Will upload the correct ones tonight.

    @Joran—I tried. I’m not entirely sure it’s possible to run the current layout in three colors, and I’d probably still be working on the math if I had tried to determine for sure. I was more concerned with getting Merckx, Coppi and Binda each in a different color, since the 5x winners are so visually dominant.

    @Josh—let me know how the shirts come out. I was right up against the edge of Spreadshirt’s finest resolution with the smaller names.

    Reply
  7. rainbow says:
    3 May 2010 at 5:20 pm

    epic, almost as flash as a Pellizotti hair cut.

    Reply
  8. joran says:
    3 May 2010 at 9:13 pm

    @cosmo

    It’s clear you tried, and I am impressed. It actually looks like there’s one next to gimondi that’s problematic, too.

    The “trick” is to remove all the nodes with two or fewer neighbors first, and assign colors to the remaining nodes.

    That doesn’t assure a solution, obviously. 3-coloring is very hard in general, and your graph has upwards of 45 vertices.

    Reply
  9. DCwildcat says:
    3 May 2010 at 10:41 pm

    I’m endlessly impressed by the quality and creativity of posts like this one which fill this site. Bravo!

    Reply
  10. MD says:
    5 May 2010 at 5:34 am

    Hey-
    Can’t see Battaglin on there (1981).. I only noticed that cos I used to ride one of his bikes…

    Reply
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  14. L. says:
    6 May 2010 at 9:46 pm

    guys… your artwork looking weird,,, https://www.albertoantoniazzi.com/#303561/ITALIA
    any new ideas?

    Reply
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  16. John says:
    7 May 2010 at 3:36 pm

    Really cool! Found a few missing names & a mistake:

    Missing:
    Vasco Bergamaschi (1935)
    Arnaldo Pambianco (1961)
    Giovanni Battaglin (1981) (as “MD” pointed out above)

    Error:
    Gösta Pettersson – won 1971, not 1975, and should have a “ö” instead of a regular o.

    Errors aside, this is awesome.

    Reply
  17. angelo senza la o says:
    7 May 2010 at 8:21 pm

    The 1912 winner was a team: ATALA. It was the only year the Giro had a team concept. See: https://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/2009/10/past-winners-of-giro-ditalia_26.html

    Reply
  18. cosmo says:
    9 May 2010 at 12:29 pm

    @angelo senza: I knew about the team format, but decided to go with Galetti since he was part of the winning team (like all Giro winners, really). Almost put a footnote on it, decided not to.

    @John: not sure what happened—probably shouldn’t have trusted the copy/paste from Wikipedia to the spreadsheet I laid everything out on (or, you know, proofread). Not sure if that font has an “ö” character, but I think I can make that work.

    I’ll probably produce a corrected version with the 2010 winner after the Giro.

    Reply
  19. Greg says:
    9 May 2010 at 4:22 pm

    hey cosmo:

    looks awesome, but can’t we get the shirt in pink?! only seems appropriate given the design…

    thanks!

    Reply
  20. Shopi says:
    12 May 2010 at 2:01 pm

    Sardegna Missing !!!

    Reply
  21. cosmo says:
    6 June 2010 at 5:48 pm

    Ok—I’ve uploaded a corrected version with all the guys I missed and Basso’s 2010 win on it.

    Still no Sardinia, though.

    Reply
  22. Sam123 says:
    22 June 2010 at 1:42 pm

    +1 for pink shirt!

    Reply
  23. pro cycling team says:
    6 September 2011 at 8:14 pm

    Colors are from the Italian flag, and pink from the maglia rosa worn by the race’s GC Leader that is a good idea.

    Reply

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About the Author

a headshot of Cosmo Catalano

Best known for his How The Race Was Won® video series, Cosmo Catalano began blogging about pro cycling from a bike shop in 2005. Between then and now, he's designed cycling infographics, built cycling web apps, and supplied cycling content to print and broadcast media, all in the name of backing up his near-endless criticism with proof that it can be done better. He complains about cycling on Twitter at @Cyclocosm.

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