The Giro d'Italia (Italian pronunciation: [ˈdʒiːro diˈtaːlja]; English: Tour of Italy), also simply known as The Giro, is a long-distance road bicycle racing stage race for professional cyclists held over three weeks in May/early June in and around Italy. The Giro is one of the three Grand Tours (the others being the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España), and is part of the UCI World Ranking calendar. It is the second most prominent stage race in the world (after the Tour), and along with the Tour and the Road World Cycling Championship it makes up the Triple Crown of Cycling.

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The origin of the Giro d'Italia is similar to that of the Tour de France. It began because of a competition between two newspapers, La Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere della Sera. La Gazzetta dello Sport wished to boost its circulation by holding a professional road race, like the Tour de France. Corriere della Sera wanted to increase its circulation by holding an organized car rally. On 7 August 1908 the newspaper's founder Eugenio Camillo Costamagna, director Armando Cougnet, and its editor Tullio Morgagni announced the inaugural Giro d'Italia to be held in 1909. Corriere della Sera offered a winners bonus of 3,000 lire.

Roman Kreuziger (Czech pronunciation: [ˈroman ˈkrojtsɪɡr̩]; born May 6, 1986) is a Czech professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team Astana. Kreuziger is an all-rounder, with climbing and time trial abilities, becoming a contender for the General Classification of stage races. He is also considered one of the biggest talents of the sport after winning the 2004 Junior Road World Championships and the 2008 Tour de Suisse at the age of 22.

His father, Roman Kreuziger, was also a bicycle racer who won the Österreich Rundfahrt in 1991 and the Cyclocross Junior World Championships in 1983.

He turned professional in 2006 with Liquigas after a successful amateur career which saw him win the Junior Road World Championships in 2004 and a stage of the Giro delle Regioni in 2005. In 2007, he showed great improvements in his abilities by placing 2nd in the prologues of Paris–Nice and the Tour de Romandie, where he also finished sixth overall. He took his first professional victory in the second stage of the Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda. In late 2007 he also completed his first Grand Tour after finishing 21st in the Vuelta a España.

Ivan Basso (born 26 November 1977 in Gallarate, Province of Varese) is an Italian professional road bicycle racer who is currently racing with UCI ProTeam Liquigas-Cannondale. Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, is among the best mountain riders in the professional field in the 21st century, and is considered one of the strongest stage race riders. He is a double winner of the Giro d'Italia, having won the 2006 edition and the 2010 edition of the Italian Grand Tour whilst riding for Team CSC in 2006 and for Liquigas in 2010. However, in 2007 Basso admitted he was planning to use doping and was suspended for two years. His suspension ended on October 24, 2008, and he returned to racing two days later in the Japan Cup, where he placed a close third behind Damiano Cunego and Giovanni Visconti.

He was born in Gallarate, in the province of Varese in Lombardy. There he grew up next door to Claudio Chiappucci, a former three-time stage winner in the Tour de France who was suspended for two years after being proven guilty of doping several times.