The Tour de France has started. On Saturday 29 June the first stage of the Grand Départ started from Florence, the city of art, literature and architecture as well as the cradle of the Renaissance and the Italian language. The race pays homage to Gino Bartali, crossing the places that saw him become one of the great masters of Italian cycling, then traveling along the panoramic roads of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, until arriving on the beaches of the Adriatic.
From a sporting point of view, an Apennine crossing with a 3,800 m positive difference in altitudebetween the rather undulating Valico Tre Faggi pass and some steep climbs. The last of which is in the heart of the Republic of San Marino, just before the finish line. The first Yellow Jersey could already be on the shoulders of one of the favorites for the general classification.
The second stage Cesenatico-Bologna is on Sunday: the Grande Boucle’s tribute to Marco Pantani and Romagna that started again after the flood. Departure from Cesenatico at 12:00 and arrival in Bologna expected between 17:00 and 17:30. The capital dressed in yellow along the route, many installations in Cesenatico dedicated to the beloved Pirate.
The Tour de France pays tribute to Marco Pantani, the great cyclist from Romagna who won the Grande Boucle in 1998, the same year in which he won the Giro d’Italia. Last in chronological order to do so.
Those extraordinary days will be relived tomorrow, Sunday 30 June, in the Cesenatico-Bologna stage: 200 kilometers in the name and memory of the beloved Pirate, the champion born by the sea, but who was able to give his best in the mountains, as the escape on the Galibier in 1998, now consigned to the history of cycling, confirms.
“These are days of celebration. A great popular celebration as it should be for a sport like cycling, so loved and followed, which takes place on the roads and among the people. And which has deep roots in Emilia-Romagna. And it is nice that the organizers of the Tour have chosen to dedicate a stage to Pantani, a champion who gave us unforgettable emotions – underlines the president of the Region, Stefano Bonaccini -. But this stage has another important meaning for us: tomorrow the cyclists will compete in the heart of those territories that were hit by one of the most serious floods ever just a year ago. My hope is that the great showcase of the Tour can also be an opportunity to give visibility to these places and their communities who have courageously risen again. They deserve it for the example of tenacity and solidarity they have offered to all of Italy.”
In the heart of Romagna and the arrival in Bologna –A stop in the heart of Romagna, therefore, in the places that have given cycling great champions. And among the many also Ercole Baldini, the train from Forlì, winner of a stage in 1959 who will be honored in Faenza, in the place closest to his birthplace, by the director of the Tour, Christian Prudhomme.
The departure from Cesenatico is scheduled for 12. With a passage also in front of the Spazio Pantani museum. But the entire stage will be a tribute to the unforgettable champion along the roads of Romagna where he trained. With a passage also at the Imola racetrack and from the top of Gallisterna, which became famous at the 2020 Cycling World Championships, organized in record time in Emilia-Romagna during the covid emergency. To end with the double passage on the climb of San Luca in Bologna.
The runners are expected to enter Bologna between 16:00 and 16:30, while the final arrival in Piazza VIII Agosto, in front of the Montagnola park, is expected between 17:00 and 17:30.
And to greet the arrival of the Tour, Bologna dressed up. There are 16 kilometers of fabric with which the city streets along the route have been decorated in recent days: bright yellow ribbons fixed between the buildings, between the trees, on the balconies, on the windows, under the porticoes.
In Cesenatico on Sunday 30 June the inauguration of the evocative installation by the artist Simone Tribuiani: a blow-up of the pedaling Pirate, on the lawn of the municipal stadium where the starting village is located. A second installation by Tribuiani in the body of water in front of the free beach of Piazza Costa, created with the collaboration of the Cooperativa Stabilimenti Balneari: an enormous floating bicycle made up of buoys.
Among the other installations, the yellow sail created by the “Un Mare di Lana” Association and hoisted on the “Le tre fff” boat along the Portocanale, which goes alongside the celebratory one of Pantani affixed to the facade of the Town Hall. “Giallo Tour” color also for the cycle path of Via Mazzini and Via Saffi, with the official stage logos to remember this important event for the city.
And a few days ago the Tende al Mare were inaugurated, a Cesenatico tradition which this year was dedicated to the Tour de France, in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of Ravenna.
