The Story of the Giro d'Italia

by Carol McGann

  Frigo was one of the best time trialists in the world, so when the stage fifteen time trial arrived, it was thought he would be able to crush Simoni and regain the lead, balancing the competition between the two, given the mountains to come. Frigo did win the 55.5-kilometer stage, but Simoni was riding in a state of grace and lost only 28 seconds, saving his lead. Frigo would have to find some magic if he were to dislodge Simoni in the remaining mountain stages.

  Simoni and Frigo were forging a considerable lead on the others: 1. Gilberto Simoni

  2. Dario Frigo @ 15 seconds

  3. Abraham Olano @ 4 minutes 32 seconds

  4. Unai Osa @ 5 minutes 22 seconds

  5. Serguei Gontchar @ 6 minutes 10 seconds

  June 5 was a rest day that was followed by stage seventeen, a figure-eight loop starting and ending in San Remo. Perhaps indicative of how the day would go, two well-known racers were positive for EPO: Pascal Hervé and Pantani gregario Riccardo Forconi (who, remember, had already been ejected from the 1998 Giro). The day’s racing had no particular effect upon the standings. With stage eighteen being the last high-mountain stage, the riders were probably keeping their powder dry for what they knew were real fireworks to come.

  The fireworks came to the Giro sooner than expected and not of the type the riders liked. At nine in the evening, 200 police descended upon race teams’ hotels and performed a thorough search. Witnesses said they saw vials and bottles being tossed out of windows as the police began turning the hotel inside out. Giuseppe Di Grande of Tacconi Sport tried to escape the search by climbing out of a hotel window, but was caught. The 2001 “San Remo blitz” was probably the biggest anti-dope operation cycling had ever seen.

  Unlike the stage eight raid, which came up empty, this time NAS hit the mother lode. Vast quantities of doping products were found: EPO, steroids, testosterone, assorted stimulants, syringes. The cheating hadn’t stopped or even slowed since the supposed cleanup of the sport after 1998.

  So how did the sport react with the clear evidence of wrongdoing out in the open for all to see? Again, the racers, race directors and coaches circled the wagons and explained that they and the racers deserved dignity and respect.

  The racers, represented by Pantani (an odd choice given his doping history) and Cipollini met with Giro boss Castellano while some team managers held a meeting to protest the raids and to see if the Giro should be cancelled. The head of the UCI, Hein Verbruggen, complained about previous drug raids, the severity of the Italian anti-doping drug laws and voiced support for the racers’ decision to protest the sweep.

  The San Remo police commander’s comments on the racer’s indignation at being rousted showed he had dealt with malefactors in the past: “In my experience, anyone who is searched reacts strongly and feels that they have been treated like a delinquent.”

  There were more meetings. The methods of the police were deplored. Prime Minister-to-be Berlusconi promised that such a raid would never happen again, in effect, telling the riders to go ahead, dope away.

  Verbruggen chimed in again. When I first read his comment that with only six EPO positives out of 700 to 800 tests given, the EPO problem was largely solved, I didn’t know whether to ascribe his words to ignorance, rascality or stupidity. In fact, Hein Verbruggen is neither ignorant nor stupid.

  The Italian Federation decided to call a halt to races in Italy for five days starting with June 23, well after the Giro was over, in order to assess the situation in Italian cycling. It was an interesting, but empty gesture, given that no races were scheduled during that period.

  First it was planned to shorten the upcoming stage, but then it was cancelled. The riders agreed to continue participating in the Grand Guignol after being threatened with severe penalties. The 2001 Giro, like the 1998 Tour, was almost destroyed by a doping scandal. Carmine Castellano was saddened by racing’s newest dishonor: “The Giro has lost an arm and I have lost a piece of my heart.”

  Mercatone Uno, disappointed by Pantani’s indifferent performance, suggested that he depart the Giro, which he did, claiming a fever.

  The racing restarted with stage nineteen, a sprinters’ stage won by Cipollini. That evening there was more bad news. The police announced they had found doping products in Frigo’s room and his team withdrew him from the race. Castellano expressed his sadness that Frigo, in particular, had been caught up in the business of drugs, saying that Frigo was supposed to be the new fresh face of racing. Frigo’s team, Fassa Bortolo, had now suffered a double disaster with both of their Classification riders, Belli and Frigo, out of the Giro.

