Vincenzo Nibali, Gianni Bugno, Claudio Chiappucci, Ernesto Colnago, Beppe Conti and Giuseppe Martinelli are the winners of the 16th edition of the “Coppa d’Oro” award organized by the Consortium for the protection of Dop Salumi (with the collaboration of the municipality of Piacenza, the Chamber of Commerce of Emilia and Visit Emilia), which this year will be entirely “in yellow”, 24 carats, as befits an extraordinary event like the Tour de France which, as is known, will start from Italy and also cross Emilia Romagna. Piacenza, in particular, will host the start of the third stage.
For this reason, the Consortium wanted the award ceremony to take place at Palazzo Gotico, among the events organized for this extraordinary occasion. There were three key moments of the event: the round table: “The Wind of the Tour” in which we wanted to underline, through the testimony of qualified speakers, how much this extraordinary sporting event brings and how much it leaves in the territory it passes through.
In the meeting, after the greeting of the councilor Simone Fornasari representing the mayor of Piacenza Katia Tarasconi, the president of the Province, Monica Patelli, the prefect Paolo Ponta, Filippo Cella vice president of the Emilia Chamber of Commerce, with the coordination of the sports journalist Giulia De Maio, speeches are Giammaria Manghi Chief of Cabinet Presidency of the Emilia-Romagna Region, Paolo Rizzi Director of the Local Economy Laboratory of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Vincenzo Nibali Winner of the Tour de France, Ernesto Colnago Racing bicycle manufacturer, Beppe Conti sports journalist, and Giuseppe Martinelli sports director and from Rome the head of the secretary of Minister Lollobrigida Sergio Marchi who recalled «how Italy is unique in the world for good food, beauty and sport. The Piacenza PDO cured meats consortium is at the center of the project for the food districts, an opportunity to team up between the public and private sectors.” Marchi also mentioned the new resources allocated to the fight against African swine fever which involves three ministries.
Manghi underlined how sporting excellence «brings riches to the territory, together with the regional food valley which boasts 40 PDO and PGI products, products that make the difference in the attractiveness of passion tourism. With these events, almost unknown aspects and places of the territories are discovered.”
A great spectacle for all enthusiasts, but the Tour de France will also have important economic repercussions for the territory: «In France – said Paolo Rizzi, director of the Laboratory of Local Economy at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart – the organizers of the Tour say that every stage has an impact between 5 and 15 million. The estimates for Emilia Romagna speak of an overall impact of around 50 million, but let’s remember that the real impact is not the economic one, but that of visibility, cohesion, teamwork to improve Piacenza”.
Vincenzo Nibali thanked Martinelli «who led the team as he did. We must always set new goals: the results I have achieved, I owe them to everyone who helped me. The Tour in Italy has added value. Cycling is a unique sport, sport is life, the Tour is overwhelming and I still reap the benefits today.” A concept confirmed by Colnago: «The tour is a unique event, I congratulate all the managers and personalities who managed to bring this event to Italy and Piacenza, which will be remembered in time and history».
And then Colnago, 92 years old in splendid fashion, expanded his speech with many tasty anecdotes from his career and the many champions who have won on his bicycles. Martinelli also thanked Davide Cassani: «Thanks to him too we managed to bring the Tour to Italy, an event that will be talked about for a long time in Piacenza». And he remembered a great champion like Marco Pantani and hypothesized that Pogagar will also succeed in the legendary “double” of the Giro and Tour. Beppe Conti, journalist and historical memory of cycling, cited the exploits of Bartali and Coppi, those of Anquetil, Gastone Nencini , Felice Gimondi, Pantani and the last Italian, Nibali to have won the Giro and Tour in 2014.
The awards ceremony then followed with the awarding of the prestigious “Coppa d’Oro 2024” award, with a sculpture specially created for the exceptional occasion by the artist Marisa Montesissa. After the AperiDop in Piacenza, the talk show “I’ll tell you about the tour” began (which we will report on), then Daniele Ronda’s “cycling songs”.
