The Giro d’Italia is about to pass through the city of Lucca. An event that has not occurred for about 40 years and which sees daily calls for sport and events that will enliven the historic center in these days. A large reception is also planned, attended by journalists and authorities, as well as former cyclists and VIP guests, organized by the company organizing the sporting event. In Piazza S. Michele, the municipal administration installed large marbles which, on the sand, animated the summers of our youth – not that of the current generations who spend and waste their existence behind digital technology that gives little and much, much he asks – but which, if you think about it, represent former cycling champions who actually have no connection with Lucca. And yet, Lucca is the hometown of the champion who set every Giro d’Italia record by winning 42 stages of the Giro and didn’t even have a marble made with his likeness? And not only. If you have noticed, the figure of Mario Cipollini, former world champion who grew up in the ranks of Ivano Fanini’s Amore & Vita, has disappeared. He is like a ghost hovering around an event to which he rightfully belongs, but which everyone seems almost afraid to evoke. Shouldn’t the mayor Mario Pardini and the sports councilor Fabio Barsanti have done more to request more attention for the former cycling champion from San Giusto di Compito?
Before the Lucca stage scheduled for May 8, there will be a large reception attended by various authorities as well as journalists, former cyclists, VIPs and city personalities. Well, apparently – and we are sure of it – the only one who fully deserved to be there and who wasn’t even considered for an invitation is Mario Cipollini himself. Unless there are any last minute denials, which we would be happy to receive and publish.
We can also imagine why. Cipollini, and ourselves as careful and objective reporters of the story, was convicted by the court of Lucca for a stalking issue against his ex-wife. Without a doubt a bad story, and a heavy sentence, three years, in the first instance. A process that has certainly cast a shadow on the former champion who has many, many defects and who does not enjoy much appreciation in his own city, but who, whether we like it or not, with the Giro d’Italia has always had and will have always particular familiarity. Seeing the pink race pass through these parts and knowing that the only one who would have the right to be there won’t be there because he has actually been marginalized from the world of cycling – be careful, ours is not a judgment of merit or value on man, but a simple sports observation – it’s not something that makes us happy or proud. Cipollini is part of the history of Lucca and Lucca is, for better or for worse, also Mario Cipollini and therefore it is not clear why it should not be satisfied now that we are celebrating 40 years since the last time the Giro d’Italia went through this area.
Not to mention the celebrations of the centenary of Puccini’s death that the Giro d’Italia has decided to commemorate: do we perhaps want to deny that after Puccini, the most famous Lucca native in the world could be Super Mario himself?
Another world champion came to mind, but a football one, Diego Armando Maradona, who certainly wasn’t a saint, but who was made a saint. They even dedicated the San Paolo stadium in Naples to him. Yet, if memory serves, he too had problems with the law, but, despite this, he was not put in a corner from a sporting point of view. On the contrary.
If only for the emotions he provided with the almost two hundred victories of his professional career, he would deserve a special mention and a photo, perhaps even with a bouquet of flowers, on the stage of the Giro. Or not?
