Date Mid-to-Late April English name Tour of Trentino Type Stage race | Region Trentino, Italy Discipline Road | |
Local name(s) Giro del Trentino (Italian) | ||
The Giro del Trentino (English: Tour of Trentino) is an Italian men's cycle road race. It is run typically mid-to-late April over four stages in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region of Italy, and forms part of the UCI Europe Tour, the level beneath the UCI World Tour. After 2014, the race was merged with the nearby one-day race Trofeo Melinda, and the 2015 edition was called the Giro del Trentino Melinda. The short, sharp courses typical of the Giro del Trentino, full of steep climbs, are seen as a good proving ground for the aspirants of the Giro d'Italia which usually starts a few days after the Giro del Trentino concludes. Several Giro del Trentino winners have won the Giro d'Italia including Francesco Moser, Gilberto Simoni, Paolo Savoldelli and Damiano Cunego. It should not be confused with the similarly named Giro al Sas di Trento, an annual road running competition in the city of Trento.
History
The first edition of the race was held in 1962. It consisted of a single stage that started and finished in Trento. It was won by Enzo Moser. After a second edition in 1963, the third edition was not held until 1979. There were two unofficial races, in 1977 and 1978 but they remain disputed and usually not treated as official Giro del Trentino races. The 1986 edition of the race was unusual in that there was no individual prize awarded. It was instead a team competition called the Coppa Italia and the first place went to Carrera–Inoxpran. One of the stages of the 1995 Giro del Trentino went to Innsbruck in neighbouring Austria, and stages to and from Lienz in Austria have remained a regular feature of the race since that time. In 2012, the race included a team time trial for the first time, which constituted the first stage of the race. The team time-trial was retained for the 2013 edition.