Pollentier still had some good kilometers left in him. He won the 1980 Tour of Flanders and was second in the 1982 Vuelta, but the man who came seemingly out of nowhere to seize the 1977 Giro was long gone.
Both Maertens and Pollentier trusted their money to others who lost it all for them. Maertens ended up broke and now works at a cycling museum in Belgium, and Pollentier opened a garage selling tires. Belgian Classics legend Rik van Steenbergen generously summed up Pollentier as “the last of the real stone-hard characters of Flanders.”
That September Moser won the World Road Championship in San Cristobal, Colombia.
1978. The 1978 route was laid out in a 3,610.5-kilometer figure eight with an average stage length of 180 kilometers. Starting in Aosta, it crossed to the east, just north of the Arno and went only as far south as Ravello before turning north, taking seven stages to get to the Dolomites. With plenty of climbing and three individual time trials totaling 82.5 kilometers (not counting the prologue), a good all-rounder should triumph again in Milan. To avoid a conflict with soccer’s World Cup, the Giro start was moved up two weeks, running into the end of the Vuelta. Because of this, only the Teka squad represented Spain. Not a single French rider came to contest what the French saw as an Italian race jiggered to allow Italians to win (they should have asked Pollentier). The Belgians were the only other nationality represented in any number to break up the Italian party.
Dietrich “Didi” Thurau won the two-kilometer prologue with Moser second at almost the same time. Since the prologue didn’t count towards the General Classification, it mattered only for show and to award a first Pink Jersey.
It was stage three, ridden in Tuscany from La Spezia on the coast to Cascina, that may have decided the Giro. On the final climb, before the descent into Cascina, the contenders seemed to be content to mark each other. While Moser, Thurau, Giuseppe Saronni and the others were comfortable knowing that each had the other in sight, Johan de Muynck, now riding for Bianchi with Gimondi as gregario di lusso, motored off the front. Although de Muynck had placed second and nearly won the 1976 Giro, he didn’t seem to worry the others. De Muynck cruised across the finish line with a 52-second lead over the Moser-led pack.
The slightly built Belgian was just barely able defend his lead the next day in a 25-kilometer time trial. Thurau was his usual superb self when it came to riding against the clock but he could only beat de Muynck by 44 seconds, leaving de Muynck in pink.
The General Classification stood thus: 1. Johan de Muynck
2. Didi Thurau @ 8 seconds
3. Francesco Moser @ 15 seconds
4. Knut Knudsen @ 18 seconds
5. Roger de Vlaeminck @ 20 seconds
After stage seven was finished rolling through the hills of Campania, the list of contenders was reduced by one. Thurau tried to escape early in the stage and ran out of gas. Completely. He finished 4 minutes 17 seconds after Giuseppe Saronni led in a twenty-man group that included de Vlaeminck, Moser, de Muynck, Baronchelli and Battaglin. Thurau’s quest for victory was over and after crashing in stage ten, he abandoned.
Stage eight ended on the Sorrento Peninsula south of Naples and revealed a new dimension to Italy’s young wonder Giuseppe Saronni. On the climb to the finish line in Ravello, the 20-year-old racer attacked and got clear, showing that he was more than a sprinter.
With Thurau out of contention and Saronni’s abilities visible, the General Classification after stage eight stood thus: 1. Johan de Muynck
2. Francesco Moser @ 15 seconds
3. Giuseppe Saronni @ 26 seconds
4. Roberto Visentini @ 1 minute 8 seconds
As the race headed north through Umbria, Tuscany, and Le Marche to Veneto for the start of the real climbing, Wladimiro Panizza, Baronchelli and Battaglin were able to move up in the classification while de Muynck steadfastly maintained his narrow lead.
