In the middle of the night on 13th May 1909, 127 cyclists rolled out from the Piazzale Loreto (from the headquarter of La Gazzetta dello Sport) in Milan. The first Giro d’Italia was underway.
Unlike the first Tour de France what started in the middle of the afternoon, the participants of the first Italian grand tour departed at 2:53 am. They had a long day ahead of them, the first stage of the race was 397 km long, went from Milan to Bologna (through Padova). Dario Beni won the stage after a little bit more than 14 hours of riding.
Although the average lenght of the stages was 307 km, because the race was split into only 8 stages, it was the shortest Giro d’Italia ever (2447,9 km).
The winner was decided by poinst system. At the end of the race Luigi Ganna was the best rider with the less (25) points. Fun facts: if there would have been a time-based classification, Giovanni Rosignoli would have been the winner of the first Giro d’Italia.