The nineteenth edition of the Giro d’Italia starts on 10 May 1931 with the Milano-Mantova. And it starts with a great innovation: the leader of the classification is in fact awarded the pink jersey, to distinguish him from the other riders. It was won by a man from Mantua, the most successful ever. After 206.5 kilometres, the sprint on home roads rewards the former bricklayer Learco Guerra, the Human Locomotive, who beats Alfredo Binda and Michele Mara. Binda is returning to the Giro after the sabbatical edition twelve months earlier, when the organisers, seeing how he had dominated the three previous editions, had paid him to stay at home, thus denying him the possibility of doing the five that he would have completed anyway in the 1933.
withdrawal
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Guerra also wins the Mantova-Ravenna the day after, but in the third stage he suffers from intestinal problems and a hunger crisis, which cause him to lose almost 6 minutes. Alfredo Binda thus comes to mind. Who in turn will have to deal with physical problems: hit by Giacobbe and Canavesi, the Campionissimo from Cittiglio is forced to withdraw during the seventh stage. A destiny that awaits Guerra himself, who retires in the pink jersey in the third to last stage, the Montecatini Terme-Genoa, due to the consequences of a fall. The final pink jersey, in Milan, after 12 stages will be worn by Francesco Camusso ahead of Giacobbe and Marchisio.
