gino bartali, the winner of the past two editions, was ordered by the italian government to race the tour de france instead of the giro in 1938. giovanni valetti took the lead of the 1938 giro d'italia after the mountainous ninth stage. valetti had a lead of a minute and a half after that stage and built upon that as the giro went on, finishing almost nine minutes ahead of the second place rider ezio cecchi. the 1939 giro d'italia was a battle between gino bartali and giovanni valetti. valetti took the lead after the stage 9b individual time trial. bartali became the leader after he had attacked on the passo rolle during the fifteenth stage. bartali lost the lead to valetti because he crashed and had several flat tires throughout the sixteenth stage. valetti won his second consecutive giro d'italia, while bartali left the giro with his fourth mountains classification title.