  Photo of Simoni

  It is usually the intention of the Giro organization to design a given edition so that the final outcome remains in doubt until the last possible moment. They want the fans to keep turning on their televisions and radios and rushing to the newsstands. Stage twenty with its two ascents of the Mottarone was intended to settle the issue. If Frigo were still in the race, the final ownership of the Pink Jersey would indeed have been in doubt until the riders crossed the finish line in Arona. With a four-minute lead over new second place Olano, only misfortune (which seemed to be coming in large servings this year) could derail Simoni’s ride to victory.

  The dark, rainy weather seemed to mirror the mood of the Giro after Frigo’s disgrace. There were still those who wondered, with this latest blow, if the riders would race aggressively. Even with the race in the bag, Simoni was not going to just phone in the last mountain stage. On the second trip up the Mottarone the pugnacious racer lit the jets and the rest were powerless to resist. Cresting the mountain with a 90-second lead, he big-geared it down the other side. Even Savoldelli, with his magnificent descending skills, was unable to close the gap. Simoni showed he was a worthy Giro winner, beating Savoldelli to the finish by 2 minutes 25 seconds.

  Cipollini picked up his 34th stage win in Milan and Simoni finalized his victory in the most troubled Giro ever. With Frigo gone, no one else was close to riding on his level. He fulfilled the promise he had shown in 1993 when he won the Baby Giro and the Italian Amateur Road Championship.

  Final 2001 Giro d’Italia General Classification: 1. Gilberto Simoni (Lampre-Daikin) 89 hours 2 minutes 58 seconds

  2. Abraham Olano (ONCE-Eroski) @ 7 minutes 31 seconds

  3. Unai Osa (iBanesto.com) @ 8 minutes 37 seconds

  4. Serguei Gontchar (Liquigas-Pata) @ 9 minutes 25 seconds

  5. José Azevedo (ONCE-Eroski) @ 9 minutes 44 seconds

  Climbers’ Competition: 1. Freddy González (Selle Italia-Pacific): 73 points

  2. Gilberto Simoni (Lampre-Daikin): 42

  3. Fortunato Baliani (Selle Italia-Pacific): 33

  Points Competition: 1. Massimo Strazzer (Mobilvetta-Formaggi Trentini): 177 points

  2. Danilo Hondo (Deutsche Telekom): 158

  3. Mario Cipollini (Saeco): 136

  2002. What a Giro! It wasn’t the racing that concentrated everyone’s attention so much as the other events that unfolded during this interesting three weeks. Gilberto Simoni said that the 2002 Giro would be unpredictable. Indeed it was. Just before the Giro started, the Italian Cycling Federation suspended six riders for six months as a result of the 2001 San Remo blitz. Pantani’s case, centering on a mysterious insulin hypodermic that was found in his hotel room in the San Remo raid, was postponed until after the Giro, allowing the troubled rider to continue racing. A recommendation came out of that same Federation meeting that Pantani, who was again relapsing badly into cocaine abuse, receive a four-year suspension.

  The two most powerful Spanish teams, iBanesto and ONCE, decided not to ride the Giro because the race wouldn’t be televised in Spain. It was said the Spanish broadcast rights cost 300,000 euros and like the previous year, the Spanish television stations took a pass.

  The Giro started with a prologue time trial in Groningen, Netherlands and
then raced four stages in Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and France before transferring to Fossano, south of Turin. The northern start was to celebrate the adoption of the euro currency by many countries in the European Union.

  There were three hilltop finishes, the first one being the end of that first Italian stage starting in Fossano. This looked like an ungainly stage race with lots of transfers to allow the Giro to leap from one region to another. Simoni was hoping for a Giro with more climbing and expressed his disappointment in the race’s design.

  Before the start of the Giro I asked several experts, including Felice Gimondi and Franco Bitossi, who they thought would win the Giro. All the lists had the same riders, Gilberto Simoni, Francesco Casagrande, Stefano Garzelli, and Dario Frigo. Everyone hoped that Pantani would be able to recover from his troubles and be competitive again and two days before the race began Mercatone Uno listed him as a starter.

