2008 Giro d' Italia: the Black Jersey

There was a brief period, 1946 to 1951, in the Giro d' Italia when the last rider in GC would wear the "maglia nera" (black jersey). Interestingly, the very last rider to wear it, in 1951, was Giovanni Pinarello who went onto launch the famous bicycle brand in his name.

In 2008 the concept is coming back with the exception that the last rider will wear a black number on a white background rather than a black jersey.

Pinarello is going to also make a special black jersey, in wool, this year that will be sold for 100 Euro. I'll add a photo as soon as I have one, in the meantime you can see it http://www.pinarello.com/ under 08 Collection.

Photo: Luigi Malabrocca is famous in Giro history for being a 2x "winner" of the black jersey, and he should have won it as well in 1949 but did not due to a timing error on the part of the race comissioners.

The last riders in GC for the Giro d' Italia:
1909 Giuseppe PERNA

1910 Umberto TURIONI

1911 Antonio ROTONDI

1912 Solo classifica a squadre

1913 Mario LONATI

1914 Umberto RIPAMONTI

1919 Francesco MARCHESE

1920 Nicolò DI BIASE

1921 Andrea CAZZANIGA

1922 Roberto VALPREDA

1923 Giusto SCHERIL

1924 Telosforo TENAGLIA

1925 Luigi BRIVIO

1926 Davide CHIESA

1927 Paolo BALDIERI

1928 Giuseppe BORGHI

1929 Giuseppe BORGHI

1930 Giovanni CARNIELLI

1931 Alberto MONGIANO

1932 Tullio VINCENTI

1933 Ettore MEINI

1934 Attilio PAVESI

1935 Oreste BOCCACCIA

1936 Vito LIPPOLIS

1937 Elio MALDINI

1938 Werner HUBER (Svi)

1939 Serafino SANTAMBROGIO

1940 Francesco ALBANI

1946 Luigi MALABROCCA

1947 Luigi MALABROCCA

1948 Aldo BINI

1949 Sante CAROLLO

1950 Mario GESTRI

1951 Giovanni PINARELLO

1952 Renzo ZANAZZI

1953 Hein VAN BREENEN (Ola)

1954 Hortensio VIDAURRETA (Spa)

1955 Georges DECAUX (Fra)

1956 Angelo COLETTO

1957 Angelo PISCAGLIA

1958 Charles COSTE (Fra)

1959 Antonio ULIANA

1960 Tonino DOMENICALI

1961 Augusto MARCALETTI

1962 Fedele RUBAGOTTI

1963 Giuseppe TONUCCI

1964 Dino BRUNI

1965 Vittorio POLETTI

1966 Paolo GELLI

1967 Lucillo LIEVORE

1968 Giuseppe POLI

1969 Mario BETTAZZOLI

1970 Virginio LEVATI

1971 Lucillo LIEVORE

1972 Piero SPINELLI

1973 Rodolfo ONGARATO

1974 Ercole GUALAZZINI

1975 Franco CALVI

1976 Giovanni COLPO

1977 Ignazio PALEARI

1978 Pietro ALGERI

1979 Bruno ZANONI

1980 Giuliano CAZZOLATO

1981 Stephan SCHROEPFER (Ger)

1982 Enea MONTANARI

1983 Claudio GIRLANDA

1984 Greg SAUNDERS (Usa)

1985 Patrizio GAMBIRASIO

1986 Daniele ASTI

1987 Dante MORANDI

1988 Dante MORANDI

1989 Patrizio GAMBIRASIO

1990 Alessio DI BASCO

1991 Endrio LEONI

1992 Eros POLI

1993 Stefano GIRALDI

1994 Jurgen WERNER (Ger)

1995 Roberto PELLICONI

1996 Francisco CEREZO (Spa)

1997 Marco Antonio DI RENZO

1998 Marco Antonio DI RENZO

1999 Hendrik VAN DYCK (Bel)

2000 Bradley McGEE (Aus)

2001 Michele COPPOLILLO

2002 Eddy SERRI

2003 Salvatore SCAMARDELLA

2004 Corrado SERINA

2005 Russel VAN HOUT (Aus)

2006 Carl NAIBO (Fra)

2007 Oscar GATTO