Now came the Venice time trial, which required the construction of a floating bridge so that the riders could cross the Grand Canal and finish in St. Mark’s Square. Moser won the stage. Panizza, who had been sitting in second place in the General Classification, a half-minute behind de Muynck, lost another half-minute. With a rest day before the Dolomites stages, de Muynck’s position was looking a little bit more comfortable:
1. Johan de Muynck
2. Wladimiro Panizza @ 1 minute 3 seconds
3. Giambattista Baronchelli @ 1 minute 33 seconds
4. Francesco Moser @ 1 minute 45 seconds
The riders were lashed by nasty snowy weather during their days in the Dolomites. Stage fifteen had the year’s Cima Coppi, the Passo Valles, where Baronchelli attacked with Moser and de Muynck on his wheel. There was some regroupment before the final climb, the San Pellegrino, where Moser cracked and lost over a minute to the lead trio of Baronchelli, Alfio Vandi and de Muynck. Though the tifosi had generously pushed Moser up the hill, the judges gave him only a nominal penalty of a few seconds. Baronchelli’s stage win moved him up to second in the Overall, but de Muynck remained as steady as a rock, holding on to what was now a 93-second lead.
A 45-kilometer individual time trial at Cavalese, near Trent, over a highly technical course that included a hard climb, presented a serious danger to de Muynck. Moser, the hometown boy, won the day, beating de Muynck by 2 minutes 18 seconds. Baronchelli closed in as well.
The race was now a three-man fight: 1. Johan de Muynck
2. Francesco Moser @ 45 seconds
3. Giambattista Baronchelli @ 52 seconds
4. Alfio Vandi @ 6 minutes 11 seconds
Still in the Dolomites, stage seventeen finished at the top of Monte Bondone. It was too much for Moser—probably still tired from his time trial effort—he lost about two and a half minutes. Panizza won the stage alone, but about a minute behind him, de Muynck finished with the rest of the good climbers and two seconds ahead of Baronchelli.
Stage eighteen was the last day of climbing and things didn’t change, except the grudge between Moser and Baronchelli deteriorated into a fistfight. The grand old man of the peloton, Felice Gimondi, intervened.
The organizers had tried to keep the racing challenging up until the penultimate stage, but bad weather and resignation kept the peloton from seriously contesting the minor climb into the city of Como. With de Muynck’s unshakable racing combined with his powerful team’s ability to protect his lead, the others probably thought there was no point in attacking the capable Belgian. The 1978 Giro was his.
For a second time Baronchelli had lost the Giro to a Belgian by less than a minute. Baronchelli may not have won the Giro but he expressed satisfaction that he had at least come ahead of Moser, whom he detested.
Final 1978 Giro d’Italia General Classification: 1. Johan de Muynck (Bianchi) 101 hours 31 minutes 22 seconds
2. Giambattista Baronchelli (SCIC) @ 59 seconds
3. Francesco Moser (Sanson) @ 2 minutes 19 seconds
4. Wladimiro Panizza (Vibor) @ 7 minutes 57 seconds
5. Giuseppe Saronni (SCIC) @ 8 minutes 19 seconds
Climbers’ Competition: 1. Ueli Sutter (Zonca-Santini): 830 points
2. Giambattista Baronchelli (SCIC): 520
3. Claudio Bortolotto (Sanson) and Pedro Torres (Teka): 345
Points Competition: 1. Francesco Moser (Sanson): 229 points
2. Giuseppe Saronni (SCIC): 209
3. Giambattista Baronchelli (SCIC): 134
It was 118 kilometers into the Tour of Emilia on October 4 that Felice Gimondi and his good friend Franco Bitossi undid their toe straps together and climbed off their bikes. Bitossi remembered, “I was 38 years, 1 month, and 3 days old. I started my career at the Tour of Emilia of 1961, the 4th of October and I finished my career at the Tour of Emilia of 1978, the 4th of October. After 17 years one has to know when to say, ‘Basta.’” The two of them ended their careers on the spot.
B
itossi had won 147 races including the Tour’s Points Jersey and the Giro’s Climbers’ and Points Jerseys. Gimondi had won the Tour, the Giro, the Vuelta, the World Road Championship, Paris–Roubaix, Milan–San Remo and a host of other races totaling 135 professional victories. Both men could win almost any race on a given day and raced the whole professional calendar year after year. Theirs was a dying breed.