THE AWARDED
Vincenzo Nibali. Considered one of the strongest and most complete Italian champions of all time. At international level he was one of seven cyclists to have won at least one edition of all three Grand Tours, having won the Vuelta a España in 2010, the Giro d’Italia in 2013 and 2016 and the Tour de France in 2014 Completing an exceptional list of victories are the victories in two monument classics: the Giro di Lombardia, in 2015 and 2017, and the Milan-Sanremo, in 2018. Added to these great victories are two Italian titles in the road race, in 2014. and in 2015. Many other successes have crowned a truly enviable cycling career. He is the last Italian to have won the Tour de France.
Gianni Bugno. A true natural talent of Italian cycling. He was capable of winning the 1990 Tour of Italy wearing the pink jersey from the first to the last stage. Winner for two consecutive years at the Tour de France in the deadly stage arriving at Alpe d’Huez. Winner for two consecutive years in 1991 and 1992 of the World Road Championship in Stuttgart and Benidorm. Also winner of the Milan Sanremo and the Tour of Flanders as well as many other very important successes. Twice he missed out on success at the Tour de France by a whisker, second in 1991 and third in 1993 behind Miguel Indurain.
Claudio Chiappucci. El Diablo, this is how Chiappucci is known in the cycling world, precisely because of his impetuous temperament, always on the attack. He is capable of very long escapes and very strong on climbs, so much so that he won the jersey of best climber in several tours of Italy and France. He was on the podium at the Tour of France for three consecutive years, second in 1990, third in 1991 and second again in 1992. He wore the yellow jersey for eight consecutive stages at the 1990 Tour, truly coming close to the final victory. In 1991, always with an attack from afar, even from Turchino, he won the Milan Sanremo alone. He was also on the podium at the Tour of Italy in 1991 and 1992, taking second place in the general classification and third in 1993.
Ernesto Colnago. The best known bicycle manufacturer in the entire world. Every cyclist has always dreamed of being able to pedal with a “Colnago”. The greatest cycling champions have won with his bicycles from Fiorenzo Magni to Eddy Merckx and today Tadej Pogacar. He participated in 25 Giri d’Italia and 24 Tour de France as a mechanic at the service of the best professionals, more than 250 teams and 6,000 riders raced with his bikes for a total of over 7,000 victories, 61 world titles, 11 Olympic , 18 World Cups and 22 Grand Tours. In 1972 he built the super-light bike, weighing just 5.5 kg, which marked an era with Eddy Merckx’s hour record in Mexico City. Many technological innovations have been introduced by Ernesto Colnago, first of all carbon fiber in the world of competitions, also thanks to prestigious collaborations such as the one with Enzo Ferrari. In short, he is the Made in Italy of competition bikes in the world.
Beppe Conti. He is widely considered the historical expert of international cycling. Journalist and two-wheel commentator, he is the point of reference for re-proposing the exploits of champions through interviews and comments on video documents. Author of numerous books on the cycling topic, the latest of which is “The Tour Mystery”, triumphs and tragedies, historical exploits, background stories, mysteries and misdeeds of the legendary protagonists of the most important race in the world since 1903.
Giuseppe Martinelli. In the world of cycling “Martino” was a good cyclist, in his eight years of professionalism he won stages in the Tour of Italy and the Tour of Spain. But he achieved the greatest satisfactions as sports director. In fact he is the technical director who has won the most in the history of cycling. During his career he was alongside riders such as Claudio Chiappucci, Marco Pantani, Stefano Garzelli, Gilberto Simoni, Damiano Cunego, Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru. He won the Tour de France in 1998 with the unforgettable Marco Pantani and with Vincenzo Nibali in 2014. He is the only Italian sports director to have won the great French race twice. In addition to these successes he led his athletes to win the Giro d’Italia six times. An unparalleled palmares!
