The Story of the Giro d'Italia

by Carol McGann

  One prominent victim of the Red Guards, the most famous of the violent communist revolutionary groups, was Emilio Bozzi, who owned the legendary Legnano bike company, sponsor of Binda, Bartali and Coppi. After Bozzi’s 1974 assassination, his family sold the firm to Bianchi. In 2011, the Bozzi family reacquired the Legnano brand.

  Starting in the Vatican City, 1974’s 22-stage Giro headed south down the Tyrrhenian coast, all the way to the instep of the Italian boot before heading east for Taranto. Then it traveled north along the Adriatic coast before heading inland to Modena. In the final week the Giro made a snaking journey around northern Italy for a final showdown in the Dolomites. The twentieth stage had the fearsome Tre Cime di Lavaredo for a hilltop finish and the next day the riders had to negotiate the Falzarego, Valles, Rolle and Monte Grappa climbs.

  Fuente and his KAS boys came to have another go at Merckx, Fuente having been ill-prepared the year before and uncompetitive in the mountains until the final days. Using the form he gained in the 1973 Giro, he had gone on that year to win the Tour of Switzerland and come in third in the Tour. This year he was ready, having won the Vuelta earlier in the spring with two stage wins.

  Merckx, on the other hand, for the first time since 1965 (his first year as a professional), did not win a single spring Classic.

  The rest of the roster of contenders was mostly a list of the usual suspects: Gimondi, Panizza, Moser, Battaglin, Pettersson and Motta. There was one fresh face, Giambattista Baronchelli, who had won both the Tour de l’Avenir and the Girobio (the amateur or “Baby” Giro) in 1973. Hired by SCIC, he was in his first professional Grand Tour.

  Gimondi was the current World Road Champion after winning the final sprint from Merckx, Luis Ocaña and Freddy Maertens. Gimondi still had the legs in March when he won Milan–San Remo, Coppi-style. He initiated an early break, battered it senseless and rode solo for 25 kilometers to finish nearly two minutes ahead of Eric Leman, the largest gap since Fausto Coppi beat Vito Ortelli by more than four minutes in 1949.

  The first stage ended in a great rush that should have been a showcase for the big names in speed, Basso, Sercu, Bitossi and de Vlaeminck, but a man who had just turned pro upstaged them all: Wilfried Reybrouck zipped up the side of the road with 400 meters to go, holding off a hard-charging de Vlaeminck.

  When Vittorio Adorni had needed a couple of Belgian flahutes for his Filcas squad, he asked Guido Reybrouck, an accomplished and well-known professional, for recommendations. Guido suggested his brother Wilfried. That’s how an unknown neo-pro came to stun the cycling establishment when he donned the maglia rosa.

  The next day ended in Pompei. A major strike didn’t fulfill its threat to close the road through Naples, but the wary pack stayed together for security. Young Reybrouck kept his lead.

  The hilly area of Sorrento gave the climbers their first chance to show their form in stage three. Fuente promised to make trouble for the others and was true to his word. He left them behind on Monte Faito, an eleven-kilometer climb with patches of eleven-percent gradient. Merckx wasn’t able to stay with the first two groups of pursuers, but he was a good descender and connected with the second group of chasers, finishing 42 seconds behind stage winner Fuente, the new leader.

  And Reybrouck? He got a hard lesson in the intensity of climbing in Grand Tours. Shelled on an early minor climb, he finished outside the time limit. One day he was a young hero wearing the coveted maglia rosa, the next day he was in tears packing his bags for home.

  From there, the Giro went to the bottom of the peninsula and turned northward. Each day was almost a carbon copy of the previous one, the racers riding slowly until the final 50 or so kilometers and then winding the speed up to almost the limit of human performance before unleashing a wild sprint. The master of the last-minute escape, Franco Bitossi, managed to foil the sprinters at the end of stage six, holding off the hard-charging pack by two seconds. Through these stages, Fuente kept his lead and de Vlaeminck remained the points leader.

