The 1965 Giro d'Italia was the 48th running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tour races. The Giro started in San Marino, on 15 May, with a stage and concluded in Florence, on 6 June, with a leg. A total of 100 riders from 10 teams entered the 22-stage race, which was won by Italian Vittorio Adorni of the Salvarani team. The second and third places were taken by Italian riders Italo Zilioli and Felice Gimondi, respectively.
Ten teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1965 edition of the Giro d'Italia. Each team sent a squad of ten riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 100 cyclists. From the riders that began the race, 80 made it to the finish in Florence.
The teams entering the race were:
From the 100 riders that started the Giro, only 10 were not Italian.
The race route was revealed to the public on 25 March 1965 by race director Vincenzo Torriani. San Marino hosted the start of the race, which marked the first time in race history that the race began outside of Italy. The small country only hosted the stage's start as the stage concluded in Perugia.
To transfer from Sicily to Milan, a plane flight was planned during the rest day. This caused some controversy, because not all riders were happy to fly, and some chose to travel by train.
The twentieth stage was originally planned to end in Solda after 190 km, but was shortened to end on the Passo dello Stelvio because of the risk of an avalanche.
Adorni took the lead in stage six, but lost it in stage eight because of a break-away that took 15 minutes. Adorni re-took the lead in an individual time trial, and increased his lead to a margin that had not been seen since Fausto Coppi won in 1949.
The twentieth stage ended on the Passo dello Stelvio. The top was covered by snow, and cyclists had to cross it on foot. When Graziano Battistini reached the finish line as the stage winner, he did not celebrate but asked for a blanket.
One leader's jersey was worn during the 1965 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 1965.
A major secondary classification was the mountains classification. 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 50, 40, 30, 20, and 10 points, the second distributed 40, 30, 20, and 10 points, and the third category gave 30, 20, and 10 points. In addition, the Cima Coppi was introduced: the highest climb of the Giro gave 200, 100, 80, 70 and 50 points. From this year on, a rider had to finish the Giro to be eligible for the mountains classification.
There was also a classification for intermediate sprints, named the Traguardi tricolori in honor of the Italian flag, where riders scored 15, 10 and 5 points at each intermediate sprint.