  Frigo was seeking redemption, having served his six-month suspension for possessing what appeared to be banned drugs in the 2001 Giro. It later turned out that the vials that were found in the 2001 San Remo sweep were filled with salt water. Frigo had been snookered by his drug dealer and served a sentence for what was turned out to be attempted doping.

  Sprinter Mario Cipollini had his own motivations for this Giro. Reaching 41 stage wins to match Binda was unlikely in this edition but he had won at least four stages in a single year six times.

  Prologue winner Juan Carlos Domínguez of Phonak was the first Pink Jersey. His win was not something that the Giro management expected, so there was no Phonak logo to put on the presentation Pink Jersey for the awards ceremony, mightily rankling the Phonak director. Nestled in among the day’s top placers was Paolo Savoldelli at fourth, only 4 seconds behind. Pantani, sporting a mustache and soul patch, did well enough, coming in 163rd out of 198 riders, losing only 46 seconds.

  Between an intermediate sprint and the stage one win, Cipollini accumulated enough bonus seconds to take the lead. Behind him, a crash had split the field and Garzelli and Simoni, two of the more astute and skilled stage racers in the business, were the only contenders in the front group. Riders in the second group losing 25 seconds and more included Pantani, Tonkov, Gotti, Casagrande and Tyler Hamilton.

  Speaking of being an astute rider, Garzelli showed he had head and legs when stage two roared into Liège. The Côte de Saint-Nicolas came just eight kilometers before the end. Casagrande put in a massive big-gear attack on the four-kilometer, ten-percent hill and it was lights out for the sprinters. Garzelli still had teammate Cadel Evans with him, who led out Garzelli for the stage win while Hamilton and Casagrande finished with the same time. Garzelli took the maglia rosa.

  At the end of the fourth and final northern European stage, Garzelli was still in pink and 36-year-old Cipollini had already snared two stage wins.

  Halfway into the first Italian stage, a break rolled off that included Garzelli’s teammate Paolo Bettini. When the peloton arrived at the Coletto del Moro, Casagrande and Garzelli set a red-hot pace that drew all the good Classification riders. Further up the road, Bettini waited for this elite group.

  Crash-prone Hamilton fell while trying to get up to the leaders, a lightened freewheel body probably having failed. Pain seemed to mean nothing to Hamilton. So, banged up as he was, he chased and made contact with the powerful and fast moving break. Bettini gave the breakaways all the help he could before expiring on the final ascent to the line.

  As the leaders got closer to the hilltop finish line at Limone Piemonte, the attacks kept coming. Garzelli timed it perfectly and whooshed by everyone, taking his second stage win. Pantani came in seven minutes later.

  The General Classification stood thus: 1. Stefano Garzelli

  2. Francesco Casagrande @ 43 seconds

  3. Gilberto Simoni @ 1 minute 0 seconds

  4. Santiago Pérez @ 1 minute 3 seconds

  5. Wladimir Belli @ 1 minute 6 seconds

  On May 18, before the start of stage six, Stefano Garzelli’s “A” urine sample, taken after his stage two win in Liège, tested positive for a diuretic called Probenecid. At the time, a positive test was called “non-negative” until a test of the second, or “B” sample confirmed the presence of the banned substance.

  Probenecid was an old drug that had been easily detectable for over a decade. In the 1980s Probenecid was used to mask steroids, which are probably (we can never really know) no longer the choice of cheats. A diuretic can also raise a rider’s hematocrit and an elevated hematocrit was a fast ticket home, making it less likely a racer would intentionally take the drug.

  Garzelli was adamant about his use of the drug, “I would be a complete testa di cazzo [dickhead] to take something like this that could ruin my life, my family and my career. I had never heard of this drug or taken this drug. Even so, I did not want to continue, but the team has convinced me.”

  There were other drug problems. Roberto Sgambelluri (Mercatone Uno) was positive for a new version of EPO called NESP. Three Panaria riders were also caught using EPO: Faat Zakirov, Nicola Chesini (who was arrested for drug dealing), and Filippo Perfetto. Domenico Romano, a rider for the small Landbouwkrediet squad, heard that the police were looking for him in regards to drug trafficking and simply vanished.

