The 1960 Giro d'Italia was the 43rd running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tour races. The Giro started in Rome, on 19 May, with a stage and concluded in Milan, on 9 June, with a leg. A total of 140 riders from 14 teams entered the 21-stage race, which was won by Frenchman Jacques Anquetil of the Helyett team. The second and third places were taken by Italian Gastone Nencini and Luxembourgian Charly Gaul, respectively.
Fourteen teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1960 edition of the Giro d'Italia. Each team sent a squad of ten riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 140 cyclists. From the riders that began the race, 97 made it to the finish in Florence.
The teams entering the race were:
Most riders were Italian, but there were 42 foreign riders, from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
Jacques Anquetil was seen as the favourite to win the general classification, with Charly Gaul and Rik Van Looy and as his closest competitors.
The race route was revealed on 13 April 1960. Although it was traditional to start the Giro in Milan, the start of the race was moved to Rome to honor the Summer Olympics to be held in the city later that year. Before the race began in Rome, the organizers honored the race's first organizer Armando Cougnet, five-time Giro champion Fausto Coppi, and journalist , all of whom died before the race started in 1960. President Giovanni Gronchi officially opened the race.
The Gavia Pass was used as a mountain climb for the first time.
One jersey was worn during the 1960 Giro d'Italia. The leader of the general classification â calculated by adding the stage finish times of each rider â wore a pink jersey. This classification is the most important of the race, and its winner is considered as the winner of the Giro. There were no time bonuses in 1960.
A major secondary classification was the mountains classification. For this, climbs were ranked in first and second categories. In this ranking, points were won by reaching the summit of a climb ahead of other cyclists. There were three categories of mountains. The first category awarded 80, 60, 40, 30, and 20 points, while the second distributed 60, 40, and 20 points.
There was an intermediate sprints classification. The first three riders at each intermediate sprint received points, 60 for the winner down to 20 for the third.
Although no jersey was awarded, there was also one classification for the teams, in which the teams were awarded points for their rider's performance during the stages. This classification was named the "Ramazzotti" classification, and points were given for high positions in stages, intermediate sprints, mountain tops, and leading the general classification. Bonus points were given to the points scored by a stage winner on mountain passes and intermediate sprints, and for the team that scored the most points.