MONTEVARCHI – The black clouds that covered Siena when we woke up they opened like a curtain just in time for departure. The sun appeared yellow and clear, but without its usual spring warmth.The race started in time to enjoy the view of Siena and the hills, but shortly after the black curtain closed, spitting cold and water on the riders' heads. At the iconic passage of Gaiole in Chianti, the nerve centre of The Eroica, hail covered the road. On the way down to Montevarchi, the water flowed through the gutters like a raging river. The result was the cancellation of the third stage.
Brocci's regret
In Montevarchi everything was ready to welcome the Eroica Juniores Nations Cup, a party organized but never celebratedAs soon as we arrived in the car park, we saw the first riders passing between the cars, cold and shivering. At the time, the cancellation of the stage was not yet known..
Speaking after the cancellation of the race was Giancarlo Brocci: «The decision is like the referee in football – he explains to us – it is made by the jury and the race management. Conditions must be evaluated kilometer by kilometer, knowing that the primary concern is the well-being of the kids. This is the criterion; the jury leaned in that direction, but also for the contact with the riders. After the intermediate sprint in Gaiole, I went straight to the top of Monte Luco, the day's GPM. I saw that there were three centimeters of hail which from the Gaiolese side of Monte Luco did not allow me to proceed. The last descent, the one that would have led to Montevarchi, would have been impossible to tackle anyway.».
The jury
There were rumors in the group that there was a communication error and that the riders took the wrong road near Cavriglia. In the section that would have led to crossing the centre of this small village, the paving did not allow the riders to pass safely.Some continued straight on, avoiding the danger, while others entered the historic center, forcing the jury to make a decision.
The official statement from the Jury reads as follows: “For safety reasons and adverse weather conditions, the stage was initially neutralized after 56,1 kilometers, and the organizers and the jury subsequently decided to cancel the third stage at that point. The results remain those obtained after the second stage.
Strike
The faces of the boys and some of the sports directors were dark, almost like the sky above their heads. The final decision was to cancel the stage, even if not everything was clear.
"The problem," race director Paolo Maraffon explained, "is that the race was supposed to enter Cavriglia, but the safety conditions for the intermediate sprint weren't there. While we were running, we decided to go straight and skip the historic center. The place where we were supposed to turn was manned by a person, except that someone read the intermediate sprint one kilometer away and some riders, not the first ones, entered the village. Together with the jury we couldn't even find the numbers and so we were forced to neutralize the race.».
"Up until that point," Maraffon continues, "the decision hadn't been made to cancel the race due to the weather. The finish at the top of Monte Luco probably could have been achieved. Only in Levane, where the actual neutralization took place, the riders went straight to the cars. So in the end the decision was not to leave again, the the guys practically went on strike. For goodness sake, it was all legitimate, especially since I had four kids in the car and they were all shivering from the cold. Two of us had to carry one of them by the arms."
