The Story of the Giro d'Italia

by Carol McGann

  4. Pavel Tonkov (Lampre) @ 11 minutes 16 seconds

  5. Claudio Chiappucci (Carrera Jeans-Tassoni) @ 11 minutes 58 seconds

  Climbers’ Competition: 1. Pascal Richard (GB-MG-Technogym): 78 points

  2. Michele Coppolillo (Navigare-Blue Storm): 58

  3. Marco Pantani (Carrera Jeans-Tassoni): 44

  Points Competition: 1. Djamolidine Abdoujaparov (Polti): 202 points

  2. Evgeni Berzin (Gewiss-Ballan): 182

  3. Gianni Bugno (Polti): 148

  Induráin’s form was indeed improving. While he won no time trials in the Giro, it was a different case in the Tour. The Spaniard humiliated the field in the Tour’s stage nine time trial. When the race hit the mountains, Induráin, who was regularly put on the ropes by the best climbers, soared with a newfound ability. He went on to take his fourth of five consecutive Tour wins.

  Apparently he remembered the thrashing Pantani gave him on the Santa Cristina and during the Tour sought to avenge himself by working hard to specifically deny Pantani any stage wins, which caused the Italian, riding his first Tour, to complain bitterly. Pantani came in third, despite a bad crash that left him weeping with pain for much of the race. Italy was enchanted. Pantani’s contract with Carrera was up at the end of 1994 and after looking at offers from other teams he signed for another two years with Boifava.

  Berzin was part of one of the most successful teams of the decade, Gewiss-Ballan, which won the Giro as well as many important one-week and single day races. It is believed that the team was one of the first (but no one can really know for sure) to have a systematized doping program exploiting the performance benefits of EPO. The most extreme example of Gewiss-Ballan’s dominance was the 1994 Flèche Wallonne. The team had already won Milan–San Remo, Tirreno–Adriatico and the Critérium International. In the Flèche Wallonne, three of the team’s riders gapped the field, almost accidently, and rode a 70-kilometer team time trial to the finish. Moreno Argentin won, Giorgio Furlan was second and just a few seconds in arrears, coming in third, was Evgeni Berzin.

  A test for synthetic EPO wasn’t developed until 2000. Until an upper limit on a rider’s hematocrit was established in 1997, doping with EPO was limited only by a rider’s ambition and courage. Riders could use as much as they dared. Francesco Conconi, who is accused by CONI (Italian Olympic Committee) investigator Sandro Donati of introducing EPO to the pro peloton, had a brilliant assistant, Michele Ferrari, who was the Gewiss-Ballan team doctor. Ferrari famously said, “EPO is not dangerous, and that with regard to doping, anything that is not outlawed is consequently permitted.”

  Records of Gewiss-Ballan riders’ hematocrits were uncovered by investigative journalists and they reveal what can only be presumed to be highly manipulated blood values. For example, the French sports newspaper L’Équipe said that in January of 1995 Berzin’s hematocrit was 41.7 percent (quite normal) and in July, during racing season, it rose to 56.3 percent. I know of no explanation for this change that excludes exogenous substances. Gewiss-Ballan wasn’t the only offender. The other teams couldn’t let the ones with a “program” run away with everything. Soon many other squads either systematized doping within their teams (sometimes with the excuse that the riders were doping themselves with dangerous drugs and bringing it in-house under a doctor’s care reduced doping’s risk) or as they had for years, carefully turned a blind eye to their riders’ actions.

  1995. The starting field of 198 riders had some riders who were pretty good with a bike. Both Tony Rominger—already the Vuelta record holder with three wins (1992, ’93 and ’94) and owner of the World Hour Record—and Evgeni Berzin were in fine form. But Berzin couldn’t expect undivided loyalty from his Gewiss team. Piotr Ugrumov was included in the team roster and the two had developed an intense dislike for each other. Missing was Induráin, who decided not to tire himself before the Tour. Pantani was looking good, but on May 1, while on a training ride before leaving later that day to ride the Tour of Romandie, he was hit by a car. He had no broken bones, but he was beaten up badly enough that he had to miss the Giro. Pantani recovered in time to contest the Tour de France in July where he came in thirteenth, winning two stages and the Best Young Rider Jersey.

