History
The first edition was 1905. It was then called Milan-Milan. It gained its current name in 1907. The route has changed many times. Milan, Sesto San Giovanni, Bergamo, Varese, Monza, Como have been start or finish place. In 2004 the race started in Mendrisio in Switzerland, and ended in Como. The most famous obstacle is the Madonna del Ghisallo climb that appears in the latter part of the race. A shrine there has a small museum containing religious and cycling objects.
Fausto Coppi won a record five times. Frenchman Henri Pelissier and Irishman Sean Kelly are the only non-Italian riders to win the race three times. The 2009 and 2010 editions were won by Philippe Gilbert. Gilbert was not able to win the 2011 edition after a successful season for the Belgium classics specialist.
Read more about this topic: Giro Di Lombardia
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)