Thursday, 27 May 1948. All-time Italian sport key figure Gino Bartali, racing for the green colours of the Legnano team, is the first racer to cross the line laid out along our “Passeggiata”.

Spoleto is one of the cities along the eleventh stage (Fiuggi-Perugia) of the 31st Giro d’Italia. Bartali would finish third at the end of the stage, which was won in Perugia by Belgian Désiré Keteleer.

That year the Giro was won for the first time by Fiorenzo Magni, the famous “third man”, thus nicknamed for his ability to often break the dualism between Coppi and Bartali. It was a Giro full of controversy that saw Magni himself as the protagonist, penalised by two minutes on the Pordoi pass for having been pushed uphill and winning that Giro, beating Ezio Cecchi by just 11 seconds, still the smallest gap between first and second place in the history of the greatest Italian cycling competition.

Spoleto, which boasts a long cycling tradition, has often been crossed by the Giro d’Italia. Most recently, on 14 September 2019, the women’s Giro passed through the city. In 2016 it was the last time the men’s race passed through Spoleto; the last time Spoleto was chosen as the arrival and departure point for a stage was in 2007.

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