Today marked the last leg of the 100th Annual Giro d'Italia cycling race.The Giro, as it is known, is a three-week long road bicycle race that happens in May every year. The race is part of the Triple Crown of Cycling events, along with the Tour de France and the World Cycling Championship (Giro d' Italia, 2009). There are 21 stages throughout the race, one per day, and this year began on May 9, and finished today.
This year the race began in Venice, and the last leg of the tour ended through the Roman Forum right down the street from where I live! The total distance of the race this year was 3395.5 km, equivlant to 2109.9 miles! It was exciting to see all of the fans and cyclists around the streets today. As you can see a main straightaway of the race was right down the Via del Corso and the streets were packed from the Piazza del Popolo to the Piazza Venezia! The Via del Corso is a busy street as it is, so I'm sure that having the road blocked off for the race created traffic problems across the city, but on the flipside shop-owners received the most benefit from the fan-base that was drawn to watch the race from outside their shops.
This year's winner was Denis Menchov of Russia.
For more info on the race & picture of map taken from: http://www.bikeraceinfo.com/giro/giro2009.html
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