Intergiro

The Intergiro was a competition in the annual Giro d'Italia bicycle race. It was a temporal classification based on midway points on every stage. The overall leader in this competition was awarded a blue jersey to wear on the following day's stage.

The intergiro classification was a unique classification in bicycle racing. Many did not understand the functioning of the intergiro classification, but it was quite simple. Somewhere in the middle of the stage there was a point where the time of the riders was measured, in the same way as is done at the finish of the stage. The only difference was, of course, that the racers rode on after the intergiro point to the regular stage finish. Next to a time measurement, there were bonus seconds to earn just like in the regular stage finish. That way, riders who were in a group in front of the bunch gained time in the intergiro classification, and riders who were often in this position would have a good position in the classification.

The intergiro was a way for riders, who weren't sprinters or contenders for the GC, to fight for a jersey, and was in that way similar to a combativity award. There were racers that geared their whole Giro d'Italia to the intergiro classification, and calmly rode to the finish after the intergiro point was passed. However, the zest for the intergiro lessened over the years, to the point where there were only 2 to 3 racers contending the blue jersey during the last years. Therefore the intergiro classification was replaced by a combination classification in the 2006 Giro d'Italia. When this didn't seem to be successful either, the youth classification was installed again in 2007, making the classifications distribution the same as in the Tour de France: general classification, points classification, king of the mountains and youth classification.