The Story of the Giro d'Italia

by Carol McGann

  The first two weeks of the Giro hadn’t been particularly challenging. The sprinters had lots of chances to look for glory but the legs of the Classification riders should have been relatively fresh at this point. Finally, stage thirteen was a stage worthy of a Grand Tour with the San Bernardo and Casotto coming before an assault on the climb to Pratonevoso.

  Wap! Tonkov hit the field hard with a withering attack on the final ascent and only Ugrumov and Enrico Zaina could match his speed. Rebellin wisely didn’t try to match the Russian’s pace up the mountain and climbed at his own slightly slower speed.

  Tonkov kept up the pressure, forcing Zaina to let go. Now it was down to Ugrumov and Tonkov with Tonkov doing all the work. Tonkov had enough stuff left to lead out the sprint and seriously gap Ugrumov and take the maglia rosa.

  The General Classification was now thus: 1. Pavel Tonkov

  2. Piotr Ugrumov @ 20 seconds

  3. Enrico Zaina @ 38 seconds

  4. Davide Rebellin @ 41 seconds

  5. Ivan Gotti @ 1 minute 1 second

  If the early stages hadn’t been challenging, the Giro was making up for lost time. Stage fourteen crossed into the French Alps, sending the riders over the Maddalena (in French, Col de Larche), Vars, and Izoard before coming into Briançon. Yet, for all the difficulties that the stage presented, it didn’t change the standings. Swiss rider Pascal Richard, not in contention, was allowed to escape on the Izoard while the heads of state marked each other and came in as a group.

  From Briançon, the Giro went back to Italy and up to Switzerland and then across northern Italy to Vicenza. During these days of piano racing, non-threatening breaks were allowed to scamper off while the peloton took it easy. Stage nineteen was a challenging 62-kilometer time trial (I guess they all are to riders who are trying to win), going from Vicenza to Marostica with an ascent of the Rosina. Berzin won the stage with Olano one second slower. Tonkov rode well enough to keep his lead, barely.

  After coming out from behind Induráin’s shadow, Olano had been racing wonderfully well. In 1995 he was second in the Vuelta, became World Road Champion and was second in the World Time Trial Championship. Just before the Giro he had won the Tour of Romandie. If Tonkov were looking for someone to worry about, he need look no further.

  After the time trial the General Classification stood thus: 1. Pavel Tonkov

  2. Abraham Olano @ 1 second

  3. Evgeni Berzin @ 14 seconds

  4. Piotr Ugrumov @ 1 minute 58 seconds

  The next stage gave Tonkov a chance to defend his microscopic lead in territory more suited to his talents. Going from Marostica, the twentieth stage crossed the Manghen, the Pordoi, the Marmolada and then around again to the top of the Pordoi. It was 220 kilometers of Dolomites that should have allowed the Russian to increase his lead.

  It was Enrico Zaina who decided that the Marmolada was the place to hand out the big hurt. When he took the lead with Ugrumov, Tonkov and Olano on his wheel, Berzin had already been put to the sword. Olano looked to be suffering and finally he let go. Zaina had more where that came from and upped the pace, and then Ugrumov was dropped. Then Tonkov. Zaina was alone on the Marmolada.

  Further back, Ivan Gotti was tearing up the road, passing rider after rider. This was racing at its best with each racer, knowing that the Giro was in play, going deep, deep into his reserves. Gotti was having a spectacular day and caught up to Tonkov. Then Ugrumov joined the pair.

  Rather than respond to attacks, Olano climbed at his own pace and eventually caught Tonkov, who was by this time looking gassed. Zaina was up ahead followed by Gotti then Tonkov, Olano and Ugrumov. They all descended the Marmolada at speeds that must have required enormous courage.

  As the second ascent of the Pordoi began, the Tonkov trio got another shock. Gianni Bugno, who was far down in the standings, caught them.

  Zaina won the stage with Gotti 47 seconds back. Olano gapped Tonkov in the sprint for fourth place, taking the overall lead by .46 seconds, but called the same time in the standings.

  The new General Classification: 1. Abraham Olano

  2. Pavel Tonkov @ same time

  3. Enrico Zaina @ 1 minute 41 seconds

  4. Piotr Ugrumov @ 2 minutes 2 seconds

  5. Davide Rebellin @ 3 minutes 39 seconds

  There was still one stage left before the promenade into Milan, and with the margins razor thin, the five rated climbs in stage twenty-one would give the race the finality it needed. This was a long one, 250 kilometers covering the Mendola, Tonale, Gavia, Mortirolo and the relatively easy climb up to Aprica. The previous stage took a little over seven hours to complete and now the peloton faced a still harder day in the saddle.

