1987 Giro D'Italia - Race Overview

Race Overview

The Giro began with a brief 4 km (2.5 mi) prologue that navigated through the streets of San Remo. The returning winner of the Giro, Roberto Visentini, won the opening prologue by two hundredths of a second over the Canadian rider Steve Bauer. The next race day held two stages, the first of which was a short 31 km (19.3 mi) stage with a summit finish. Panasonic-Isostar's Erik Breukink took the stage with a solo attack. His performance in stage 1a was enough to earn him the coveted maglia rosa, which he would keep until stage 4a. The next, stage 1b, was an individual time trial. Stephen Roche took the time trial with a three second margin over the time trial specialist Lech Piasecki. The second stage was a hilly stage, which ultimately came down to a bunch sprint that Moreno Argentin won. The third stage was a lengthy team time trial that stretched from Lerici to Camaiore. Carrera Jeans-Vagabond beat out the Del Tongo squad by fifty-four seconds to win the leg. In addition to winning the day of racing, Carrera Jeans-Vagabond's Stephen Roche took the overall lead. Gewiss-Bianchi's Moreno Argentin sprinted away from the leading group on the road to win the fourth stage. The following day, the race came down to a bunch sprint that the Belgian Eddy Planckaert won.

Roche successfully defended the race lead, until the stage thirteen 46 km (28.6 mi) individual time trial with a summit finish, where he lost the lead to his teammate and the stage winner Roberto Visentini. Roche lost over two minutes to Visentini, as he claimed to have been recovering from a crash. The next stage was a relatively flat one, which came down to a sprint finish that Remac – Fanini's Paolo Cimini won. The fifteenth stage was a very mountainous one, since it contained three major climbs in the Dolomites. Roche attacked on the descent of the Monte Rest, despite orders from his team management to not attack. Roche's team, Carrera Jeans-Vagabond, chased after him, in order to protect the race leader Vinsentini. A group of riders later joined Roche, but Visentini was not a part of the group. Roche ultimately crossed the line 46 seconds after the stage winner Johan van der Velde. Roche's attack gave him the race lead by five seconds over Tony Rominger. Roche's actions, taking the race lead away from the Italian Roberto Vicentini and disobeying team commands, gained him the hatred of the tifosi, the Italian sports fans. Van der Velde struck again the next day by winning stage 16. Stage 17 was the Giro's last day in the Dolomites. The stage was won by Marco Vitali, who out-sprinted his two fellow breakaway members for the stage win. As the Giro left the Dolomites, the general classification began to take shape as time gaps between the high ranking riders became larger.

The primarily flat eighteenth stage stretched from Riva del Garda to Trescore Balneario, as the riders prepared to race through the Alps in the next few stages. The day of racing came down to a bunch sprint that Atala – Ofmega's Giuseppe Calcaterra won by out-sprinting the likes of Paolo Rosola and Johan van der Velde. The first Alpine stage of the Giro, stage 19, contained a summit finish in Madesimo. Jean-François Bernard won the first Alpine leg by means of a solo attack. The twentieth day of racing was a flat stage, which came down to a bunch sprint that Gewiss-Bianchi rider Paolo Rosola won. The next stage saw the reappearance of the high mountains in the Alps. It also saw Roche, Robert Millar, and Marino Lejarreta break clear of the rest of the field and race to the finish in Pila. That select group made it all the way to the finish line two minutes before the first chase group. Millar won the stage by making a last second attack. Millar's performance on the stage was good enough to bring him to second place overall. Stephen Roche sealed his victory of the Giro d'Italia by winning the final stage of the race, a 32 km (19.9 mi) individual time trial. Roche beat out the second place finisher, Dietrich Thurau, by fourteen seconds to win the day and ultimately the Giro itself.

Success in the stages was limited to seven of the twenty competing squads, five of the which won multiple stages, while four riders achieved multiple stage victories. The riders that won more than one stage were Moreno Argentin in stages 2, 4, and 7, Roberto Visentini in the prologue and stage 13, Paolo Rosola in stages 8, 10, and 20, and Stephen Roche stages 1b and 22. Gewiss-Bianchi collected a total of six stage wins through two riders, Argentin and Rosola. Gewiss-Bianchi wasn't the only team to win six stages, as Carrera Jeans-Vagabond achieved the same feat, with two stage wins from Roche and Visentini, Guido Bontempi in stage 12, and stage 3 which was the team time trial. Panasonic-Isostar amassed a total of three stage victories, with Erik Breukink in stage 1a, Eddy Planckaert in stage 5, and Robert Millar in stage 21. Atala – Ofmega also acquired three stage wins, with Urs Freuler in stage 9, Marco Vitali in stage 17, and Giuseppe Calcaterra in stage 18. Gis Gelati – Jollyscarpe won two stages with Johan van der Velde in stages 15 and 16. Fagor – MBK also collected two stage victories with Jean-Claude Bagot in stage 6 and Robert Forest in stage 11.

Toshiba-Look and Remac – Fanini both won a single stage at the Giro. Remac – Fanini's Paolo Cimini won stage 14 by means of a bunch sprint, while Toshiba-Look rider Jean-François Bernard took stage 19 through a solo attack in the mountains.