  The first Giro stage was sited in Umbria, rolling out of Perugia and finishing in Terni. The pack came to Terni together and Mario Cipollini’s Mercatone Uno team gave him a perfect leadout. He put several bike lengths between himself and second place Mario Manzoni, making the racer nicknamed the “Lion King” the year’s first maglia rosa.

  The men riding to own the Pink Jersey in Milan would be not be allowed to hide this year. The second stage was a 19-kilometer time trial from Foligno to Assisi, and being planted on top of a hill, the only way to Assisi was up. This was a stage for an all-rounder who could handle his bike, given the roads were slippery from rain.

  Rominger destroyed the field with a superb winning ride and took the Giro lead for the first time in his career.

  The General Classification at this point was thus: 1. Tony Rominger

  2. Maurizio Fondriest @ 43 seconds

  3. Rolf Sørensen @ 49 seconds

  4. Francesco Casagrande @ 53 seconds

  5. Evgeni Berzin @ 57 seconds

  Stage four to Loreto in Le Marche featured four circuits over rolling roads, a route hard enough to keep the teams attentive to potential breaks by Classification contenders. Indeed, each lap’s climb was raced aggressively with attacking riders gaining a few seconds only to be swept up by Rominger’s gregari. On the final time up the hill, Berzin teammate Vladislav Bobrik jumped away. Rominger instantly had the Russian in his sights, swept by him and kept going for another stage win, distancing second-place Fondriest by four seconds.

  The race headed south to the toe of the boot. Each day there were at least a few hills to chew away at the riders’ reserves, stage seven being a good example with an uphill sprint after a day of rolling terrain. Rominger tried to repeat his stage four success, but Fondriest was tired of getting second and won the stage. Rominger remained the leader by 47 seconds over Fondriest.

  The eighth stage had the potential to be game altering with its 18-kilometer climb to the finish at Monte Sirino. When he took the lead in stage two, Rominger had said that he didn’t plan to keep the lead. But as the race developed it was looking like Rominger had no plans to cede the maglia rosa and his Mapei team was put at the front of the race day after day.

  A small break escaped on Monte Sirino and Laudelino Cubino was first while Rominger led in the field only 4 seconds behind the last of the fugitives. The day had two serious casualties, Berzin and Fondriest, who both lost time.

  The General Classification stood thus: 1. Tony Rominger

  2. Francesco Casagrande @ 1 minute 17 seconds

  3. Laudelino Cubino @ 1 minute 26 seconds

  4. Piotr Ugrumov @ 1 minute 44 seconds

  5. Evgeni Berzin @ 1 minute 52 seconds

  Stage ten, a 42-kilometer individual time trial on an undulating course finishing in Maddaloni, just north of Naples, was another opportunity for the World Hour Record holder to tighten his grip on the race. Rominger rode a new carbon-fiber time trial bike that had been delivered just the day before. Yet, the bike’s newness was no handicap: Rominger took 1 minute 24 seconds out of Berzin and Ugrumov, who finished within two-tenths of a second of each other. Rominger now had a 3-minute lead over Ugrumov and 3 minutes 8 seconds over third-place Berzin.

  During the rest day that followed, the race transferred north to the coast of Tuscany. Stage eleven had a hilltop finish at Il Ciocco after a day of climbing in the Apuan Alps. On the road to Il Ciocco, Berzin tried to challenge Rominger, but the Swiss rider had no trouble marking the Russian. Ugrumov tried his hand and Rominger’s answer was to go to the front. Though Rominger didn’t look like he was going deep, only Berzin and Ugrumov were able to stay with him.
They finished the stage together.

  The Giro’s final chapter opened in Trent with stage fourteen, the year’s longest stage at 240 kilometers. There were four highly rated climbs with the finish atop the 2,004-meter-high Val Senales in the Dolomites.

  At over twenty kilometers, the Senales ascent was long enough for the Gewiss drama to really play out. With about eight kilometers to go, Rominger was with Berzin, Ugrumov and Spanish rider Oliviero Rincon while a group with Chiappucci was a short distance behind them.

