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Map of the 1937 Giro d'Italia
3,840 km raced at an average speed of 31.365 km/hr
93 starters and 41 classified finishers
The Giro went into the Dolomites for the first time with crossings of the Rolle and Costalunga passes.
A team time trial, long a staple of the Tour de France, used used for the first time by the Giro in 1937.
Some of the independent riders were grouped into "clubs" with names like Il Littoriale and Italiani all'Estero.
Gino Bartali won through his domination of the hilly stages, including a superb ride in the Dolomites.
Les Woodland's book Paris-Roubaix: The Inside Story - All the bumps of cycling's cobbled classic is available as an audiobook here.
1937 Giro d'Italia Complete Final General Classification:
Climbers' Competition:
Team Classifification:
1937 Giro stage results with running GC:
There were four days with split stages. Some accounts call them a & b, thus giving 1937 19 stages. Others (and this is the more common Italian practice) give each stage a unique number, making 1937 have 23 stages. I have followed that second practice with the alternative numbers also noted.
Stage 1: Saturday, May 8, Milano - Torino, 165 km
Stage 2: Sunday, May 9, Torino - Acqui Terme, 148 km
GC after Stage 2:
Stage 3: Monday, May 10, Acqui Terme - Genova, 158 km
GC after Stage 3:
Stage 4: Tuesday, May 11, Genova - Viareggio, 186 km
Major ascent: Fosdinovo
GC after Stage 4:
Stage 5: (or stage 5a) Wednesday, May 12, Viareggio - Marina di Massa 60 km team time trial (cronometro a squadre)
1. Legnano (Di Paco, Battesini, Favalli, Bartali, Mealli): 1hr 22min 0sec
6. Ganna (Servadei, Rimoldi, Vicini, Del Cancia, Canavesi, Introzzi, Benente) @ 18sec
13. Italiani all'estero (Troggi, Cimatti, Malmesi, Morelli, Bertola) @ 2min 18sec
18. Edoardo Molinar s.t.
19. Bianchi (Bergamaschi, Bovet, Olmo, Balli) @ 3min 0sec
23. Fréjus (Valetti, Mollo)
GC after Stage 5:
Stage 6: (or stage 5b) Wednesday, May 12, Marinia di Massa - Livorno, 114 km
GC after Stage 6:
Stage 7: (or stage 6) Thursday, May 13, Livorno - Arezzo, 190 km
GC after Stage 7:
Stage 8: (or stage 7) Saturday, May 15, Arezzo - Rieti, 206 km
GC after Stage 8:
Stage 9: (or stage 8a) Sunday, May 16: Rieti - Terminillo 20 km individual time trial (timed hill climb)
Ascent: Terminillo
GC after Stage 9:
Stage 10: (or stage 8b) Sunday, May 16, Rieti - Roma, 152 km
Major ascent: Rocca di Papa
GC after Stage 10:
Stage 11: (or stage 9) Monday, May 17, Roma - Napoli, 250 km
GC after Stage 11:
Stage 12: (or stage 10) Wednesday, May 19, Napoli - Foggia, 166 km
Major ascent: Ariano Irpino
GC after Stage 12:
Stage 13: (or stage 11a) Thursday, May 20, Foggia - San Severo, 186 km
Major ascent: Monte Sant'Angelo
GC after Stage 13:
Stage 14: (or stage 11b) Thursday, May 20, San Severo - Campobasso, 105 km
GC after Stage 14:
Stage 15: (or stage 12) Friday, May 21, Campobasso - Pescara, 258 km
Major ascent: Chieti
GC after Sage 15:
Stage 16: (or stage 13) Saturday, May 22, Pescara - Ancona, 194 km
GC after Stage 16:
Stage 17: (or stage 14) Sunday, May 23, Ancona - Forlì, 178 km
GC after Stage 17:
Stage 18: (or stage 15) Tuesday, May 25, Forlì - Vittorio Veneto, 266 km
GC after Stage 18:
Stage 19: (or stage 16) Wednesday, May 26, Vittorio Veneto - Merano, 227 km
The Giro's first trip into the Dolomites
Major ascents: Rolle, Costalunga
GC after Stage 19:
Stage 20: (or stage 17) Thursday, May 27, Merano - Gardone Riviera, 190 km
Major ascent: Mendola
GC after Stage 20:
Stage 21: (or stage 18) Saturday, May 21, Gardone Riviera - San Pellegrino, 129 km
GC after Stage 21:
Stage 22: (or stage 19a) Sunday, May 30, San Pellegrino - Como, 151 km
GC after Stage 21:
23rd and Final Stage: (or stage 19b) Sunday, May 30, Como - Milano, 141 km
Major ascent: Ghisallo
1937 Giro d'Italia Complete Final General Classification
Bianchi
Fréjus
Ganna
Legnano
Rider Groups:
Italiani All'Estero
Bertoldo
Il Littoriale
S.S. Paroli
Foreign Rider Groups
Belgians
Swiss
Germans
The Story of the 1937 Giro d'Italia
This excerpt is from "The Story of the Giro d'Italia", Volume 1. If you enjoy it we hope you will consider purchasing the book, either print. eBook or Audiobook. The Amazon link here will make the purchase easy.
