2004 Giro d'Italia
The 87th Giro d' Italia was held to 30 May 2004 of 8. It consisted of a prologue and 20 stages with a total length of 3435 kilometers. The Giro was doped with approximately 1,330,000 euros, the overall winner received € 185,000 of them good.
In addition to the prologue in Genoa, there was only one other individual time trial. Three mountain finishes and other mountain stages of the Giro made in 2004 to a current for climbing specialists. Highest point ( called the Cima Coppi, named after the legendary racer Fausto Coppi ) of the Giro was the Passo di Gavia with 2618 m. Also in the profile were the Falzaregopass ( Stage 16 ) and the Mortirolo on the penultimate stage. During the 14th and 15th stage of the Giro made a trip to Slovenia and Croatia.
A summary score was surprisingly won by the only 22 years old Damiano Cunego from team Saeco, which was actually used as a helper for defending champion Gilberto Simoni. The Maglia Rosa changed during the race several times. Only on the 16th stage saw Cunego with his victory on a heavy Dolomites stage for the preliminary decision.
Italy's Alessandro Petacchi sprint star ( Fassa Bortolo ) won nine of the twenty stages and also took the jersey the most points. Fabian Wegmann ( Gerolsteiner ) surprisingly won the jersey for the best climber. Olaf Pollack also had a personal sense of achievement. He secured after the first stage for a day the overall lead because of the time bonus of 12 seconds, which he received for second place in the daily standings. As this last German Jens Heppner was succeeded in 2002.
Emotional highlight of the tour was the 11th stage, which ended in Cesena, home of Marco Pantani, who died on 14 February 2004.