  Rincon scooted away and Ugrumov decided to lead the Rominger trio. Crystallizing the split within the team, Ugrumov then attacked, taking Rominger with him, leaving teammate Berzin behind. Rominger and Ugrumov formed a working duo that temporarily distanced itself from Berzin, but as the road flattened out, Berzin clawed his way back. The trio slackened their speed slightly allowing the Chiappucci group to close up. There were now only two kilometers to go and no one was able to catch Rincon. At no time during the stage was Rominger ever in distress; he easily matched the efforts of his two Gewiss challengers and that was quite enough.

  The General Classification stood thus: 1. Tony Rominger

  2. Piotr Ugrumov @ 3 minutes 14 seconds

  3. Evgeni Berzin @ 3 minutes 29 seconds

  4. Francesco Casagrande @ 4 minutes 43 seconds

  5. Claudio Chiappucci @ 5 minutes 25 seconds

  Stage fifteen left Italy for Switzerland and a 185-kilometer day in the mountains ending with a climb to Lenzerheide/Valbella. Berzin wasn’t giving up. On the Flüele pass, the day’s penultimate ascent, Berzin attacked and bridged up to an earlier break. The stage was only about half over and Berzin had about a two-minute lead. Rominger didn’t seem too concerned, putting his Mapei men to work controlling the gap.

  Berzin was caught before the start of the final climb. He and Ugrumov kept trying to get away but Rominger had such deep reserves he was able to answer each attack. And that’s how the stage ended with no change in the standings of the top three.

  The year’s final time trial was not designed for the big-gear boys, featuring an ascent of the 760-meter-high Gallo before the climb to Selvino Aviatico. Again, Rominger was supreme. Ugrumov faltered a bit and lost 24 seconds to Berzin, ceding second place to his rival.

  The new General Classification: 1. Tony Rominger

  2. Evgeni Berzin @ 5 minutes 8 seconds

  3. Piotr Ugrumov @ 5 minutes 17 seconds

  4. Claudio Chiappucci @ 9 minutes 35 seconds

  It wasn’t over as far as Ugrumov was concerned. Stage nineteen, going from Mondovì to Briançon in France offered no end of possibilities with its three major Alpine passes, the Sampeyre, the Agnello, and the Izoard.

  Snowpack on the upper slopes of the Agnello from the previous day’s snowfall avalanched onto the road a few kilometers from the summit, trapping some of the race caravan travelling ahead of the race. As a result, it was decided to end the stage just part way up the Agnello in Ponte Chianale where an intermediate sprint had been planned.

  Since the announcement of the shortened stage came with only about an hour’s worth of riding left in the now 130-kilometer stage, any plans for big moves on the final climb had to be forgotten. This might have been a gift to Rominger, who looked awful that day. No one was able to take advantage of his apparent giornata no.

  The next day was another race in the Alps. Ugrumov went crazy trying to get away, but Berzin and Rincon stayed with him and no amount of attacking could drop them. They also refused to work with him to distance themselves from the Rominger group, being content to ride up to Ugrumov’s wheel after each of his accelerations. The distaste the two Gewiss riders had for each other was starkly evident, the duo bickering their way to the line while Rominger led his group to the finish without any evident panic, feeling comfortable with a few seconds’ time loss.

  That evening the Gewiss director had a sit-down with his petulant racers, telling them that they should be attacking Rominger, not each other.

  The second-to-last stage was not going to be easy with two ascents of the Cuvignone. It was another lousy day with the rain coming down in buckets. Berzin tried to escape on the second time up the Cuvignone, but had to surrender near the top. The descent was extremely technical and the riders were in no mood to take stupid chances on the slippery roads.

  The final ascent of the day and the Giro was the 5.7-kilometer Salita di Montegrino Valtravaglia and Berzin used it to get away and stay away. He beat the Rominger group containing Ugrumov to the line by 25 seconds, thereby assuring himself of a secure second place.

  Rominger’s Giro win was as commanding and effortless as any Grand Tour victory. No one at any point had the ability to put him in extremis. He seized the lead at the first possible opportunity, the stage two time trial, and kept it the rest of the race. He was the third Swiss victor in Giro history, Koblet having won in 1950 and Clerici in 1954.

  On the final podium Rominger and Berzin looked quite pleased with things but Ugrumov looked dour, probably replaying the race in his head and wondering where he could have taken 42 seconds out of his Russian nemesis.