Italy’s isolation—imposed from both within and without—was relaxed, and foreign riders again came to compete in Italy. Mussolini still dreamed of Italian self-sufficiency, but his attempts at autarky did tremendous damage to the Italian economy. Throughout the 1930s the Fascists blamed all of Italy’s troubles on the external world, saying that Italy was fighting an international plutocratic conspiracy. This excuse was used by the Fascists to justify Italy’s isolation from the rest of the world.
To build loyalty the Fascist government continued to exert tremendous efforts to involve itself in the leisure-time activities of the Italian populace. More than ever sport, including but not limited to cycling, was considered an important part of Fascist life.
The rugged Dolomites with their steep ascents were finally made part of the Giro in 1937 when the organizers included the Passo Rolle and Passo Costalunga. This could not have been bad news for the gifted climber who had just won the 1936 Giro.
The Tour had used team time trials for years but they were new to the Giro in 1937. This was a gift for the big men with the big gears lucky enough to be on powerful teams.
The 1937 Giro would be recognizable to today’s race fan. It had 23 stages covering 3,835 kilometers. It had just one individual time trial, a 20-kilometer timed hill-climb to Terminillo, along with a team time trial. But there was no extended individual time trial on a flat road in 1937.
The only missing aspect of a modern Giro was the prologue time trial, which is not always a part of the current race. The Giro, like the Tour, still continued to allow independent riders to compete and gathered some of them into makeshift teams of Belgians, Swiss, Germans, riders from the coast, etc.
Perhaps the finest of the non-Italians entered in the 1937 Giro was Swiss rider Leo Amberg, eighth in the 1936 Tour, who would go on to place third in the ’37 Tour. Alfons Deloor, Antoine Dignef and Alfons Schepers were part of a fine Belgian squad.
One can’t look at the design of the 1937 Giro with its tougher climbing, reduced individual time trialing and new team time trial without coming to the conclusion that this was a race designed for Bartali. He faltered in the individual time trials but in Legnano he had a team with strength in depth. With Guerra, Di Paco, Mealli, Giovanni Cazzulani, Fabio Battesini and Pierino Favalli helping him in the team time trial, the advantage was certainly to the Tuscan.
Before we wag a finger at the Giro organizers, the accusation that a particular Grand Tour was designed for a popular rider (or against an undesired one) is one that has been accurately leveled against the promoters of all three Grand Tours.
Balanced against Bartali’s team of riders in the green and red of Legnano were the Bianchi team of Olmo with Bergamaschi, Bini and Piemontesi, the Frejus squad of Bizzi and Giovanni Valetti and the Ganna team with Del Cancia and Canavesi.
For all the power the sponsored teams brought to the race, members of the grouped independent riders who were gathered into “clubs” won the first two stages. The interestingly named but otherwise rather anonymous Nello Trogi was all alone when he crossed the Giro’s first finish line in Turin. Olmo led in the first chase group containing most of the contenders 1 minute 42 seconds later.
The next day a man who had just turned pro that year, Quirico Bernacchi, got into a four-man break and won the stage. Trogi, over five minutes behind, lost the lead to Bernacchi.
The Frejus team had good luck, winning the next two stages as the race headed to the Tuscan coast. Speedy Giovanni Valetti took the third stage and the lead after winning in a break with Vicini and Marco Cimatti that gapped Bartali, Del Cancia and Bizzi by 2 minutes 30 seconds. Bizzi took the fourth leg with no real change to the standing.
The race had arrived at Viareggio for the Giro’s first ever team time trial. Before the riders took off on the morning of May 12 (there was also a 112-kilometer road stage that afternoon) the General Classification looked like this:
1. Giovanni Valetti
2. Olimpio Bizzi @ 2 minutes 30 seconds
3. Gino Bartali @ same time
4. Severino Canavesi @ 3 minutes 1 second
5. Cesare Del Cancia @ 4 minutes
With the exception of the Legnano win, the time trial results were a bit surprising. The Ganna squad (with Vicini, Canavesi and De Cancia) lost only 18 seconds to Legnano. The club called “Italiani all’Estero” with Trogi and the excellent Ambrogio Morelli was third at 2 minutes 18 seconds, while the Bianchi team lost 3 minutes and Frejus 3 minutes 24 seconds.
Gino Bartali in the maglia rosa enjoys himself.