  The Mortirolo with its patches of twenty-percent gradient sorted things out. A single acceleration by Gotti dropped Olano from a small group of climbers: Ugrumov, Gotti, Tonkov and Zaina. This was it! The Giro would go to one of these four. There was still a lot of Mortirolo left and the Aprica ascent was still waiting.

  Gotti jumped again and took Tonkov with him. Gotti looked back hoping for some help but Tonkov was at his limit. Gotti stayed out of the saddle and beautifully danced up the hill with a horribly suffering Tonkov holding on for dear life. Gotti was leading him to the Promised Land, the land of Pink Jerseys.

  A tired-looking Olano went over the crest of the Mortirolo 2 minutes 22 seconds behind Gotti and Tonkov. The pair increased their lead on the descent and climb to Aprica. Gotti bagged the stage, his first-ever professional win, without any resistance from Tonkov. Tonkov’s booty from the day was more than enough, the 1996 Giro d’Italia. He became the second Russian to win the Giro.

  Final 1996 Giro d’Italia General Classification: 1. Pavel Tonkov (Ceramiche Panaria-Vinavil): 105 hours 20 minutes 23 seconds

  2. Enrico Zaina (Carrera-Longoni Sport) @ 2 minutes 43 seconds

  3. Abraham Olano (Mapei-GB) @ 2 minutes 57 seconds

  4. Piotr Ugrumov (Roslotto) @ 3 minutes 0 seconds

  5. Ivan Gotti (Gewiss-Playbus) @ 3 minutes 36 seconds

  Climbers’ Competition: 1. Mariano Piccoli (Brescialat): 69 points

  2. Pavel Tonkov (Ceramiche Panaria-Vinavil): 37

  3. Ivan Gotti (Gewiss-Playbus): 36

  Points Competition: 1. Fabrizio Guidi (Scrigno-Blue Storm): 235 points

  2. Giovanni Lombardi (Polti): 130

  3. Enrico Zaina (Carrera-Longoni Sport): 120

  1997. Not having a reliable test for EPO, the UCI set 50 percent as the ceiling for a rider’s hematocrit. A finding of more than 50 percent was not to be considered a doping positive, because at the time there was no reliable way to detect synthetic EPO and therefore it couldn’t be proven to be the cause of a high hematocrit. A rider found to be over the 50 percent threshold was declared unhealthy and immediately suspended for 15 days, which would, the line went, allow him to become well enough to resume racing. The ruling had a perverse effect. Any rider hoping to be competitive had to dope himself up to the 50 percent threshold. Conconi takes credit for suggesting this rule to the UCI, but he had actually advanced a 54 percent hematocrit as an appropriate upper level. Fifty percent was settled on because it was thought riders would be less likely to die in their sleep. Looking back at this, it all seems crazy. At the Tour of Romandie, Chiappucci was snared by the limit when he was found with a 50.8 percent hematocrit. The two-week suspension kept him out of the Giro.

  Pantani’s spring program didn’t shrink from hard racing and even took him to the brutal northern European Classics, where he did well enough, including a fifth in the Flèche Wallonne and good placings in other races. Pulling out of the Tour of Romandie, he complained that his form was still lagging and that he would never again be the rider he had been two years before. He said he had tried to race too much too soon after his accident and was circumspect about his own prospects.
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  The 1997 Giro looked like a climber’s race. There were two time trials totaling 58 kilometers, the first one in stage three having a hard ascent at the end. Four stages with hilltop finishes, including a devastatingly difficult penultimate stage in the mountains, made it certain that a rouleur would not be triumphant in Milan. No prologue time trial was scheduled; the first stage would be sixteen laps up and down Venice’s Lido beach.

  Because the Giro organization had botched the sale of the television rights by demanding insanely high prices, large areas of Europe either didn’t get the 1997 Giro at all or had to pay for it. Also, many riders with Tour ambitions decided to avoid tiring themselves in such a hard race. The result was a rather attenuated field with none of the world’s top-ten rated riders planning to contest la corsa rosa. There was talk that the status of the Giro had fallen even below that of the Tour of Switzerland.