  The next day stage nine ended with a climb and descent of Monte Carpegna in Le Marche, not far from San Marino. Once the pack reached the mountain Fuente came out of the saddle, gave his pedals a hard push and was gone. Merckx chased, but the Fuente of 1974 was a far better rider than the Fuente of 1973. Because of the hard rain, Merckx chose not to take any serious risks on the way down the mountain, allowing the Spaniard to add another 65 seconds to his lead.

  The General Classification at this point: 1. José-Manuel Fuente

  2. Eddy Merckx @ 1 minute 40 seconds

  3. Felice Gimondi @ 2 minutes 12 seconds

  4. Giovanni Battaglin @ 2 minutes 16 seconds

  5. José-Luis Uribezubia @ 2 minutes 18 seconds

  Big-time sprinters sometimes make public their plans to ride only a few flat stages before retiring from a Grand Tour, generally outraging the organizers. Patrick Sercu announced that he would retire from the Giro after stage fourteen in San Remo and prepare for the Tour de France. Torriani was especially enraged because Sercu told television audiences that his team boss had approved of the plan. Torriani called Sercu’s sponsor, Giorgio Perfetti of Brooklyn chewing gum, telling him he must punish Sercu by sending him back to Belgium now. Perfetti refused, telling Sercu that he should win another stage before quitting, just to twist Torriani’s tail.

  Stage eleven’s morning half-stage had a finish atop the steep Il Ciocco climb. Again Fuente jumped and no one could hold his wheel. Merckx chased, but could get no closer than 41 seconds. That afternoon Sercu won that third stage Perfetti asked of him.

  The next day was a 40-kilometer individual time trial. In winning the stage, Merckx erased all but 18 seconds of the lead Fuente had spent almost 2 weeks accumulating. Feeling that a bullet had just missed his ear, Fuente said, “Today I won the Giro.” With the Dolomite stages coming, he predicted that this year Merckx would see that Fuente was the superior rider.

  The Giro’s original plan was to have a rest day in San Remo after stage fourteen. But on the afternoon of stage twelve, news came of the outrage in Brescia. During an anti-fascist demonstration, the right-wing group Ordine Nuovo set off a bomb that killed six. The government declared a national day of mourning and the Giro decided to stay put and have its rest day two days early.

  Stage fourteen, a run up the Ligurian coast using many of the same roads and climbs as Milan–San Remo, is a day famous in the history of racing. The weather was terrible with hard, pouring rain. The organizers, feeling that the Passo del Ceppo would be too dangerous in the wet, changed the day’s route. It was extended by 24 kilometers, making it 189 kilometers and now included two ascents of the Ghimbegna.

  After the first time over, a small group that included Fuente teammate López-Carril broke away. On the second ascent the remaining top riders, including Merckx, Gimondi and Fuente, separated themselves from the peloton. Fuente, having the lead, decided to ride the stage defensively. If Merckx wanted to win the Giro, he would have to take it away from Fuente on Fuente’s own turf, the mountains.

  Seeking the riders up the road, Baronchelli blasted away from the Merckx/Fuente group and after a short hesitation, Merckx and Gimondi took off after the Italian. Then fans watching the race got the shock of their lives. Fuente wasn’t with Merckx and Gimondi, he was off the back! He quickly lost two minutes. Fuente was suffering a dramatic défaillance. His final time loss for the day was 10 minutes 19 seconds.

  On the day he had planned to make the Giro his, Fuente lost the race. Why?

  “I forgot the most important thing, which was to get plenty to eat. Perhaps it was because of the bad weather or because I had been feeling so strong…it was all well planned but I failed because I forgot to eat.” It’s not an unknown failing. Anquetil lost the Giro in 1959 because he didn’t eat and Lance Armstrong got into trouble more than once for the same reason.