The new General Classification stood thus:
1. Gino Bartali
2. Severino Canavesi @ 49 seconds
3. Giovanni Valetti @ 54 seconds
4. Cesare Del Cancia @ 1 minute 18 seconds
5. Olimpio Bizzi @ 3 minutes 59 seconds
Bartali couldn’t keep the Pink Jersey for even a day. That afternoon’s ride was a short, 114-kilometer trip down the coast to Livorno. The pack completely came apart with the riders straggling in one at a time or in small groups. Valetti was hep to the action, even though he lost a minute to winner Bizzi. Bartali and Olmo were a further 1 minute 37 seconds back. Valetti was back in the lead, only 8 seconds ahead of Canavesi while Bartali was 43 seconds behind Valetti.
Stage nine was another Rieti-Terminillo cronoscalata. This time Bartali was the fastest as he rode up the hill through the snow, beating Valetti by 63 seconds. This made Bartali the leader with Valetti 20 seconds behind. Since Canavesi was sitting in third place at 5 minutes 19, seconds it was clear that Valetti and Bartali were turning the race into a private competition. Olmo was displaying none of the sparkling condition he had shown the year before, earning him a lashing from press for failing to ride the Giro in a manner that honored his Italian Road Champion’s jersey.
Guerra won the eleventh stage into Naples, but then, harassed with stomach troubles, quit the race after stage thirteen. Now 35 years old, Guerra would never again ride the Giro and in the six years left in his professional career, would win just two more important road races. The great human locomotive was finally running out of steam. He did go on to a successful career as a team director, guiding Hugo Koblet to victory as the first foreign winner of the Giro. Guerra died in 1966 following two operations attempting to mitigate his Parkinson’s disease.
As in the year before, Bartali was able to use the hills of southern Italy to his advantage. Going across the Apennines from Naples to Foggia in stage twelve, Bartali escaped and was first over the Ariano (where some of the television Sopranos claimed to have come from) midway through the stage. His efforts yielded him 72 precious seconds over Valetti, giving Bartali a lead of 1 minute 32 seconds.
In the fourteenth stage to Campobasso, Bartali and Del Cancia scooted over the hilly terrain, eluding Valetti. Now Bartali’s advantage was a more comfortable 3 minutes 45 seconds.
I believe this is the start of stage 15, from Forlí.
But Valetti was not without his own resources and the next day he took advantage of a split in the peloton (or might it be more correct to say, once again Bartali missed getting on the right side of the peloton’s fracture?) and recovered 65 seconds. The gap of 2 minutes 40 seconds between Bartali and Valetti remained unchanged over the next four stages so at the end of the eighteenth stage, when the race reached Vittorio Veneto at the foot of the Dolomites, Bartali still had a tenuous lead:
1. Gino Bartali
2. Giovanni Valetti @ 2 minutes 40 seconds
3. Cesare Del Cancia @ 9 minutes 30 seconds
4. Severino Canavesi @ 10 minutes 55 seconds
5. Enrico Mollo @ 12 minutes
The eagerly awaited stage nineteen in the Dolomites with its Rolle and Costalunga ascents marked another change in the Giro, bringing it closer to its current design. The rugged Dolomites are now generally the heart of the last week of the Giro and quite often the decisive stages. This first time up the mountains north of Veneto was no less important. Bartali was alone at the top of the first of the day’s major climbs, the Rolle. From there Bartali headed north and was again first over the crest of the Costalunga. After eight hours of backbreaking work he rolled into Merano 5 minutes 38 seconds ahead of Mollo and Valetti. The next day Bartali confirmed his magnificent form by winning the twentieth stage at Gardone Riviera.
The standings didn’t change over the few remaining stages to Milan. The Rolle and Costalunga had indeed decided the race. When Bartali crossed the final finish line in the Vigorelli velodrome at the ripe old age of 23, he had established himself as one of the finest riders in the world.
Gino Bartali (second rider from right, in maglia rosa) poses with his Legnano teammates.
Final 1937 Giro d’Italia General Classification:
1. Gino Bartali (Legnano) 122 hours 25 minutes 40 seconds
2. Giovanni Valetti (Frejus) @ 8 minutes 18 seconds
3. Enrico Mollo (Frejus) @ 17 minutes 38 seconds
4. Severino Canavesi (Ganna) @ 21 minutes 38 seconds
5. Cesare Del Cancia (Ganna) @ 23 minutes 18 seconds
Climbers’ Competition:
1. Gino Bartali (Legnano)
2. Enrico Mollo (Frejus)
3. Luigi Barral (Bertoldo)
There were 93 starters of whom 41 made it back to Milan. Of those 41, only three were foreigners. Amberg was the best placed of them at thirteenth place, over an hour behind Bartali.
Bartali’s mastery of the 1936 and 1937 Giri caused La Gazzetta to ponder how many this young man was going to win. Colombo thought Bartali’s domination of the Giro made the sport more interesting and thought it fair to wonder if he would be able to break Binda’s record of five Giro wins.
That July Bartali entered the Tour and after stage seven, with its Télégraphe and Galibier climb, was the leader. He was on his way to doing what no rider had ever done; winning the Giro and the Tour in the same year. But on the next stage he crashed and the injuries he sustained eventually forced him to abandon.
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