Chapter 2
1979–1986: Moser and Saronni, the Last Great Cycling Rivalry
1979. With the exception of Gimondi’s and Bertoglio’s victories, the 1970s had been difficult for the tifosi to endure. Belgians (Merckx, Pollentier and de Muynck) and a Swede (Pettersson) had been sweeping in from the north for a decade, sacking and pillaging their race, ruining the afternoon games of dominos at the local bars. Pollentier, Pettersson and de Muynck struck the Italians as excellent but dull racers. Where were the polemiche, where was the excitement? Now Torriani had two terrific Italian racers who were delighting their countrymen with victories all over Europe. SCIC had contemplated bringing Giuseppe Saronni to the 1977 Giro, his first year as a pro, but a crash in the Tour of Romandie a few days before the Giro’s start kept the nineteen-year-old racer from being subjected to a Grand Tour well before he was ready. That year he still won Tour of Veneto and the Tre Valle Varesine. In 1978 he won the Tirreno–Adriatico, and three Giro stages, coming in fifth in the Overall.
Francesco Moser had added to his list of prestigious victories by taking Paris–Roubaix. This was the year Moser and de Vlaeminck, both riding for Sanson, confounded their competitors’ expectations. Instead of aiming for Paris–Roubaix, which de Vlaeminck had already won a record-setting four times, he took Milan–San Remo while Moser completed the unintentional trade and won the cobbled Classic in front of de Vlaeminck by attacking at the precise point de Vlaeminck had planned on making good his escape.
While Moser and Saronni were amassing their victories, the tifosi split their allegiance in what so far was the last great Italian rivalry. While both were excellent time trialists, they were vulnerable in the high mountains. Moser had tried the Tour de France in 1975, winning the prologue time trial and keeping the Yellow Jersey until stage six. He finished in seventh place, more than 24 minutes behind winner Bernard Thévenet, but he never returned, finding the Tour’s climbing not at all to his liking.
What was Torriani to do? Easy. Design the flattest postwar Giro and put in five (that’s right, five) time trials. The two stars could flog each other on terrain suited to their gifts and the tifosi could go nuts. While Torriani may have been particularly overt in designing this Grand Tour for these two particular riders (some writers say Torriani had only Moser in mind), all three Grand Tour organizations have designed races for preferred riders.
Indeed, Torriani knew his boys. After the smoke had cleared from the eight-kilometer prologue time trial in Florence, Moser was in pink with Saronni just three seconds back. The game was afoot.
South to Naples for the third stage time trial, this one 31 kilometers long, giving Moser enough distance to create a significant gap—26 seconds over Saronni in the stage and 29 seconds in the General Classification. Moser had been accused of letting his form slip a bit after an excellent spring Classics season, but his 49.56 kilometers per hour says that there was still plenty of good stuff left in his legs.
De Muynck and two-time Tour winner Bernard Thévenet had their hopes crushed in the next day’s 210 kilometers of hilly roads through Campania and Basilicata, both losing more than seven minutes. Bertoglio’s two-minute loss probably put his name in the no-hoper column as well while Moser and Saronni finished together.
The tifosi had marked the stage eight time trial from Rimini to the top of San Marino on their calendars as a bellwether day, and Saronni rode the 28 kilometers like a rocket. Moser lost a minute and a half and the maglia rosa. Historian Sandro Picchi dates the real beginning of the Moser/Saronni rivalry from that hot day in May.
The General Classification now stood thus: 1. Giuseppe Saronni
2. Knut Knudsen @ 34 seconds
3. Francesco Moser @ 1 minute 2 seconds
4. Michel Laurent @ 2 minutes 59 seconds
5. Bernt Johansson @ 3 minutes 4 seconds
Viral conjunctivitis was bedeviling many riders in the peloton. Moser was infected; Battaglin and his Inoxpran squad were so badly hit the team withdrew before the Giro’s start.
The next episode in this Giro of big-gear time trial power tests was in the Ligurian town of Lerici, and the Vikings were back. Norwegian Knut Knudsen won the stage, bringing him to within eighteen seconds of Saronni, who in turn had taken about a half minute out of Moser.
When he designed the flat 1979 route, Torriani wasn’t completely without shame. Stage fourteen ended at the top of the Bosco Chiesanuova climb, just outside Verona. Bernt Johansson was first to the summit, but Moser dug deep and finished just 2 seconds behind the Swede. But even that superhuman effort did him little good—Knudsen and Saronni were only a second behind him.
The two non-climbers would settle this during the three days of racing in the Dolomites.
