Cycling has its fair share of eye-catching jerseys. There are polka dots for the best climber in the Tour de France, rainbow stripes for world champions, and leaders’ jerseys of all colors for stage races on every continent. But in terms of being truly iconic, two stand head and shoulders above the rest: the Tour’s maillot jaune and the Giro d’Italia’s maglia rosa.
Henri Desgrange began awarding a yellow jersey to the general classification leader of the Tour de France in 1919 and race organizers in Italy followed suit in 1931, introducing the pink jersey for the 19th edition of the race. It helped promote the two newspapers that owned the events – Desgrange’s paper, L’Auto, used a yellow newsprint and the Gazzetta dello Sport is famous for its pink stock – but it also helped journalists and fans to quickly spot the main protagonists as they flew past.
It was a simple idea that helped shape how we all enjoy bike racing today, and yellow and pink have since become symbolic of not only the sport’s two greatest races, but of the countries that host them. As the late, great editor of the Gazzetta dello Sport, Candido Cannavò, put it: “Il Giro è il filo rosa che unisce tutta l’Italia.” The Giro is the pink thread that unites all of Italy.
To millions of fans around the world, the maglia rosa means the coming of summer. It conjures up images of sprint finishes along the Mediterranean coastline, of epic battles in the Alps and the Dolomites, and of bygone heroes like Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi.
The 103rd edition of the Giro was a very special one for three young friends of ours, all of whom are represented by our founder João Correia’s agency Corso. Early in the race, João Almeida surprised the cycling world by taking pink in Sicily and holding it for an incredible 15 days – the longest ever by an under-23 rider, and all in his first season as a pro. Then Tao Geoghegan Hart gave the race the most dramatic finish possible, by taking the general classification victory on the very last day in Milan. The Englishman had a fantastic final week, proving himself to be one of the hottest talents in the sport by dominating his rivals in the mountains and taking two classy stage wins in Piancavallo and Sestriere. And to cap it all off, Ruben Guerreiro was crowned King of the Mountains, becoming the first Portuguese rider ever to win a grand tour classification.
In celebration of all that success, we’ve teamed up with Castelli to produce a limited-edition inGamba jersey in Giro pink. As the current official partner of the race, Castelli know plenty about making jerseys for champions, having previously provided the maglia rosa throughout the 1980s and early 90s, when the race was dominated by greats like Bernard Hinault, Andy Hampsten, Stephen Roche and Miguel Indurain.
This unique jersey is not for sale and will only be available to our guests who book a trip before 31 December*, so if you’re planning to travel with us, now’s the time to make some plans. 2020 hasn’t been easy, but it never dampened our spirit of adventure and with new safety measures in place, we’re ready to roll into the new year in style. And with some sharp new kit in the wardrobe and an inGamba adventure on the calendar, you can too!
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View our full 2021 calendar here!
All historical photos © Stefano Sirotti, used courtesy of Castelli.
*To avail of this offer, guests must make a new deposit between October 29 and December 31, 2020. Transferred credits from previous trips do not qualify.
All new deposits will be transferable to a future trip if your 2021 booking needs to be postponed due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.
