Many champions have passed through the streets of Tour of LunigianaWe heard about it a few days ago from Johnny Carera, as a litmus test for riders with a sure future (the 2019 podium opens with Piccolo ahead of Martinelli and Piras). The history of the most important Italian stage race for juniors It suffered its last stop last year, naturally due to Covid, but throughout its evolution it was not an isolated case. Suffice it to say that since 1950 the race, which was born in 1929 by the hand of Us Vezzanese, had been erased from the calendars, only to be taken back by Us Casano in 1975. Since then it had gone continued uninterruptedly until 2014, the year in which the race was cancelled due to internal problems within the organization, also going through the great transition from the amateur to the junior category, at the beginning of the 1980s.
Home run
Renato Di Casale, general director of the race, is a bit of the historical memory of the Giro, always designed in this border territory between Liguria and Tuscany with all the stages between the provinces of La Spezia and Massa Carrara (even if in some editions it “exceeded” the Pistoia stage with the Lamporecchio stage).
«The curious thing – he says – is that The Giro della Lunigiana was reborn to provide a battleground between two great rivals of the timeCorrado Donadio, who won that Giro, was always challenged by a rider from La Spezia, so we thought that a stage race could be the ideal way to settle the issue and so it was».
Countries and regions
The move to the junior category also brought with it special regulations.
«The Giro was supposed to be for representative teams – he says – this allowed the accession of foreign nationals. Starting in 1979 with Czechoslovakia and Poland and the presence of teams from the Eastern Bloc, it always remained a feature of the race, one of the few meeting points between Americans and Soviets on the pedals. They could participate national teams and regional teams, half and half, with a few exceptions. We couldn't help but also give space to the organizing company and the representative teams for the provinces involved... Those were very particular times, I remember for example one year in which the Polish national team did not want to return home and some riders ran away… The Tour of Lunigiana became the autumn and junior equivalent of the Giro delle Regioni, which took place in spring and was still reserved for amateurs."
Cunego and Nibali
Over the years, many riders have passed through the Giro della Lunigiana who then they had a great professional career. Some were still immature, like in 1982, when the Italian national team presented people like Gianni Bugno and Franco Ballerini, but the race was won by the Soviet Yuri Abramov (Bugno, however, had finished second the year before). On its roads they cycled also world champions such as Moreno Argentin, Maurizio Fondriest and Paolo Bettini, third in '92.
«However – Di Casale continues – I remember two who were already winners as juniors: Damiano Cunego first in '98 and Vincenzo Nibali in 2002, you could see that they had much more than the others, especially the great Sicilian."
Waiting for Brenner
Many others who emerged at the Giro didn't become champions. Thinking back, Di Casale, however, thinks of a rider who participated very recently and still has plenty of time to emerge.
«It's the German Marco Brenner (this year making his debut among the pros in the DSM Team, ed.), who in 2019 he won three stages, but did not even finish on the all-Italian podium, with Andrea Piccolo's victory. I had a strong feeling that they had waged war on him at home, in his national team, for this he lost, without taking anything away from the blue».
Remco effect
Speaking of champions who have passed through Lunigiana, the race director Alessio Baudone has no doubts, however in indicating who impressed him most.
«Remco Evenepoel, first in 2018 – he says – I've never seen a rider break the pace like him, as soon as we started he was going twice as fast as the others, a powerful and intelligent athlete like no other. Another one who was really strong was Slovenian Matej Mohoric, first in 2012, he was truly a tightrope walker even then when going downhill."
The Bettiol mystery
There is an episode, dating back to the previous year, which however has Baudone's experience at the helm of the Ligurian-Tuscan race marked.
«In 2011, the final stage began under an unlucky star – he says – with a downpour that forced the removal of the classic Fosdinovo climb, a key event every year. On a bend towards Marina di Carrara there was a general tumble and we had to stop the raceAlberto Bettiol, who was leading the standings, came towards us saying that his leg was in severe pain: we rushed him to the Sarzana hospital, but the tests were negative and the doctor gave him the all-clear to return to the race. The Lombardy team leaders started a huge controversy, but I had applied the regulations and the UCI agreed with me, so Bettiol won the race."
