The 1988 Giro d’Italia was the 71st running of cycling’s Grand Tour race. Andrew Hampsten of the 7-Eleven–Hoonved team won the race. Erik Breukink and Urs Zimmermann finished second and third. A total of 180 riders from 20 teams entered the 21-stage race.
About 1988 Giro d’Italia in brief
The 1988 Giro d’Italia was the 71st running of cycling’s Grand Tour race. Andrew Hampsten of the 7-Eleven–Hoonved team won the race. Erik Breukink and Urs Zimmermann finished second and third, respectively. A total of 180 riders from 20 teams entered the 21-stage race. The average age of riders was 26. 94 years, ranging from 21–year–old Angelo Lecchi from Del Tongo–Colnago to 37–year-old Pierino Gavazzi of Fanini–Seven Up. The starting peloton did not include the 1987 winner, Stephen Roche, who was sidelined for the majority of the 1988 season with a knee injury. The 1986 Tour de France winner GregMond entered the race with his PDM–Ultima–Concorde squad, but did not finish due to injuries sustained in a breakaway. The fourteenth stage, conducted in adverse weather including a snowstorm, has been recognized as an iconic event in the history of the Giro. In total, 82 of the starters were foreign, while the remaining 98 were Italian. The team with the youngest average rider age was Selca–Ciclolinea, while the oldest was Panasonic–Isostar– Colnago–Agu. The presentation of the teams took place on 22 May, in the courtyard of the Ducal Palace in Urbino. Of the riders that began the race, 125 made it to the finish in Vittorio Veneto. In the other classifications, Stefano Tomasini of Italy placed ninth overall to finish as the best neo-professional in the general classification.
Johan van der Velde was the winner of the points classification, and Carrera Jeans–Vagabond finished as the winners of the team classification. It was the third time – and second successive year – that the podium was occupied solely by non-Italian riders. Former Giro champion Gianni Motta thought Hampsten would win the race because he was expected to make the effort on the Gavia Pass, but Hampsten did not make it due to a hunting accident. He also won the secondary mountains and combination classifications as well as the special sprints classification. The race was won by Hampsten, despite losing around twenty seconds in the final two stages. He became the first American, and non-European, to win the GIRO. The final stage of the race was held on 12 June, with a 9 km individual time trial and a 43 km time trial. The overall winner was Hampsten’s team, 7- Eleven– Hoonved, who finished ahead of the Dutchman Breukinks and the Swiss team of Carrera Jeans Vag Abond. The Giro ended in Milan, Italy, on 14 June, and the final stage was held in Milan on 15 June, where Hampsten finished in second place, ahead of Franco Chioccioli of the Fanini Seven Up team.
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