  Merckx became the maglia rosa: 1. Eddy Merckx />
  2. Giambattista Baronchelli @ 35 seconds

  3. Felice Gimondi @ 2 minutes 23 seconds

  4. Francesco Moser @ 2 minutes 31 seconds

  5. Roger de Vlaeminck @ 2 minutes 33 seconds

  Stage sixteen finished at the top of the 1,209-meter-high Monte Generoso near Como, just inside the Swiss border. As he predicted and was expected, Fuente escaped on the lower slopes of the eleven-kilometer climb and no one was able to stay with him. But Merckx seemed worried. Midway through the stage he broke his left toe clip, but refused to get the defect repaired. De Vlaeminck rode up to him, advising Merckx to get his bike fixed, given the coming climb. But afraid to stop, Merckx pressed on, finishing fifteenth that day, 2 minutes 21 seconds behind Fuente. Gimondi had a fine day, coming in second, only 31 seconds behind the flying Spaniard. This moved Gimondi up to second place in the Overall.

  The next day was also mountainous and again Fuente was on the hunt. He sent two of his men up ahead and eventually hooked up with one of them, Lazcano. The pair hot-footed it for the finish with Merckx, Gimondi, Moser and others in pursuit. The Spanish duo barely held their lead to the end with Fuente sitting up just before the line to let his hard-working helper take the stage. For the four hours of hard work Fuente had gained 13 seconds.

  It was raining for the start of stage twenty with its ascent of the Forcella di Monte Rest followed by the milder Passo dell Mauria and then a finish at the top of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. Merckx had grown disgusted with the help the tifosi had given the Italian riders on the climbs and worried that there might be a repeat of the 1967 episode on the same climb, where the riders had cheated so flagrantly that Torriani had annulled the stage.

  Meanwhile, framebuilder Ernesto Colnago, supplier of frames to Merckx’s Molteni team as well as Baronchelli’s SCIC squad, had hatched a plan. Historian Beppe Conti explained that Colnago was good friends with Merckx, having built the special bike Merckx used to win the World Hour Record. Colnago suggested that Merckx let the young Baronchelli have a bit of glory on the Tre Cime climb, and after the young SCIC rider had made the tifosi happy with some time alone on the famous ascent, Merckx could close the gap and win the stage. Despite Baronchelli’s high placing, Merckx is said to have agreed to the plan, largely because of his friendship with Colnago.

  Ten kilometers from the top, Fuente unleashed a blistering attack. Merckx answered, with Baronchelli, Battaglin, López-Carril and Tino Conti coming along.

  Then Baronchelli attacked. This might have been the most dangerous move of the entire Giro because Baronchelli was less than a minute behind Merckx in the General Classification. Merckx clawed his way back up to the young Italian and then Baronchelli went again. Had Merckx relaxed a bit at some point and let the Italian get a gap? It is written that he did, but I remain unsure. Baronchelli was riding far better than anyone anticipated.

  Despite Merckx’s desperate attempts to catch him, Baronchelli was well and truly gone. Fuente won the stage, his fifth this year and was now sitting in fifth place, 3 minutes 22 seconds behind Merckx. And Baronchelli? He was now in second, only 12 seconds behind Merckx.

  The close standings made it likely that the twenty-first stage with its four climbs would be a rough day in the Dolomites. Fuente promised to make it so; it was his last chance to take the lead. It was on the final climb of the day, the 24-kilometer long ascent of Monte Grappa that the Giro was decided.

  Fuente was desperate to get away and did three hard accelerations before he was able to drop Merckx’s gregari Jos Huysmans and Jos de Schoenmaecker. Merckx bided his time, letting Baronchelli and Gimondi mount the chase. And still he waited. Finally Merckx went to the front of the chasing group and dragged them at a punishing pace to the top. When Merckx had started the chase Fuente had a lead of 2 minutes 40 seconds and at the summit it was down to just 35 seconds. With the long descent into Bassano del Grappa, Fuente’s goose was cooked. Merckx won the stage and seemed to seal his Giro victory.

  But not so fast, said Fuente. The final stage of a Grand Tour is usually a ceremonial promenade, but not this time. Fuente attacked hard and forced Merckx himself to mark him. Separated from the pack, Fuente did all the work with a concerned Merckx sitting on his wheel. After the lead had grown to 80 seconds, Merckx asked his director, Giorgio Albani, to have the Molteni team shut down the break. Merckx was worried that with a determined Fuente riding away from the peloton, a flat tire or some other difficulty might cause him to lose the Giro. Fuente was brought back, but the indomitable Spaniard tried two more times to get away. It was no use and the pack was together for a sprint on the Vigorelli velodrome.

