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LATEST FEATURES: LIVE FROM LAKE COMO: L'AQUILA CONTINUES TO MAKE GIRO HISTORY
Gregor Brown
May 20, 2010
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(Photo: Roberto Bettini)
L'Aquila welcomed the Giro d'Italia today: an amazing fight over 264 kilometers, through pouring rain that saw the overall classification re-written and a previously unknown Richie Porte take the leader's pink jersey. But this was not the first time magic was made on the southern Italian roads.
The same mountains that were used today were also the first mountains ever used in the Giro d'Italia. The 1909 race traveled from Chieti to Napoli, May 18, for its third stage.
In 1909, the bikes weighed 15 kilograms and had only one gear. To get their bikes over the climbs, all but one of the riders had to put their feet down on the climbs. Giovanni Gerbi, known as The Red Devil, made it over without ever putting his feet down, but failed to beat Giovanni Rossignoli for the stage win.
Five years later, before the World War, Giuseppe Azzini of Team Bianchi looked ready to command the Giro d'Italia. In the first two stages, he put huge time gaps into his rivals: stage one to Avellino he won by 35'18" and stage two to Bari he won by one hour and 3'22", a record to this day.
However, on stage three, Bari to L'Aquila, 428 kilometers, he lost the lead. Luigi Lucotti won the stage, but Azzini never arrived to the finish. His team went looking for him and found him only the next day, sleeping in a barn. He explained he stopped to rest because he felt he had a fever and then he had planned on re-starting.
Bartali ruled L'Aquila in 1935 and 1936. On May 24, 1935, the relatively unknown 20-year-old Italian from Tuscany dropped his rivals on the Passo delle Capannelle climb. He was caught, but was able to ride away on the final small climbs to the finish in L'Aquila. He won by 19", but more importantly, it was Bartali's first of 17 Giro d'Italia stage wins.
The next year was another first. He won the stage from Campobasso to L'Aquila, over the same climbs used today: Macerone, Rionero Sannitico Roccarasco and Le Svolte. The 6'12" winning margin was enough to give Bartali his first pink jersey. No one could take it away from him and he went on to win that Giro d'Italia, his first of three
In 1954, Swiss Carlo Clerici won his first and only Giro d'Italia thanks to an escape on the stage from Napoli to L'Aquila. He escaped with 224 kilometers to race with Nino Assirelli and the two arrived with a half-hour advantage. Clerici won the stage and took the leader's pink jersey, which he never let it go. After leading for 16 more stages, he won his first and only Giro d'Italia ahead of Hugo Koblet and Fausto Coppi.
Porte won today's stage after forming part of a 56-man escape group at 242 kilometers to race. Their advantage rose and reached 18 minutes. By the finish line, he had over 12 minutes over former leader Alexander Vinokourov.
Along with Vinokourov, other overall favorites, including Cadel Evans, Ivan Basso and Vincenzo Nibali, fell out of contention.
Porte is not the first Australian to wear the pink jersey, Cadel Evans took that honor in 2002. He is the first Tasmanian, though and he hopes to be the first Australian to win the Giro d'Italia when it ends 30 May in Verona.
Standing in front of him are the high mountains through the Dolomites and Alps. He is a first-year as a professional and may lack the experience, which a rider like Carlos Sastre has.
"A mountain is a mountain, isn't it?" he said, half jokingly.
Porte took the white jersey of best young rider with a fast time in the opening time trial and has maintained it with consistent riding. The second half will be even harder, though, and will reveal if Porte can climb as Gerbi did.
If so, today's L'Aquila stage was even more magical. |
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