The 1989 Giro d'Italia was the 72nd edition of the race. It started off in Taormina on 21 May with a flat stage that ended in Catania. The race concluded in Florence with a individual time trial on 11 June. Twenty-two teams entered the race, which was won by the Frenchman Laurent Fignon of the Super U team. Second and third respectively were the Italian Flavio Giupponi and the American rider, Andrew Hampsten.
In the race's other classifications, Vladimir Poulnikov of the Alfa Lum-STM finished the Giro as the best neo-professional in the general classification, finishing in eleventh place overall; Café de Colombia rider Luis Herrera won the mountains classification, Giovanni Fidanza of the Chateau d'Ax-Salotti team won the points classification, and rider Jure Pavlič won the inaugural intergiro classification. Fagor - MBK finished as the winners of the Trofeo Fast Team classification, ranking each of the twenty-two teams contesting the race by lowest cumulative time.
Teams
There were 22 teams that were invited to compete in the 1989 Giro d'Italia. Each team consisted of nine riders, so the Giro started with 198 riders. Of the 198 riders that started the race, 141 of them reached the finish line in Florence. The peloton featured for the first time Soviet riders as a ban on cyclists becoming professional. These Soviet cyclists competed for Alfa Lum, a team of nine Soviets.
The teams entering the race were:
Pre-race favorites
Many expected the winner of the race to be a foreign, non-Italian rider. Several riders were seen as contenders for the overall crown. La Liberté named the following contenders: Hampsten, Greg LeMond, Luis Herrera, Erik Breukink, Laurent Fignon, Phil Anderson, Urs Zimmermann, and Claude Criquielion. De Telegraaf listed the three favorites to be Breukink, Hampsten, and Roche. Former winner Stephen Roche returned to the Giro following a year absence and recently visited a doctor in Munich to treat one of his knees. Roche was anticipated to receive a poor welcome due to how he won the Giro in 1987 by taking the lead from Italian and teammate Roberto Visentini. Reigning champion Hampsten entered the Giro after showing good forming in the early calendar races. Hampsten himself stated he felt good entering the race and stated the route did not offer many opportunities to recover. In addition, Hampsten had been specifically training for the individual time trial in his home in Boulder, Colorado in the weeks preceding the race's start. When asked about the inclusion of the Passo di Gavia – which was crossed the previous year in blizzard conditions on a day where Hampsten secured the race lead – Hampsten hoped to "... cross that mountain when the sun shines." Breukink was seen as the best hope for a Dutch rider to win the Giro due to third and second-place finishes in 1987 and 1988, respectively. Fignon and Zimmmermann were seen as strong contenders to compete for the victory following their joint attack on the Col de la Croix in the Tour de Romandie. Fignon, a two-time winner of the Tour de France, entered the Giro for the first time since his controversial loss to Francesco Moser in 1984. In the years after his first Tour victory in 1984, Fignon's seasons were plagued by poor performances due to a variety of injuries. He had returned to form starting in 1988 with a win in Milan–San Remo, which he repeated as champion in 1989. Fignon's teammates were regarded as a weak point for his title hopes as they were felt to be weaker than his previous teams in the early 1980s.
Urs Freuler was seen as a rider to contend for his fourteenth Giro stage win, while Dutch sprinter Jean-Paul van Poppel was seen as a prominent challenger for Freuler in the sprint stages. Zimmermann was seen as a candidate to win if he could limit his losses in the time trials. Herrera, Criquielion, and Maurizio Fondriest all rode their first Giro. Limburgsch dagblad felt the race attracted most top tier riders to participate except for Pedro Delgado, Charly Mottet, and Steven Rooks, among others. Luis Gómez of El País felt the main novelty of the race was the presence of the Alfa Lum team rostered with Soviet riders, including the likes of 23-year old Dimitri Konyshev whom they hoped would finish high overall. He also felt LeMond's form was poor. Herrera came to the Giro hoping for success as the stages were shorter than the Tour's and the general pace of the Giro is slower than the Tour. Lejaretta hoped to challenge for stage wins in the mountains due to the toughness climbs. Fondriest was seen as the main Italian hope as he was an all-rounder who was only 24-years of age.