  The Giro was again Merckx’s. This was his fifth, equaling the record of Alfredo Binda (1925, ’27, ’28, ’29, ’33) and Fausto Coppi (1940, ’47, ’49, ’52, ’53). It was a slim win, not gained with the dominating power of previous years. This was a terrific Giro, but Italian RAI television, fearing another boring, dominating Merckx march across Italy, chose to show only highlights from some of the stages.

  While Merckx may have had a disappointing spring, his 1974 turned out to be historic. He won the Giro, the Tour of Switzerland, the Tour de France and the World Road Championship. No one before or since has done this. The closest was Stephen Roche when he won the Giro, Tour de France, Tour of Romandie and the World’s in 1987. Merckx had one more good year in him, but never again would he win the Giro or the Tour.

  Final 1974 Giro d’Italia General Classification: 1. Eddy Merckx (Molteni) 113 hours 8 minutes 13 seconds

  2. Giambattista Baronchelli (SCIC) @ 12 seconds

  3. Felice Gimondi (Bianchi) @ 33 seconds

  4. Constantino “Tino” Conti (Zonca) @ 2 minutes 14 seconds

  5. José-Manuel Fuente (KAS) @ 3 minutes 22 seconds

  Climbers’ Competition: 1. José-Manuel Fuente (KAS): 510 points

  2. Eddy Merckx (Molteni): 330

  3. Santiago Lazcano (KAS): 230

  Points Competition: 1. Roger de Vlaeminck (Brooklyn): 265 points

  2. Franco Bitossi (SCIC): 209

  3. José-Manuel Fuente (KAS): 171

  1975. There were ten riders missing at the start line in Milan. Eddy Merckx got sick at the Tour of Romandie and at the last minute he and his entire team withdrew from the Giro. Backnumbers one through ten had been reserved for Merckx and his Molteni wrecking crew but they wouldn’t be needed this year, leaving a peloton of only 90 riders. For the Giro this probably wasn’t bad news. Races regularly improve with a dominant rider absent; with more riders in actual contention, the ferocity of the competition grows. But de Vlaeminck was peeved. With Merckx absent, many Belgian journalists stayed home as well. Hating Merckx’s long shadow, de Vlaeminck vowed to make the Belgian sports writers regret missing the show he would put on.

  Torriani’s 1975 route sent the race from Milan south to the arch of the boot and then returned all the way back up to the Alps and the Dolomites as it had in the past, but it was the last stage that he hoped would be his masterstroke. The Giro ended at the top of the Passo Stelvio. No trip into Bormio, no final time trial, no promenade into Milan. On the final day, after crossing the San Pellegrino and the Costalunga passes, the race shot up the north face of the Stelvio and when the riders reached the top, their Giro was over.

  The first two stages were flat, made for the sprinters. Sercu probably would have won the first except Marino Basso grabbed his jersey. Sercu broke loose only to have the Italian grab hold again. So good was Sercu that after all the tugging and squabbling, he still managed fourth place while Basso was buried back in the pack. Sercu righted things the next day by winning stage two.

  The third stage traveled from Ancona to the top of the 1,450-meter-high Prati di Tivo, located near the Gran Sasso, northeast of Rome. The day’s climbing amounted to a series of attacks by Spaniards followed by counter-strokes from the Italians. Near the top, Battaglin put in a hard ac
celeration and the Spaniards closed up to him. Battaglin had more where that came. Bam! He hit them again. No one could take it and the young rider beat Francisco Galdós to the finish by 21 seconds. Battaglin was the Pink Jersey.

  De Vlaeminck, after having messed with his seat height the night before, couldn’t follow the pace and lost almost four minutes, killing his chances of owning the maglia rosa in 1975. He repaired things a bit in stage four. Ridden over the rolling countryside of Abruzzo, it had three highly rated climbs and a technical finish in the town of Campobasso. De Vlaeminck won the stage, while behind him Battaglin was furiously chasing the peloton after a badly timed flat tire. He never regained contact and lost the lead to Galdós.

  The General Classification stood thus: 1. Francisco Galdós