Which bicycle race awards its overall leader a pink jersey?

The Giro d’Italia awards its overall leader the pink jersey, known in Italian as the maglia rosa. The color was chosen because the race was created by La Gazzetta dello Sport, whose newspaper pages were printed on pink paper.

The Giro is one of cycling’s three Grand Tours, alongside the Tour de France and Vuelta a España. Its route typically combines flat stages, individual or team time trials and demanding mountain stages across Italy. The rider with the lowest cumulative time leads the general classification and wears the pink jersey.

The jersey identifies the current leader, not necessarily the final winner. A rider may wear it during the race and lose it later. Other Giro classifications use different jersey colors, including the points classification and mountains classification, so the pink jersey specifically signifies the general-classification leader.