What is in the red podium winners boxes at the Giro d’Italia?

This year’s Giro d’Italia has a few more stages to run, and though Jonas Vingegaard looks comfortable in the Maglia Rosa, there are plenty more prizes left to win on the road to the final stage’s finish in Rome.

A pro race, particularly a Grand Tour, has a host of prizes on offer for riders and teams, and aside from individual prestige and glory, cash is always an incentive.

The total prize fund for the Giro d’Italia this year is €1,636,460. The overall winner takes home €115,668, whilst stage winners are awarded €11,010, though prize money is usually put into a pot and split between an entire team.

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Riders taking to the race podium each day have also been awarded a few other goodies, one of which in particular caught my eye.

Each day riders have been awarded a large super-sized wine glass, seemingly a billboard for a Pinot Grigio brand; it’s an unwieldy prize and will surely cause luggage headaches when it’s time to fly home.

The other more mysterious prize has been the thin red box we have observed being clutched by the stage winner each day.

After a quick bit of research, it turns out that the stage winner also receives a pair of Tramarossa (which translates to red thread in Italian) denim jeans each day; the Italian brand is partnered with the race this year. Below you can see Tramarossa manager Cristiano Piccoli with Fillipo Ganna and his hard-won new jeans.

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Tramarossa jeans appear to start at €340 per pair, though exhausted riders at the end of a long, hot day on the bike probably aren’t very keen to try their new denim on.

Unusual prizes are nothing new in cycling, and this is another chapter in that book; riders have won everything from salmon to beer and even a pig at the Tro-Bro Léon race, though we understand that particular prize has ended.

One more winner’s prize needs a mention; it’s the Altograno pink box awarded to the Maglia Rosa wearer each day.

Altograno is a blend of flour, and the pink box contains the flour and products made from it. Jonas Vingegaard will be stacking up the flour products by now, after moving into the pink jersey on Stage 14 of the race.

Vingegaard’s teammate Sepp Kuss took victory on the race’s queen stage today. Kuss’s win and Vingegaard’s overall lead will now add more swag to the Visma-Lease a Bike prize pot tonight as the race moves ever closer to its finish in Rome.

Jonas Vingegaard with his Altograno Pink box (Image credit: Tim de Waele / Staff)

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