Cesena, 27 June 2024 – The first ones have already arrived. With campercoi vanswith the curtains and with a enthusiasm that only those who have cycling in their soul can understand.
Tour de France, Pantani’s fans already fill the Barbotto climb before the finish of the race: the tribute to the Pirate (Photo Ravaglia)
Il Tour de France will climb the hairpin bends of Barbottoin the Municipality of Saracen MarketSaturday 29th June, but already on the morning of the 27th there are those who have positioned themselves for take the placepromising to stay until Saturday eveningthen set off and head straight for the seafront Cesenaticowhere the cycling caravan will depart the following day.
Whoever is already there, is there for Mark Pantani. They are the usual fans, the historic ones, of the club Borello and of Cesenaticowho have ‘split’ i hairpin bends and they got to work, with the buckets of paint they banners. Without forgetting the gazebos under which grills and refrigerators will be placed. It will be a party. A party colored in yellow and designed to pay homage to the ‘Pirate’who was at home here on the Barbotto.
The homage to Pantani
“We pay homage to Marco”. The speaker is a character who alone is worth the story. His name is Bianco. White Saints o Of the Saintsone of those surnames that if you are not from Romagna, you think is a mistake on the keyboard of the editorial office’s computer or, worse, of the registry office of the Municipality.
White is a veteranfollowed Pantani since Marco was a boy struggling with the first rides in youth groups. And she immediately fell in love with it. She followed him with the Borello club far and wide on the roads of the Giro and the Grande Boucle. He lived i triumphs and the dark pages. It’s always been there. And it continues to be there.
“Marco he deserves, yes. And in honor of him we thought of a real one partyWe positioned ourselves inside the large green space that overlooks a spectacular point of the route and we placed a sort of ‘village’, complete with benches and banners. We will enjoy it all day, because even if the passage of cyclists runs out in a matter of minutes, beauty is everything that is aroundthe atmosphere, the desire to be together, friendship. There will be over a hundred of us, friends from all over Italy and abroad will come to visit us”.
The same spirit can be felt a few hairpin bends away, in the final stretch of the Barbotto climb, the hardest one. Here the age drops, there are people in their forties and fifties, those who were kids in the Pirate’s time, almost the same age as him. Myths are not forgotten, because time does not dilute them. There are those who paint the writings on the asphalt, those who place blow-ups. We sweat and laugh. You take a break and savor the moment. “We have the tent!”. They laugh with the spirit of those who, far from a seaside holiday… They will stay here until Saturday evening and then they too will run to Cesenatico. Complete package, at very low costs and guaranteed fun.
Welcome to Romagnawhere is the Tour de France will mark a page of history of the territory. In the same moments in which Romagna will mark a page in the history of the Tour de France.