  Even so, the race still had plenty of good riders. Tonkov had won the Tour of Romandie. Enrico Zaina, who earlier had been Chiappucci’s gregario, was now free to race on his own account since Chiappucci was suspended. Frenchman Luc Leblanc was in good shape, having won the Giro del Trentino. The consensus was that if Pantani had returned to good form, the race would be between him and Tonkov.

  Mario Cipollini won the first two stages. His leadout train lost control of the race in the final kilometers of the first stage, yet Cipollini bored through a nearly nonexistent hole next to the barriers and emerged the winner of the first Pink Jersey. The next day he led the sprint out from far back and no one could come around him.

  Cipollini’s days in pink had to come to an end, and with the uphill time trial in San Marino, they ended immediately: the course’s eleven-percent gradient spelled certain doom for pure sprinters. Tonkov won the stage with Evgeni Berzin second, 21 seconds slower. Tonkov thought Berzin would have turned in a better time if he hadn’t been over-geared in the first half of the course. Pantani did well enough, losing 1 minute 23 seconds. Tonkov was now the leader and Berzin was second, a single second behind.

  So far the Giro had enjoyed lovely weather. In stage five, when the race arrived in Abruzzo with its hilltop finish at Terminillo, the rain came. The pack was all together for the start of the fifteen-kilometer, eight-percent grade and Tonkov had his team keep the pace warm during the first kilometers of the ascent. But soon Pantani’s Mercatone Uno men decided the speed had to be increased and increase it they did. That effort had two surprising victims, Berzin (who got the hunger knock) and Ugrumov.

  With about three kilometers to go the sun came out. Several riders attempted getaways, but Tonkov easily rode up to each attacking rider, including Pantani. His neutralizing efforts looked almost effortless, usually without his even getting out of the saddle.

  After a final attack from Leblanc, Tonkov took the stage and further padded his lead. The General Classification stood thus:

  1. Pavel Tonkov

  2. Luc Leblanc @ 41 seconds

  3. Ivan Gotti @ 1 minute 7 seconds

  4. Roberto Petito @ same time

  5. Marco Pantani @ 1 minute 31 seconds

  Going southwest without any appreciable change to the standings, the Giro arrived on the Amalfi Road on the southern Italian coast. It was a piano day and while the peloton cruised down the Tyrrhenian coast, a group of non-contenders was allowed their day in the sun and finished fourteen minutes ahead of the disinterested pack. But the day profoundly affected the Giro’s outcome in another way; thirty kilometers before the finish Pantani hit a cat while descending the Valico di Chiunzi. He didn’t break any bones, but after getting badly bruised and losing twelve minutes, he abandoned.

  After going all the way to the heel of Italy, the peloton spent its rest day transferring up to the Tuscan coast. The order of business when the Giro resumed was to boot four riders from the race, none of whom were in contention for the Overall, for excessive hematocrits.

  Stage fourteen took the riders almost due north, sliding by the east side of Turin on the way to the Alps. It ended with a 2,100-meter-high sort-of mountaintop finish at Cervinia, on the Italian side of the Matterhorn. After they reached the summit, they had a two-kilometer downhill rush to the line.

  On the penultimate climb, the San Pantaleon, things broke wide open. A small group of riders including Axel Merckx (Eddy Merckx’s son) had been off the front for a while. Out of nowhere Ivan Gotti exploded from what was left of the peloton. Stefano Garzelli of Mercatone Uno was the only rider to mark the move. Gotti bridged up to the Merckx group with astonishing ease while Tonkov did nothing, keeping his attention on his bête noire, Leblanc.

  Still Tonkov did nothing and Leblanc, not wanting to hand the Giro over to Gotti through inaction, led the chase. The Gotti group went over the Pantaleon 23 seconds ahead of the maglia rosa.

  The Gotti group flew down the Pantaleon like madmen and by they time they got themselves organized on the way to Cervinia, they had enlarged their advantage to 64 seconds. Gotti, knowing the stakes involved, singlehandedly dragged his group up the hill.

  With six kilometers to go the race had turned into an exciting pursuit. Up front Gotti was pounding away for all he was worth with Nicola Miceli hanging onto his wheel. One hundred seconds back, feeling the Giro slipping from his grasp, Tonkov had only Leonardo Piepoli for company while Leblanc, unable to maintain the white-hot pace, was nowhere to be seen. Tonkov had gambled and lost. Leblanc was not Tonkov’s main challenger, it was Gotti.

