They are streets of cycling history: the story for example of Luigi Lucotti, who was born and started pedaling right here where The third stage of the Italian appendix of the Tour de France passes on Monday 1st July: from Piacenza to Turin and in between the province of Pavia and above all the Oltrepò.
Strictly speaking, according to forecasts and timetables, mark the times: around 12.02/12.04 the passage of the runners in the locality is given Cardazzo of Bonasco, a town of six hundred inhabitants which will therefore seal the official entry into the Pavia area; then at 12.10/12.13 here is the transit to Little roadand then at 12.16/12.20 the one at Weapons and at 12.46/12.53 the one at Voghera, the birthplace of Lucotti himself, one of those – a great Italian classic – forgotten at home and much loved abroad, namely in France.
Fortunately a recent and intense book signed by Paolo Arbasinoand published by the Ghisallo museum, the world temple of cycling in Magreglio, in the province of Como, has helped to fight oblivion where for decades the memory had lain for Lucotti, who was also a mechanic and then the owner of a bicycle shop: came into the world in 1893 and died in 1980he lived through seasons of world wars, of extreme poverty, ofa cycling that was a titanic effort; his are the exact words regarding a “labor that the beasts would have refused”.
After all the stages were truly endless (he won one that involved staying in the saddle for nineteen hours; yes, nineteen, it’s not a typo), the roads were bumpy, between partial asphalt and dirt roads with sinkholes, the bicycles were what they were, the sports clothes too. Lucotti had been going strong since he was a boy, he confirmed himself at the beginning of his youth and in adulthood, with the victory of stages both at Tour of Italy both at Tour de Franceand noble placings in one-day races such as the Milan-Sanremo and the Milan-Turin.
A predestined one? Yes. But without much luck. He lacked the big salaries of other peers, worse than him, he lacked a certain ability to sell himself; certainly, following a widespread example, even of certain great champions, Lucotti he went to seek lucrative engagements in Francebut perhaps he could have done it with more conviction, more consistency, because the French appreciated his class, his fluid pedaling, the simplicity of staying in the saddle even on the most solemn slopes. But on the other hand, deep down, in the end, Lucotti loved pedaling and that’s it, he wasn’t someone who would sit there and do too many calculations.
A simple man, a passionate man, a humble provincial man, accustomed to suffering and unreliable when he threatened to give up. He wrote Mark Pastonesi, the best sports narrator we have, in a 2006 article for the Gazzetta on the Tour: «In the time of Luigi Lucotti, 1921, the road was a mule track for clogs and not for wheels: Henri Desgrange, patron of the Tour, described it as “bianco come Pierrot” e “his face was cadaverous”. Lucotti climbed the Tourmalet, then declared: “Enough, I will never race again”…». It wasn’t exactly like that even if in the final part of his career Lucotti was a gregarious rather than a solitary finisher.
Amen, back to today. Service Notes: state road 10 Padana inferiore-via Emilia will be closed between 9am and 1pm; the advertising caravan, which has been anticipating the Tour races since the 1930s, will cross the province of Pavia between 10 and 11; Monday’s stage is the longest, covering 213 kilometres; the Pavia stage will precede the mountain grand prix with a climb to Tortonathe point chosen by the majority of fans to see the runners at a more human, less sustained speed, with the hope of receiving a gift a water bottle thrown by cyclists, maximum trophy.