Day one: Saronni beat Moser into Pieve di Cadore by 6 seconds after the peloton climbed Monte Rest and the Mauria. Half of the Norse threat was neutralized by Luciano Pezzi, manager of Johansson’s Magniflex team, when he hit Knut Knudsen with the team car.
The rivalry between Saronni and Moser was starting to get a bit raw. Moser told Saronni that he would try to make him lose the Giro. Moser’s mother scolded him for such unsportsmanlike sentiments. The dislike Saronni and Moser felt for each other was real. Saronni was quick with a biting riposte and seemed to enjoy getting a rise out Moser.
Day two: the two major climbs, the Falzarego and Pordoi came many kilometers before the finish, allowing twenty riders to coalesce before the sprint, probably exactly as Torriani had planned. Moser won the trip to his hometown of Trent with Saronni finishing just with him. Saronni prudently decided to let Moser have the stage and shut down his own sprint in the town that loved Moser best.
Day three: stage eighteen had the Tonale and Aprica climbs, but again they came far too early in the stage to allow the real climbers to gain time. The uphill drag to the finish in the small Alpine town of Valsássina, north of Milan, failed to bust things up, Saronni beating Moser by 3 seconds. Saronni now led Moser by 1 minute 48 seconds.
That left the fifth and final time trial, a run into Milan from the suburb of Cesano Maderno. At 44 kilometers, if Moser were having a good day he might have a chance. Saronni was having an even better day. He won the stage, beating Moser by 21 seconds. Saronni, 21, became the third youngest Giro winner after Fausto Coppi and Luigi Marchisio. Saronni also took the cyclamen Points Jersey, beating Moser by a single point. Ouch.
Photo of winner Saronni
Final 1979 Giro d’Italia General Classification: 1. Giuseppe Saronni (SCIC) 89 hours 29 minutes 18 seconds
2. Francesco Moser (Sanson) @ 2 minutes 9 seconds
3. Bernt Johansson (Magniflex) @ 3 minutes 13 seconds
4. Michel Laurent (Peugeot) @ 5 minutes 31 seconds
5. Silvano Contini (Bianchi) @ 7 minutes 33 seconds
Climbers’ Competition: 1. Claudio Bortolotto (Sanson): 495 points
2. Beat Breu (Willora-Piz Buin-Bonanza): 330
3. Bernt Johansson (Magniflex): 300
Points Competition: 1. Giuseppe Saronni (SCIC): 275 points
2. Francesco Moser (Sanson): 274
3. Bernt Johansson (Magniflex): 260
1980. Bernard Hinault had won the Tour twice and the Vuelta once but the Giro remained unconquered. Before him only Anquetil, Merckx and Gimondi had won all three Grand Tours and Anquetil remained the only French Giro winner. In the spring of 1980, Hinault, nicknamed “The Badger”, was in excellent form, having already won Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Tour of Romandie. He was
on track for another remarkable year, and for Hinault, unquestionably the finest rider alive at the time, the Giro was his to lose. Not accepting that proposition were Saronni and Moser. Moser was the reigning World Road Champion and, by 1980, the winner of countless single-day as well as several shorter stage races. Also, his spring had been superb, with victories in Paris–Roubaix and Tirreno–Adriatico. But so far the big guy hadn’t been able to translate his remarkable cycling talent into a Grand Tour win.
The other force to be reckoned with was climber Wladimiro Panizza. For a decade he had consistently placed in the top ten in the Tour and Giro, making it all the way to fourth once in each of them. Other contenders included Giovanni Battaglin, Tommy Prim and Giambattista Baronchelli.
The 1980 route was a perfect tough-guy race course. There were two hard mountaintop finishes and two others ending at less-severe hilltops. The Stelvio was defanged a bit by having the finish come well after the descent, in Sondrio. With 93.4 kilometers of time trialing, the pure climbers must have looked at the route map and shuddered. This was a race for a complete racer, one who could do it all.
The race opened in Genoa with a 7-kilometer prologue. Moser was the fastest rider on the port city’s wet, slippery streets, taking chances as he aggressively raced over the flat course. Hinault rode his specialty time trial bike with care, conceding six seconds to Moser in the interest of avoiding a crash.
The Story of the Giro d'Italia: A Year-by-Year History of the Tour of Italy, Volume 2: 1971-2011 Page 7