  Final 1995 Giro d’Italia General Classification: 1. Tony Rominger (Mapei-GB) 97 hours 39 minutes 50 seconds

  2. Evgeni Berzin (Gewiss-Ballan) @ 4 minutes 13 seconds

  3. Piotr Ugrumov (Gewiss-Ballan) @ 4 minutes 55 seconds

  4. Claudio Chiappucci (Carrera Jeans) @ 9 minutes 23 seconds

  5. Oliviero Rincon (ONCE) @ 10 minutes 3 seconds

  Climbers’ Competition: 1. Mariano Piccoli (Brescialat): 75 points

  2. Nelson Rodriguez (ZG Mobili-Selle Italia): 45

  3. Giuseppe Guerini (Navigare-Blue Storm): 43

  Points Competition: 1. Tony Rominger (Mapei-GB): 205 points

  2. Rolf Sørensen (Maglificio-MG): 153

  3. Evgeni Berzin (Gewiss-Ballan): 148

  That fall Pantani crashed again, this time it was a horrific, potentially career-ending racing accident. Fine-tuning his form before the 1995 Tour of Lombardy, he crashed into a car that had been allowed on the course of the late-season Milan–Turin Classic. As he was descending into Turin at high speed with two other riders they smashed into a Nissan 4x4 going the opposite direction. Pantani suffered, among other serious injuries, several broken bones in his left leg.

  After a protracted and difficult recovery regimen, he was able to resume riding in March of 1996. In April, he signed to race the 1997 season with Luciano Pezzi’s Mercatone Uno-sponsored team, which was to be built around him. Because this was a Pantani-centered squad, no sprinters were signed who might distract the team from its goal of delivering him to the finish first. By the end of 1996, still wearing his Carrera kit, Pantani was riding professional races in Spain. When Carrera pulled out of racing at the end of the year Mercatone Uno swept in and signed several more of the team’s riders to be Pantani’s gregari.

  1996. To celebrate the centenary year of the modern Olympics, the Giro organizers unveiled an audacious start. The first three stages were to be in Greece, the first of which was a circuit around Athens. All three Greek stages resulted in mass sprints. There were an unusual number of crashes but none of the serious Classification riders was hurt. When the race transferred to Ostuni in southernmost Italy Stefano Zanini was wearing the Pink Jersey. The Giro remained sprinters’ property for several more days.

  The widespread illegal use of EPO by professional racers had finally reached the ears of law enforcement. The Carabinieri are Italian federal police who are considered part of the military and have a branch called the NAS or Nucleo Antisofisticazioni e Sanità (usually rendered in English as the “Carabinieri Command for the Preservation of Health”). NAS was going to perform a big search of the teams when they arrived on the Italian mainland, but La Gazzetta got wind of the blitz and published details of the planned raid. With the element of surp
rise gone, it was called off.

  Stage seven would smoke out the real Giro racers with its finish at the top of Monte Sirino, a ski station in southern Italy, southeast of Naples. Festina rider Pascal Hervé had captured the lead the day before. Since Hervé was a competent enough climber who might be able to keep the lead after the day’s hard climb, his teammates killed themselves riding hard tempo and chased down all the attacks. On the ascent, the cream rose to the top. By the final kilometer, a small group was burning up the asphalt: Davide Rebellin, Pavel Tonkov, Ugrumov, Ivan Gotti and Stefano Faustini. The finish was perfect for Rebellin, a genius at winning uphill sprints. Hervé was unable to climb with the specialists and lost the lead. Bugno, the current Italian champion, lost over eleven minutes.

  The General Classification was thus: 1. Davide Rebellin

  2. Pavel Tonkov @ 4 seconds

  3. Stefano Faustini @ 8 seconds

  4. Leonardo Piepoli @ 16 seconds

  5. Piotr Ugrumov @ 18 seconds

  By stage ten they had reached Tuscany. So far, each of the last few stages had gone over a few climbs that might have affected the race’s outcome, but they all came far from the finishes, allowing the peloton to regroup each time. Rebellin remained the leader.

  Stage ten had the short, stiff Schignano di Vaiano before rolling into Prato. World Champion Abraham Olano stretched the peloton into a long thin line. Then it broke. Over the top, about ten riders stayed with the Spaniard, but on the eighteen-kilometer run-in to Prato, another ten joined them, meaning all the good riders remained together. Rodolfo Massi slipped away for the stage win, but the General Classification wasn’t changed.