This year the Giro d’Italia started over 1,000 kilometres north of its traditional home. The preliminaries, team presentation and the first three stages were held in bike-friendly Denmark. It’s been adjudged a huge success and builds on the bike euphoria engendered by last year’s very successful Road World Championships just outside Copenhagen.

So, it got me wondering. The Giro often has incursions into neighbouring countries but how many times has the Giro started outside of Italy? Read on and find out.

For nearly half a century, the Giro pretty much started and finished in Milan, home to the headquarters of the race’s founders and organisers, the delightfully pink-paged La Gazzetta dello Sport. After 1960, both the point of departure and arrival frequently changed, only to be restored in 1990. To commemorate its 100th birthday in 2009, the Giro finished in Rome, just as it had in 1911 and 1950. The magnificent 2010 edition of the race concluded in Verona – site of Wednesday’s team time-trial – as it had in 1981 and 1984.

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