Race details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dates | 20 May – 12 June 1977 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stages | 22 + Prologue, including four split stages | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distance | 3,968 km (2,466 mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Winning time | 107h 27' 16" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1977 Giro d'Italia was the 60th running of the Giro, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It started in Bacoli, on 20 May, with a 7 km (4.3 mi) prologue and concluded in Milan, on 13 June, with a 122 km (75.8 mi) mass-start stage. A total of 130 riders from thirteen teams entered the 22-stage race, that was won by Belgian Michel Pollentier of the Flandria team. The second and third places were taken by Italians Francesco Moser and Gianbattista Baronchelli, respectively.[1][2][3] Freddy Maertens won 7 of the first 11 stages before abandoning due to a crash on Stage 8B.
Maertens was one of five riders within 1:00 of the lead at the time of his abandonment. This followed his performance of winning 13 stages along with the General Classification at the Vuelta a month earlier.[4]
Moser took the Pink jersey from Maertens in the first week and held it until the high mountains of stage 17 which ended in Cortina d'Ampezzo where Pollentier took a :03 lead by beating Moser by :25. Over the next few stages he built this lead up to about 2:00 before the final time trial where he won the stage by :30 over 2nd place Moser and sealed the Giro victory.
Amongst the other classifications that the race awarded, Sanson's Moser won the points classification, Faustino Fernández Ovies of KAS won the mountains classification, and Sanson's Mario Beccia completed the Giro as the best neo-professional in the general classification, finishing ninth overall. Flandria finished as the winners of the team points classification.