giuseppe saronni led the 1986 giro d'italia for the majority of the race before losing it to roberto visentini in the alps. visentini then fought off attacks from the challengers in the dolomites en route to his first giro d'italia general classification victory. the 1987 edition was highlighted by the controversy between 's two general classification riders roberto visentini and stephen roche. roche led the race early on but lost the lead to visentini after crashing during the thirteenth stage. roche attacked on the race's mountainous fifteenth stage despite orders from carrera team management not to. roche took the lead and wound up winning the giro. roche's success would not stop there during the 1987 season, he would go on to win the tour de france and the men's road race at the world championships to complete the triple crown of cycling.