  At the time of Garzelli’s positive I thought something was weird and I still do. It was confirmed that most of the riders in Garzelli’s Mapei squad had to stop to urinate several times during stage two and Bettini and Garzelli said they had to stop several times to urinate in the first hour. I think someone spiked the team’s food. By this point the reader should know that I am no fan of cheaters and have little patience for racers who claim to be innocent when the mass spectrograph finds them out, but sometimes things just don’t add up and this is one of them.

  Garzelli was allowed to continue racing pending the test of his “B” sample. Remembering the pain and humiliation of Madonna di Campiglio, Pantani said that Garzelli should not have been allowed to continue racing after his “A” sample positive. Garzelli shot back that he had every right under the rules to be in the race.

  Stage six took the Giro out of Piedmont and on to the Ligurian coast, finishing in Varazze. A nine-rider fuga di bidone carved out a five-minute lead, letting an unlikely German rider who had begun his racing career under the old East German regime become the new overall leader. Jens Heppner of the Telekom squad now had a 3 minute 33 second lead over Garzelli.

  Cipollini’s stage nine win brought his total to 37. Heppner was still in pink and Garzelli was out of the Giro, the “B” sample confirming the presence of Probenecid in his system. Garzelli’s exit gave Heppner a larger time cushion because the new second place was Yaroslav Popovych, 3 minutes 50 seconds behind.

  Before the start of stage ten, it was announced that Simoni had tested positive for cocaine in an out-of-competition test performed before the start of the Giro del Trentino. Because the sample wasn’t taken while Simoni was riding the Giro, his continuation in the race was not immediately endangered. Insisting he was innocent, Simoni speculated that a dentist’s anesthetic might have triggered the positive.

  The race was now at its southernmost point, Campania, for stage ten. Robbie McEwen won a stage whose uphill finish was too much for Lion King Cipollini.

  Moving north into the Matese Mountains, southeast of Rome, the Giro got its first chance to test the riders’ climbing legs with a hilltop finish at Campitello Matese. The leaders were together for the final rush up the mountain and with three kilometers to go, the ever-aggressive Simoni took off with Casagrande barely holding his wheel. Simoni won the stage, perhaps erasing some of the misery of the previous day’s doping mess. Heppner kept his lead and Pantani remained in the race. He was with a large group that lost over eight minutes but was ahead of the autobus that lost fourteen.

  The bright, good feeling Simoni enjoyed after his stage win wa
s dashed the next day. Upon returning to his hotel after winning the Campitello Matese sprint, three policemen were waiting for him, wanting to learn more about his cocaine positive. After this, pressure on Simoni’s Saeco team grew to pull him. The next day Saeco did just that and now the last two Giro winners were watching the race on television.

  After stage twelve was won by a break of five non-contenders the General Classification was thus: 1. Jens Heppner

  2. Francesco Casagrande @ 2 minutes 58 seconds

  3. Paolo Savoldelli @ 3 minutes 43 seconds

  4. Pietro Caucchioli @ same time

  5. Fernando Escartin @ 3 minutes 46 seconds

  Stage thirteen with its arduous profile and hilltop finish changed the race, but in a way that wouldn’t be completely apparent for a few days. Julio Pérez-Cuapio had the wings of an angel as he soared to the top of the San Giacomo climb for his second-ever Giro stage win. Behind him Casagrande wasn’t feeling well and moreover was feeling grumpy because he was being marked so carefully by the others. The surprise was Australian Cadel Evans, who was the last rider to hold on to Pérez-Cuapio’s wheel. Evans came in second, four seconds ahead of a charging Dario Frigo, making him fifth in the Overall, 2 minutes 39 seconds behind the still pink-clad Heppner.

  Next was a hilly and technical individual time trial in Le Marche. So far Tyler Hamilton had accumulated three crashes. That collection didn’t seem to hold him back when he soundly thrashed the rest of the field, leaping from eleventh place in the General Classification to third. Meanwhile Francesco Casagrande looked to have peaked too early. He had commanding form at the Giro del Trentino and again seemed to be running out of gas at the Giro. Tough-guy Heppner remained the leader.