The 1992 Giro d'Italia was the 75th edition of the race. It started off in Genoa on 24 May with an individual time trial. The race concluded in Milan with an individual time trial on 14 June. Twenty teams entered the race, which was won by the Spaniard Miguel Induráin of the team. Second and third respectively were the Italians Claudio Chiappucci and Franco Chioccioli. Indurain's victory in the 1992 Giro was his first step in completing the Giro – Tour double – winning the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in one calendar year – becoming the sixth rider to accomplish this feat, with the first being Fausto Coppi in 1949.
Thierry Marie won the event's opening leg and in doing so, became the first rider to wear the race leader's maglia rosa (pink jersey) in this edition. He held the race lead for another stage, before he lost it to eventual winner Indurain upon the conclusion of the third stage who held it for the rest of the race's duration. Indurain built upon his advantage during the fourth and twenty-second stages, both individual time trials, and protected the lead by responding to most attacks from his rivals during the mountainous stages.
Indurain became the first Spanish rider to win the Giro d'Italia. Indurain also won the secondary intergiro classification. In the race's other classifications, rider Pavel Tonkov of Russia finished as the best rider aged 25 or under in the general classification, finishing in seventh place overall; Mario Cipollini of the team was the winner of the points classification, with GB-MG Maglificio finishing as the winners of the team classification, ranking each of the twenty teams contesting the race by lowest cumulative time.
Teams
Twenty teams were invited by the race organizers to participate in the 1992 edition of the Giro d'Italia. Each team sent a squad of nine riders, which meant that the race started with a peloton of 180 cyclists. Italy (71), France (19), Spain (19), Germany (11), and Colombia (10) all had more than 10 riders. Of these, 70 were riding the Giro d'Italia for the first time. The average age of riders was 27.48 years, ranging from 22–year–old Andrea Ferrigato () to 36–year–old Sean Kelly (). The team with the youngest average rider age was (25), while the oldest was (29). From the riders that began the race, 148 made it to the finish in Milan.
The teams that took part in the race were:
Pre-race favorites
The starting peloton did include the previous year's winner Franco Chioccioli. According to author Bill McGann, Miguel Induráin came into the race with the aims of riding it for preparation for the Tour de France in July. Claudio Chiappucci came into the race as a contender after finishing on the podium at the previous season's Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. The Spanish newspaper El País believed Indurain to be the favorite heading into the first day of racing. However, the newspaper did state that his chances were lower since his teammate Jean-François Bernard was not participating in the race due to an injury. l'Unità writer Dario Ceccarelli and Avui writer Recuero believed that Chiappucci and Indurain were the favorites to win the overall crown. Spanish newspaper Diari de Girona named Indurain, Chiappucci, Laurent Fignon, and Massimiliano Lelli the main contenders to win the race.
Route and stages
The route for the 1992 Giro d'Italia was unveiled by race director Carmine Castellano on 30 November 1991. It contained three time trial events, all of which were individual. There were eleven stages containing high mountains, of which four had summit finishes: stage 10, to Monte Terminillo; stage 14, to Monte Bondone; stage 18, to Monviso; and stage 19, to Pila. The organizers chose to include no rest days. When compared to the previous year's race, the race was longer and lacked an opening time trial prologue. In addition, this race contained one less of half stages.
El País felt that the route was best suited for an all-round cyclist, while stating that final individual time trial would be decisive in determining the winner of the race. Avui writer Recuero believed that the course was the toughest in years, while also stating that many experts found that the race route was well balanced between the time spent in the mountains and the distance allocated to time trials. The race's nineteenth stage, which began and ended in Saluzzo, was named the queen stage for the amount of difficult mountains contained in the stage.