The Giro d’Italia is again the first Grand Tour of the season, kicking-off the three-week battle for the maglia rosa and the other classifications.
Giro d’Italia jerseys
General classification – Maglia rosa
The maglia rosa – the pink jersey – is the grand prize and the icon of the Giro d’Italia. Along with the elegant Trofeo Senze Fine (the ‘trophy without an end’) it’s the reward for the leader in the general classification, the man who completes the course in the quickest cumulative time.
Introduced in 1931 and coloured pink because La Gazzetta dello Sport – the newspaper which created the race – is printed on pink paper, the jersey is described in the Giro’s Garibaldi roadbook as “a page made of pink fabric where the history of cycling has been written over the past 90 years.”
Given that times for riders on flatter stages are taken by those in a group or peloton, it’s the hilly and mountain stages, plus time trials, which make the difference in this competition.
Time bonuses are again on offer in 2023, with the top three men on each of the 18 road stages taking 10, 6, and 4 seconds. Intermediate sprints on each road stage also offer bonuses of 3, 2, and 1 seconds.
The rider with the lowest time for the whole race wins the maglia rosa. In 2022 Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) won the Giro d’Italia with a final time of 86:31:14.
At the end of the race, the top 20 on the general classification are awarded a share of €289,170, with €115,668 for the winner, €58,412 for second place, €28,801 for third and so on down to €2,863 for 10th to 20th places.
Somewhat confusingly, a separate ‘special’ cash prize is also doled out to the top 10 – €150,000 for the winner, €75,000 for second, €40,000 for third, down to €5,000 for the sixth- to 10th-place finishers.
The daily wearer of the maglia rosa takes home €2,000, while the top 20 on every stage also get cash – from €11,010 for the winners down to €276 for 10th to 20th places.
In the event of a GC dead heat, organisers will decide the standings based on fractions of a second measured in the race’s time trials.
Energy company Enel has sponsored the maglia rosa since 2016, taking over from Balocco and, before that, EstaThé. Stages are sponsored by national train company Trenitalia.
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