The Giro visits Plan de Corones:
Until very recently the best way to travel here was
a chairlift. And the Giro is not about skiing.
May 24th in the Giro:
IN 1935 Gino Bartali was 20 years old and racing in
his first Giro. On May 24 he took his first stage, in
L'Aquila. 19 years later in 1954 he would be racing
his final Giro, and he would place 13th.
May 24th, 1949: "I measure, or at least least I hope
I know how to measure, the frightful exertion of a
stage like today's from Cosenza to Salerno, 292
kilometers, almost all of them in the mountains,
with a discouraging, uninterrupted succession of very
steep climbs and descents that didn't let up for a
minute; and then there was the violent storm that
brought wind, cold, fog, and rain, to say nothing of
the depressing effect of the landscape, no doubt
beautiful when the sun is out, but today, pallid,
wild, and repulsive.
....
In the final sprint, the one with the most class came
out on top: Coppi first; second Leoni who, they say,
would have taken a normal sprint, but he had worn
himself out with the unsuccessful break; third, and
rightly so, Bartali." - Dino Buzzati, Coppi vs Bartali
at the 1949 Tour of Italy. Coppi's winning time was
almost exactly 10 hours.
In 1960 Pierino Baffi takes the finish in Rimini.
Merckx, humiliated the year before at Savona, takes
the stage and the pink jersey on this date in 1970.
Two weeks remained, but there was no doubt that he
would win.
It has only happened once. Alain Van Heerden of South
Africa took a stage in Pesaro on this date in 1979.
In 1987 Stephen Roche became the first Irishman to
wear pink. And the Giro hit the fan because of it.
Pierino's son Adriano won in Rieti in 1993. But we
now know that father/son stuff happens all the time.
Gilberto Simoni remembers this date. He took the stage
to Alpe di Pampeago in 2003, and put a firm grip on
the pink jersey he would carry to Milan.