The time has come for the first time trial challenge on the streets of the 107th Giro d’Italia. The Foligno-Perugia measures 40.6 km it is practically divided into two parts. The first is approximately 32 km flat which crosses Umbria and leads to the foot of Perugia.
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At Ponte Valleceppi the scenario changes completely: we face each other the Casaglia climb with significant slopes (16%) followed by the road always ascending until the arrival. Several curves and counterslopes before the wide final hairpin bends that lead to the finishing straight.
THE ITALY OF THE GIRO
Elegance. This is what Foligno, the starting city of the time trial stage, provides will take the runners to Perugia. But before going to the starting area and talking to the cyclists while they warm up on the rollers, a short walk allows you to discover the origins of the name “City of Palaces”. Just walk along Corso Cavour and go as far as Piazza Grande, or Piazza della Repubblica, overlooked by the main buildings and monuments of the city: the cathedral of San Feliciano (patron saint of Foligno), Palazzo Trinci, seat of the city museum and rich in an important cycle of frescoes attributed to Gentile da Fabriano and his collaborators, the Palazzo del Podestà, Palazzo Orfini, home of the Foligno typography where the first edition of the Divine Comedy was printed in 1472 and today home to the Printing Museum. A leap forward in time then leads to the CIAC-Centro d’Arte Contemporanea e to the “Cosmic Magnet”, a gigantic sculpture measuring 24 m. long, 9 wide and almost 4 high. The work is by Gino De Dominicis and is located in the former Church of the SS. Trinity in Annunziata.
We set off towards Spello, another treasure chest full of beauty. It’s really worth letting yourself be enchanted by, for example, him frescoes by Pinturicchio in the Baglioni chapel of the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, or go to the Villa dei Mosaici, a Roman-era treasure recently discovered and opened to the public in 2018. Spello is also the small capital of Umbrian olive growing, the heart of a food district that is always very active but attentive to respecting traditions. Spello’s Gold, as the local oil is defined, is made with one of the most characteristic cultivars of Umbria, the moraiolo, and is also the basis of entire lines of cosmetic products.
Assisi is in sight, but the race route does not go up to the city of the Saint. However, you pass next to the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli inside which there is the Porziuncola chapel. However, going up to the city of San Francesco, Capital of Peace, is an obligation due to the special mystical atmospheres and the importance of its monuments. First of all the Basilica of San Francesco where you gather in front of the Saint’s tomb, then let yourself be dazzled by the extraordinary frescoes by artists such as Giotto and Cimabue.
Now in sight of Perugia we deviate briefly from the race route for reach Torgiano, and visit the Wine Museum and the Olive and Oil Museum of the Lungarotti Foundationtwo of the most important structures of this kind in the country, characterized by historical-scientific rigor and evocative settings.
Perugia welcomes with its collection places destined to remain in the heart. Starting from Corso Vannucci, the elegant pedestrian street that leads to Piazza IV Novembre, dominated by the Fontana Maggiore and surrounded by historic buildings such as the Palazzo dei Priori and the Cathedral of San Lorenzo. Also worth seeing is the National Gallery of Umbria (in the Palazzo dei Priori) with its exceptional collection of Umbrian works of art from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance created by artists such as PErugino, Pinturicchio and Beato Angelico. And also the Rocca Paolina and the Basilica of San Francesco al Prato (13th century), now converted into a rare suggestive Auditorium.
On May 10th, on the occasion of the passage of the race, the conference The future of cycling depends on safety will be held, a reflection on the state of health of the Italian cycling movement and on road safety for cyclists and pedestrians.
