A look back at 21 days of racing around Italy in 128 photographs
Image 1 of 60
Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) picked up where he left off in Turin(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The world time trial champion took his fifth Giro stage victory in two years(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Ganna was the GIro's first maglia rosa, winning by 10 seconds(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) was among the top GC finishers on stage 1(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Wouter Weylandt was remembered at the start of stage 2(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The peloton race through Piemonte on the second day of the Giro(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
All smiles for Ganna on his second career day in pink(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The first break of the Giro saw wildcards Bardiani-CSF-Faizanè, Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec and Eolo-Kometa make the move(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
At the end of the stage, the other invitees Alpecin-Fenix took the win with Tim Merlier – note the Weylandt tribute(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Meanwhile there were recriminations at UAE Team Emirates after Fernando Gaviria's sprint was disrupted by teammate Juan Sebastian Molano(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
A wet stage 3 from Biella to Canale looked set for another sprint finish(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
But from the break, Intermarché-Wanty Gobert's Taco van der Hoorn was determined to hold them off(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
And hold them off he did, to clinch his team's first win of year in style!(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
More wet weather greeted the peloton on stage 4, in what would be a recurring theme of the race(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
There was a GC showdown at Sestola, with Egan Bernal leading an elite group of five which included Vlasov, Carthy, Ciccone and Landa(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
While 1:37 up the road, Joe Dombrowski (UAE Team Emirates) triumphed from the breakaway(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Alessandro De Marchi (Israel Start-Up Nation) battled for the win in dire conditions(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
But the Italian was more than happy to take over the maglia rosa(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
It was a less successful day for João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) though, as he shed over four minutes at the finish(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Stage 5 took the peloton on a pan-flat route from Modena to Cattolica(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
An uneventful day was punctuated late on by a crash with took Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) out of the race along with blue jersey Dombrowski(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The expected sprint finish saw Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) go head to head with Giacomo Nizzolo (Qhubeka Assos)(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
With the Australian coming out on top to take his ninth career Grand Tour stage win(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Stage 6 took the peloton to the first real summit finish of the race at the Colle San Giacomo above Ascoli Piceno(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
There were some seriously great views to be had(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Seriously...(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
But the weather was – once again – unkind to the peloton(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Bernal came to the fore on the final climb once again, with Ciccone, Evenepoel and Dan Martin accompanying him(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Just up the road, there was another win for the break as Gino Mäder (Bahrain Victorious) crossed the line first(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Attila Valter (Groupama-FDJ) took over pink as De Marchi finished 24 minutes down(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Notaresco greeted the peloton on stage 8, another one for the sprinters(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
And once again, it was Caleb Ewan who prevailed with a stunning effort uphill(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Job done for the Australian, who is targeting stage wins at each Grand Tour this year(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
His team were pretty pleased, too(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Stage 8 took the peloton to another uphill finish at Guardia Sanframondi but there was to be no GC skirmish(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Up the road it was another fight between the breakaway, though. Here, Victor Lafay (Cofidis) puts in an attack(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
It turned out to be the winning move – some race for his first-ever pro win(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Stage 9 headed through the Appennines to the ski station of Campo Felice(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The breakaway wasn't a bad bet – they were two minutes up with 10 kilometres to go(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
But Egan Bernal had other ides on the uphiil gravel finish(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R Citroën) and Koen Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma) couldn't stop the Colombian from taking the stage with a brutal attack(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Meanwhile, Evenepoel was disappointed to shed a total of 20 seconds at the finish(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Bernal took pink as a result, grabbing a 15-second lead over the Belgian(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Stage 10 was another one for the sprinters as the peloton headed north to Foligno(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Bora-Hansgrohe were keen for their man Peter Sagan to take a win(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
While up front, the break were only hindered further by having to wait at a level crossing(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The intermediate sprint saw the GC men come out to play, with Evenepoel shaving a second off Bernal's lead(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The finishing sprint was Sagan's though, with the Slovak taking the points lead to boot(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The peloton set off from Perugia to kick off the long-awaited sterrato stage 11 to Montalcino(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The roads of Tuscany offered some of the best views of the race(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The famous white gravel roads hadn't been included in the race since 2010(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Once again, it was a good day for the break, and not just because of the weather and the view(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Ineos Grenadiers took control of the peloton, with Ganna leading Bernal at the front(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The pair bossed the field on the sterrato(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
And Bernal – formerly a mountain-biker – took it up himself later on(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Further back, Evenepoel struggled mightily on the sterrato, with Almeida called back to – eventually – help(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
In Montalcino, Mauro Schmid (Qhubeka Assos) and Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) battled for the win(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
With Schmid taking victory on his Grand Tour debut(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Bernal and Bora-Hansgrohe's Emanuel Buchmann were the strongest of the GC men(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
But the Colombian was stronger, putting more time into all of his rivals(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
The Giro d'Italia drew to a close on Sunday afternoon, capping three weeks of spectacular racing up and down the peninsula from the flats of the Po Valley to the hills of Tuscany and the mountains of the Dolomites and Alps.
Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) celebrated with the Trofeo Senza Fine in the shadow of the Duomo di Milano, following a series of commanding displays with controlled defensive riding from him and his team later on.
The Colombian, who now has the summer off ahead of the Vuelta a España, can now look back on a job well done and hang a maglia rosa alongside his maillot jaune after beating Damiano Caruso (Bahrain Victorious) and Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange) into second and third place.
But there was much more to the Corsa Rosa beyond the podium and the battle for pink. We saw Filippo Ganna's time trial mastery, sprint battles between Caleb Ewan, Giacomo Nizzolo, Peter Sagan, Tim Merlier and more, 10 breakaway victories, the long-awaited return of the sterrato, 13 first-time Grand Tour stage winners, the natural beauty of Italy, and much more besides.
We've compiled 128 photos from stage 1 to stage 21, bringing together the highlights and key moments of the year's first Grand Tour with the stunning scenery witnessed along the way
Look above for a complete gallery of stages 1-11 of the Giro, and look below for photography from stage 12-21.
Thanks to Bettini Photo and Getty Images for their photography throughout the race from Tim De Waele, Fabio Ferrari, Gian Mattia D'Alberto, Stuart Franklin, Dario Belingheri, Ilario Biondi, and Luca Bettini.
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!