What is the origin and history of the pink jersey of the Giro d'Italia?

The pink jersey, the jersey that distinguishes the leader of the general classification of the Giro d'Italia did not start being used until 1931. Here we tell you its history and why this atypical color.

Why the pink jersey is a symbol of the Giro d'Italia

All the great races have their distinctive color that serves to identify the rider leading the classification. A tradition that started with the Tour de France when it introduced the yellow jersey in 1919 as a distinctive symbol.

In the case of the Giro d'Italia, the race began in 1909. It was the response of the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport to the automobile tour of Italy organized by another newspaper: Il Corriere de la Sera. Just like the Tour de France, in its beginnings no garment distinguished the leader until, in 1931, the journalist of La Gazzeta dello Sport Armando Cougnet came up with the idea of creating this distinctive garment so that spectators could easily recognize the race leader.

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They were not very original in choosing the color and, just like the Tour and its maillot jaune, a color similar to the pages of the sports newspaper l'Auto, today l'Equipe, which has organized the race since its beginnings, the distinctive jersey of the Giro took its color from the pages of La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Conflict with Mussolini

However, in the midst of the rise of fascism, Benito Mussolini was not particularly pleased that the Giro used pink as its representative color. According to Il Duce, it was a feminine and unmanly color. However, fascism, which managed to penetrate every corner of Italian life, could not sink its claws into cycling, a sport that in the transalpine country was, and still is, a true social event.

The numbers of the pink jersey

The first cyclist to wear the coveted garment was the Italian Learco Guerra, also known as the human locomotive who, although in that 1931 he would not finish the Giro d'Italia, did manage to win the race definitively three years later in what, along with the world championship achieved in that 1931 in Copenhagen, are the most notable achievements of a remarkable career.

However, the king of the pink jersey can be no other than the cannibal Eddy Merckx who wore the garment on 78 occasions, managing to finish with it at the end of the last stage 5 times.