The two riders had developed a mutual distaste for each other. El País writers Paolo Viberti and Carlos Arribas believed that Swiss rider Tony Rominger and Latvian Piotr Ugrumov were the favorites to win the race, while several named Rominger as the sole favorite. Author Bill McGann believed that Rominger and Berzin were in great form coming into the race. Specifically, Rominger returned to the Giro after a six-year absence and, more recently, coming off of a victory at the Tour de Romandie. Urgumov was seen as the primary challenger for Rominger for his performances at previous Giros and his knack for showing great form in the final week after remaining quiet in the first two weeks. Aside from Rominger and Berzin, El Punt'''s Luis Simon named 1988 winner Andrew Hampsten, Russian Pavel Tonkov, and Claudio Chiappucci amongst several other riders that could challenge for the overall title. Italian Marco Pantani was seen by some to be a contender for to win the race. However, Pantani crashed during a training ride on 1 May and did not recover in time to participate. Two-time winner Miguel Induráin chose not to enter the race in favor of preparing for the Tour de France. Instead, Indurain rode the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. Twelve of the UCI Road World Cup top 20 ranked cyclists did not compete in the Giro d'Italia. Route and stages The route for the 1995 Giro d'Italia was unveiled by race director Carmine Castellano on 12 November 1994 in Milan. It contained three time trial events, all of which were individual. There were thirteen stages containing high mountains, of which five had summit finishes: stage 8, to Massiccio del Sirino; stage 11, to Il Ciocco; stage 14, to Schnals; stage 15, to Lenzerheide; and stage 20, to Gressoney-Saint-Jean. The organizers chose to include one rest day. When compared to the previous year's race, the race was longer, contained one more rest day, and the same number of stages. The nineteenth stage was regarded as the queen stage as it featured the climbs of the Col Agnel, Col d'Izoard, and Colle di Sampeyre. The race route began in Perugia and traveled throughout the southern half of Italy for the first ten stages. After the stage 10 individual time trial, the riders were transferred to Tuscany by airplane, where the race remained in the northern half of the country and proceeded to