Waiting for the Grand Departure of the Tour de France from Florencecity symbol of the Italian Renaissance, the famous sports newspaper L’Equipelinked to the yellow race, decided to dedicate an article to the alphabet of our cycling remembering how the Belpaese is among the custodians of the history of this sport. We probably won’t agree with all the pairings made, but it’s interesting to see how our cycling is seen and remembered by the land of the Tour de France.
It starts with the A by Vittorio Adorni, the runner from Parma who died in 2022 at the age of 85. Famous for his elegance in the saddle, he was a teammate of Felice Gimondi at Salvarani, then of Eddy Merckx at Faema. Above all, he won the Giro in 1965 and the world title in Imola three years later.
B is the letter linked to Alfredo Binda, the first world champion in history in 1927, at the Nürburgring, and winner of five Giri d’Italia. With Van Steenbergen, Merckx, Freire and Sagan he holds the absolute record of three world titles. It was then Binda, who became national coach, who made Coppi and Bartali race in the same team.
From the C of Dr. Conconi we move on to D of the Dolomites, the imposing mountains, scene of many exciting battles which saw the victory of the greatest runners in the world.
Then there is the E of “Elefantino”, to remember those ears that protruded under Marco Pantani’s bandana, a nickname that was replaced with that of the “Pirate”.
The F is that of Faema, the team that saw Eddy Merckx become the strongest of all. Active between 1955 and 1962, it took its name from the espresso coffee machine company of the same name based in Binasco. With Faema, in addition to Merckx, there were Charly Gaul and Rik Van Looy.
Unlike those who would have associated the B with Bartali, is the letter G is the one dedicated to Gino il Pio, because in the world of cycling he was first of all Gino and then Bartali. His memory will be celebrated this year with the Grand Depart of the yellow race, starting on June 29th from his Florence.
After the H for Helicopters (helicopters in French), we arrive at I of Imola, home to the Enzo and Dino Ferrari racetrack, which was the finish line of the World Championship won by Julian Alaphilippe in 2020, but also that of Vittorio Adorni in 1968 after 90 kilometers of solitary escape.
The letter K is for Knut KnudsenNorwegian rider who was the first from his country to win a stage in the Giro d’Italia in 1975.
The L is for Fabiana Luperini, the dominator of women’s cycling in the 1990s and 2000s and nicknamed the “Pantanina” for her qualities in the mountains.
For the letter M perhaps we Italians would have chosen something else, but The Team he wanted to link this letter to the word Malariaa disease that killed Fausto Coppi on 2 January 1960 as he returned from the criterium in Ouagadougou, in Upper Volta now Burkina Faso.
There N is for Gastone Nencini, the Tuscan rider who won a Tour and a Giro and who will have his special memory with the Grande Boucle stage which will start from Florence.
There Or is it from Oropa, to celebrate Marco Pantani and his extraordinary feat during the 1999 Giro d’Italia when, on the climb towards the sanctuary of Oropa in Piedmont, victim of a mechanical problem, he was caught by his opponents, but he reacted immediately and defeated them one to one overtaking them in the space of six kilometres.
P is for Prosecco, our sparkling wine uncorked by every winner of the Italian races. The Q is for Stage Quarterthat area where the headquarters of RCS, organizer of the main Italian races, is located and where the journalists’ press room is also located.
The R is for requinthe French word which translated into our language means shark and for us this name will forever be linked to Vincenzo Nibali, the shark of the Strait. The Sicilian was able to win the three great Tours and is the last Italian rider to have won the Giro, in 2016, and the Tour de France in 2014.
S is for Sanremo, the Ligurian town linked to the Spring Classic, i.e. the Milan-Sanremo, but which also boasts the distinction of being the first Italian city to have hosted a stage of the Tour de France, in 1948.
The letter T is dedicated to Vincenzo Torriani. For international cycling he was the Napoleon of the Giro. He was seen as the Jacque Goddet of Italian cycling with a reign that lasted forty-six years, between 1946 and 1992. Torriani is remembered by The Team for his original ideas and his innovative spirit, he was at the forefront for having discovered passes that later became legendary, such as the Mortirolo or the Gavia.
U stands for One, or the biggest and strongest, a record shared between Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi for fifteen years. Rivalry that fascinated the world of cycling crossing the Italian border starting from 1940, the year in which Coppi won his first Giro and from that moment on, the battles between Bartali and Coppi kept the public glued to the radio and television.
The V is for the legendary Vigorelli velodrome, built in 1935, nine-hour record theatre, the first made in the year of its inauguration by Giuseppe Olmo, followed by Maurice Richard, Frans Slaats, Maurice Archambaud, Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Ercole Baldini and the last in 1957 by Roger Rivière.
The W is to remember the Belgian runner Wouter Weylandt, died at the age of 26 during the Giro d’Italia on 9 May 2011, in the descent of the Passo del Bocco, near Genoa, during the third stage.
The X stands for XII, or Pope Pius XII, who left a mark in the history of Italian cycling by consecrating the Madonna del Ghisallo as the patron saint of cyclists in 1949. The torch, carried mainly by Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi, is still found inside the sanctuary, above Lake Como.
The Y for Yad Vashem for 2013, the year of the memorial in Jerusalem, created in memory of the Jewish victims of the Shoah and which recognized Gino Bartali as Righteous Among the Nations. The Tuscan champion, using the status of an athlete, smuggled false documents on his bike to save the Jews. For many years Bartali refused to talk about these acts of resistance, which therefore remained unknown for a long time.
The primer of Italian cycling, compiled by L’Equipe, ends with Z like De Zanthe legendary Adriano De Zan, historical voice of the cycling races broadcast by Rai from 1955 to 2000 with lyrical flights that had undoubtedly been passed down to him from his parents, operetta singers. He died in 2001 at the age of 69, a year after leaving Rai.
