tony rominger came to the 1995 giro d'italia in great form. rominger gained the lead after the stage two time trial and never gave it up. his opposition came from the returning champion berzin and teammate piotr ugrumov who attacked each other repeatedly, which greatly hurt their chances. in addition to the general classification, rominger also won the points and intergiro classifications. the 1996 giro d'italia celebrated the centenary of the founding of "la gazzetta dello sport" by holding the first three stages in the greek capital of athens. eventual winner pavel tonkov first gained the race lead after the mountainous thirteenth stage that ended in prato nevoso. tonkov lost his slim lead to the spaniard abraham olano for a two-stage period, before regaining it after stage 21, which contained five climbs of high severity. tonkov rode into milan the next day winner of the giro d'italia.