«Negligence, incompetence, imprudence – says Carlo Iannelli – the basic extremes of criminal guilt. It would have been enough for a fair trial for manslaughter to have been held, putting on the table that these gentlemen were also acquitted. I would have been the first to applaud. I cannot accept that it is not done. a trial in front of the death of a twenty year old boy and in the presence of elements galore. Is there something strange about this, or not? A trial would also have helped to really focus attention on the neglected and ignored issue of security."
The lawyer from Prato, father of Giovanni Iannelli who died in a Piedmontese race five years ago, he says it all in one breath and so on for an hour and a half of interview. Most people blocked him, because his interventions on social media They're annoying and irreverent. Yet, given the topic, blocking them seemed disrespectful. Today we try to listen and understand why this lawyer father has been walking on the edge of madness for five years, trying in vain to get to a trial.We've divided this interview into several installments, which we'll publish today and in the coming days.
The Minister's side
Why would the Minister of Sport repeatedly talk about this case, if everything were really in order? Even on Thursday, during the presentation of the Italian Regions' Cup, Andrea Abodi made a reference to the incident. As had already done on January 25th in the aftermath of Sara Piffer's death.
"The issue of security," the Minister said, "unfortunately hits the headlines when something happens that leaves a mark on the lives of people and families. There are still too many deaths, this is true on normal days, but it is also true on competition daysThere are still some unresolved issues here. I would like that in the face of deaths during competitions, there should be a timely, effective, credible and convincing investigation of responsibilitiesWe're not looking for a culprit, we're looking to identify security models that, even through the dramatic experience of those who have passed away, will allow us to be increasingly efficient on the security front."
Carlo, tell us, who was your son Giovanni?
Giovanni was an exemplary boy, an exemplary rider, whose only mistake was to love the bicycle and cycling. For Giovanni, cycling wasn't a reason for living, it was a beautiful thing in his life. He loved riding his bike for the feeling of freedom he got, but my son wasn't just a cyclist.He was also a student, a 22-year-old boy who had a huge group of friends, not only in the cycling world. Giovanni was many other things. He was kindness and beauty personified. Anyone who knew him agrees that he was great qualities of humanity, generosity, loyalty and correctnessThis was Giovanni. A boy who certainly didn't deserve to end up like this and didn't deserve the treatment they're reserving for him.
What do you remember about October 5, 2019?
I was on the first floor of my house in Prato, watching the Giro dell'Emilia, won by Primoz Roglic. My wife was in the next room. At a certain point, the Giro dell'Emilia had finished a few minutes before, I heard her scream and I heard a thudI went over there and it was her who had the cell phone in her hand and was showing it to me: "A Hato Green rider falls to the ground in Molino dei Torti."And there my blood runs cold, because there were two sprinters on the team, that was a race for sprinters. It could have been Giovanni or Lorenzo. So I got on the phone trying to talk to someone on the team, but nobody answered me because those were very hectic moments.
And then what?
At a certain point I can speak with Imere Malatesta, Giovanni's sporting director, and he tells me they're taking him by helicopter to Alexandria. I don't even remember what I was wearing, if I was dressed, if I was wearing pajamas, I don't remember. I remember taking the car keys and saying to my wife, “Let’s go!”I don't know how I got to Alexandria, I really don't know how I did it. On the way, I kept trying to get in touch with someone, but no one answered. At a certain point, having arrived about 50-60 kilometers from Alessandria, the other sports director, Mirko Musetti, called meOf course, I stop in the emergency lane and he says to me: "Look, Carlo, Giovanni is in intensive care. This is the number, call intensive care immediately."
What do they tell her?
I call right away and a doctor answers, coming from far away. He tells me my son was in a bicycle accident, but I tell him I know everything and want to know how he is. And he talks about "a sort of perfect storm". In the sense that a series of circumstances have combined to make the situation very critical. And then at the end of the call he asks me where I am. I tell him I'm on the highway and I'm almost at the hospital. And he says, "Look, go slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly." I thought he was dead and obviously I didn't go slowlyI arrived at the intensive care unit in Alessandria and was able to enter the intensive care unit late in the evening.
What did he find?
Giovanni had undergone a desperate operation. If it had happened to an elderly person, they wouldn't have even intervened. But being twenty years old, they attempted the impossible. The truth is that Giovanni unfortunately died instantly, because the impact of his head against that red brick column at 70 kilometers per hour was devastating. He was lying in intensive care, attached to life support. He was warm. He was breathing. He was as handsome as a Greek god, he had nothing on his face, because the lesion was on the back of the head. He only had this turbanyou on the head and just a few small scrapes. It remained like that until Monday, October 7, 2019, when the doctors called us and gave us the news that Giovanni had diedMy wife and I didn't even consult for long and decided to opt for organ donation. We later learned from his girlfriend that Giovanni had agreed to it in case anything happened to him, to demonstrate his altruism, in his everyday life and in cycling. He made himself available; he truly was the friend everyone would like to have. When we were in intensive care, a group of boys left from Prato, friends outside of cycling. I saw these peers of Giovanni, so in their early twenties, who were struggling to walk…
What happens next?
I've been involved in cycling for over thirty years. I was a professional for ten years. President of the Prato Cycling, organizing races for all categories, from very young to professionals, with the Gran Premio Industria e Commercio. I was vice president of the Tuscan Regional Committee of the Cycling Federation for eight years. I have been a judge for 15 years in the Justice Bodies, always elected by the various assemblies: regional and national.. He never mentioned anyone to me. This is to tell you that I've had everything clear from the start, very clear. And so, as soon as I recovered a little, I started to do an investigation on my own, with my very modest means.. And I discovered that in the face of a particularly dangerous finishing straight, that race had been approved by the technical structure of the Piedmont Regional Committee without the documents relating to safety, mandatorily required by the technical regulations…
