include the descent. Race overview The Giro began with a prologue through the streets of San Remo. The returning winner of the Giro, Roberto Visentini, won the prologue by two tenths of a second over the Canadian rider Steve Bauer. The next race day held two stages: a stage with a summit finish, followed by a downhill individual time trial. 's Erik Breukink took the climbing half-stage win with a solo attack. His performance earned him the race leader's maglia rosa (), which he kept until the third stage. Stephen Roche won the time trial half-stage with a three-second margin over Del Tongo's Lech Piasecki. Johan van der Velde formed a lead group with about to go in the second stage, but as he posed a threat to the race lead, he was not given a large advantage and was subsequently caught by the chasing peloton from the finish. The main field remained intact for the remaining kilometers and the race geared up for a sprint finish won by Moreno Argentin. The third stage was a lengthy team time trial that stretched for between Lerici and Camaiore. beat out the Del Tongo squad by fifty-four seconds to win the leg. In addition to the stage victory, Carrera Jeans–Vagabond's Roche took the overall lead. As the leading group approached the fourth stage finish line, Argentin sprinted away with to go and created a two-second gap between himself and the rider in second place that was enough to earn him a second stage win. The fifth stage was relatively flat and was used to set up the race to enter the Apennine Mountains the following day. The leg culminated in a mass sprint that was won by Panasonic–Isostar's Belgian rider Eddy Planckaert, after overcoming Paolo Rosola in the closing meters. Roche defended his race lead until stage thirteen, a climbing individual time trial to Monte Titano in San Marino, where he lost the pink jersey to his teammate and stage winner Visentini. Roche claimed his performance in the stage was hampered due to injuries sustained from a crash in the tenth stage. At , the fourteenth stage was the longest of the race. It was won in a mass sprint by Remac Fanini's Paolo Cimini, who overtook Rosola in the final meters. The fifteenth stage saw the race enter the Dolomites and traverse three major climbs within the mountain chain. On the