Carmine Castellano, director of the Tour of Italy, passed away last Tuesday at the age of 89. In less than 12 hours, March 24 also took away Gino Paoli and Dino Signori, themselves the lodestar of the music and cycling industry. By the time the news reached us, the thought went straight to Giuseppe MartinelliWho knows why? Curiosity over the memory of the coach who, in the same years, managed the greatest (Italian) champion of the last thirty years, prevailed.
«I had already seen Castellano in Torriani's orbit – Martinelli recalls – that for the Giro d'Italia he was like Jean Marie Leblanc for the Tour de FranceThe owner of the Giro, not even the director or the organizer: he was father and master. I always had a wonderful relationship with Castellano, who came after him.He was quite a man of few words, but you could talk to him. I always had the feeling he was one of us. You could sit there and have a chat before a meeting at the Giro d'Italia..."
A brief excursus before starting. From 1946 to 1992 the Giro d'Italia was directed by Vincenzo Torriani, who had taken over from Armando Cougnet, the first director of the Giro d'Italia. At Torriani's school, Castellano began his training in 1975 and took over in 1992 and remained at the helm until 2005.
How would you define the relationship that developed between you and Castellano?
The organizer of the Giro d'Italia is more important than all the others, even if you then meet him at the Tirreno and the Lombardia. It is not easy to create a spontaneous friendship, which isn't really friendship because you go to eat together. A special feeling had been created with Castellano, perhaps because I had the rider who made a piece of Giro history. Everyone thinks of the Pantani of 1998, but let's not forget that in 1994 Marco finished second in the Giro and third in the Tour. He was in his second year as a pro, like Seixas now, like Pogacar in the early days.
What was so special about Castellano?
You met him on the street, he stopped and we started talking: He didn't just do it with me, he stopped with others tooAfter him, the organizers all became their own children. I'm not saying they're showing off, but... they make you feel like they are the organizers and you are the sports directorIn my opinion, today's organizers don't even know the sporting directors anymore, because there are so many of them, it's hard to have a point of reference. Once upon a time, the sporting director was the soul of the team. Castellano had respect for me and I for him. He was the organizer of the Giro d'Italia, which for us Italians is the most important race.
Did you always address him informally or was there also a phase when you addressed him formally?
Indeed I almost always addressed him formally.I always showed respect, because he was a big person, even in height I mean (laughs, ed.). I always thought of him as a modern-day Prudhomme., someone who greets you every morning and you understand that you have just shaken hands with someone important.
What about Torriani?
To talk to him, you had to have an important topic: you couldn't just meet him on the street and ask him for an opinion. I'm not saying he didn't stop, but he was a statesman: someone you almost hope you don't meet, so you don't feel so small.Maybe I was still too young, but I remember my ten years in Castellano differently…
A kind person, yet firm in his decisions?
Enzo Cainero wanted the Giro to pass through Crostis at all costsIt was a very narrow road and I went to see it. At a certain point I had to go two and a half kilometers in reverse because I couldn't turn the car and I thought I should call for help. So in the meeting with Castellano I said that the climb could be done, but cars would not have been able to go up.
And he?
He was very clear: "Look, I'm telling you we're not doing it, because it's impossible. We also went to do a reconnaissance and it's out of the question that we can get through." And then he looked at me as if to say, “Thank goodness you agree with me!”
How did he deal with the riders' strikes?
Iron fist, like the 1997 Tirreno the riders had stopped complaining about safety problemsHe had a meeting in a hotel and was furious, I remember he told us to go to hell. He didn't readmit anyone within the maximum time limit and so we had to come home with the whole team, while 50 riders remained in the race.
Aprica 1994, Pantani outdistances Indurain and the Giro d'Italia explodes: what happened with Castellano?
I was on the flagship and I stopped Pantani to wait for Indurain, Rodriguez and BerzinCastellano almost came to ask me what I was doing, I remember it very well. I didn't tell him anything, but I understand that he could it seems strange that I stopped Pantani after the Mortirolo done that way and after the victory the day before. In reality I was convinced that that was the case we would have distanced ourselves more from Berzin, who was wearing the pink jersey, and indeed that's how it went on the Santa Cristina.
Again Pantani, on the roads of the Amalfi Coast where Castellano came from, went home because of the famous Chiunzi cat that crossed the road and made him fall.
That day Castellano accepted the fact that I had stopped the whole team to wait for MarcoIn the evening he called me because he was worried that Marco wouldn't leave the next day, as he later did because he was in a lot of pain.
Was he an organizer who understood the needs of the riders or did he put those of the Giro before everything else?
I think he understood that it was important to make them feel goodIf Pantani had been there, he might have had a tougher Giro, he knew how to draw attention to one rider rather than another. He could have also put in one less time trial or one more climbBefore, certain things would arrive a little earlier and you'd have time to go and see the Giro routes before it snowed, now you almost never know when they'll present it, so everything is different.
June 5, 1999, Campiglio Day.
I didn't see Castellano that day, but we spoke later. He was very disappointed, especially for everything that had happened to him.. But always with intelligence and without anger, he said he didn't expect it. "Look, Martinelli," he told me, "he's something too important, we'll have a chance to talk." Even though we never did.
The following year, Marco decided to leave for the Giro at the last minute…
We left from Rome, including a visit to the Pope. And when I was sure that Marco would leave, I called him.I told him I didn't know what condition he was in, but he would be there. And he did nothing but thank me: "Whatever happens, it's a pleasure to have him back in the group.".
Have you heard it recently?
I haven't heard from him in a long time. I had seen him at the Giro in a departure from NaplesI remember being in Astana. The morning I read about his death, it was like a flash that lasted all day. Holy shit, I didn't think so.. Then I heard he was dead. Dino Signori, which I knew very well because I've been there a thousand times with the riders, but I hadn't heard it for a long time. And finally I began to see the headlines about Gino Paoli and at first I thought it was the anniversary of one of his songs.
Do you think Castellano will have the chance to meet Pantani there?
I'm sure they've already met and Castellano will have asked him: "Pantani, what the hell happened that day?" And Marco must have replied: "Lawyer, it happens in life, in Campiglio they really screwed me."