  Out of the saddle and digging deep, Gotti dropped Miceli and finished alone. Tonkov lost 1 minute 46 seconds. Leblanc had cracked badly, coming in 3 minutes 16 seconds after Gotti, who had profited hugely from Tonkov’s tactical blunder. The new General Classification was thus:

  1. Ivan Gotti

  2. Pavel Tonkov @ 51 seconds

  3. Luc Leblanc @ 3 minutes 2 seconds

  4. Leonardo Piepoli @ 3 minutes 28 seconds

  Gotti’s lead shouldn’t have been a surprise. He had been second in the 1990 Girobio, fifth in the 1995 Tour (including two days in yellow) and fifth in the 1996 Giro. Yet he had not been invited to the Giro presentation with the other contenders, a fact that was clearly on his mind when he spoke to the press after the stage, feeling he had been unjustly forgotten. They certainly knew about him now.

  The Giro turned east for its appointment with what were intended to be the deciding stages: a 40-kilometer time trial followed by three days in the Dolomites.

  Normally, since Tonkov was the superior time trialist, Gotti’s lead might have been in danger. But just before the stage start the judges wouldn’t let Tonkov ride his time trial bike because it had a projection over the rear wheel the officials deemed an illegal fairing. Tonkov switched to his back-up bike, one he didn’t really like. The result? Tonkov was able to take back only fourteen seconds. The bike switch might actually have been a blessing because the hard-to-handle specialty time trial bikes proved to be lots of trouble on the technical, high-speed course. Both Alexandr Shefer (now lying in fourth place) and Leblanc were among those who crashed hard. Both riders abandoned.

  At 5:30 in the morning, before the start of stage nineteen, NAS raided the hotel rooms of the MG-Technogym riders and found a large cache of dope. Among the finds were twenty boxes of anabolic steroids, three boxes of growth hormones and of course, EPO. At first team director Ferretti said the drugs were for his personal use, to help him improve his sexual performance. As we say out here in the Ozarks, that dog don’t hunt. It was later admitted that the drugs were for the riders’ use. The team left town that afternoon and the sponsors quit the sport at the end of the year.

  Rain and six major climbs greeted the riders at the start of stage nineteen. Just listing what the peloton had to get over during its 222-kilometer Calvary is tiring: the Pinei, Sella, Pordoi, Campolongo, Furcia and the Riomolino with a final uphill grind to Falzes.

  Tonkov, who crashed and rem
ounted on the Campolongo, could not contain Gotti. On the Riomolino, Gotti, who had Leblanc teammate Giuseppe Guerini for company, had been hoping he would be able to work with and help Leblanc as a foil to Tonkov. With Leblanc now out, Guerini was given the go-ahead to work with Gotti and try to improve his own standing, then sixth place. Gotti was able to extend his lead by another 55 seconds.

  The new General Classification shows it was a two-man race: 1. Ivan Gotti

  2. Pavel Tonkov @ 1 minute 32 seconds

  3. Giuseppe Guerini @ 6 minutes 0 seconds

  4. Nicola Miceli @ 8 minutes 33 seconds

  The stage nineteen seven-hour ordeal must have been enough. Even with stage twenty’s finish at the top of the Tonale, Tonkov made a few half-half hearted attacks which Gotti, content to merely stay with Tonkov, easily handled. A group of non-contenders was allowed to come in ten minutes ahead of the maglia rosa. Now it was down to just one last mountain stage, with three hard passes, including the Mortirolo.

  Photo of Gotti and Tonkov

  Tired or not, Tonkov’s Mapei team wasn’t going down without a fight. They sent Gianni Bugno up ahead and then set a pace so hot that eventually nearly everyone was dropped. It was down to just Gotti and Tonkov as they caught Bugno on the Mortirolo.

  The gradient rose to eighteen percent and on a switchback, a motorcycle fell over in front of Bugno. Now it was Gotti and Tonkov, the two best riders, riding side by side on the Mortirolo, one of the hardest ascents in cycling. Gotti tried several times to drop Tonkov, but the Russian stayed with him. It was thrilling duel. Finally Gotti took the front and it looked like Tonkov had thrown in the towel, but two kilometers from the summit there was a surprise. Wladimir Belli closed up to the two leaders and then led for the rest of the climb through a sea of fans lining the narrow road. The tifosi were sure an Italian was going to win the Giro and they weren’t going to miss it.