by Carol McGann
2. Giovanni Battaglin @ 23 seconds
3. Miguel Lasa @ 1 minute 32 seconds
4. Marcello Bergamo @ 1 minute 53 seconds
5. Fabrizio Fabbri @ same time
The race careened south into the bottom of the peninsula and turned north. The lead remained with Galdós and the stages were almost all taken in bunch gallops.
Before the start of stage eight, de Vlaeminck had a word with his gregario Marcello Osler. Telling him that he was as good as any of the other riders who were getting attention from the press, he asked Osler to perform an exploit: to do something big for the Brooklyn team’s morale. Osler more than fulfilled his team captain’s request. He escaped early in the stage and at one point had built up a 23-minute lead over a listless peloton. Not being a classification threat, he was allowed plenty of freedom. Even with a final climb over Monte Faito before coming into Sorrento, Osler was able to beat the pack by almost nine minutes after having been away for almost 160 kilometers.
Photo of Roger deVlaeminck
The Monte Faito ascent split up Osler’s chasers and when Battaglin attacked the peloton, only Galdós, Fausto Bertoglio and Conti could answer, the quartet beating the pack led in by de Vlaeminck by about a minute and a half.
Now Bertoglio was in third place: 1. Francisco Galdós
2. Giovanni Battaglin @ 23 seconds
3. Fausto Bertoglio @ 1 minute 24 seconds
4. Tino Conti @ 1 minute 55 seconds
5. Miguel Lasa @ 3 minutes 7 seconds
Stage nine had a short climb before the finish in Frosinone, located southeast of Rome. Spaniard Javier Elorriaga flew away with de Vlaeminck and Paolini on his wheel. Elorriaga and de Vlaeminck worked together but Paolini (Italian Champion that year), confident that the trio would stay away, refused to help. When it came time for the sprint, Paolini sped away for the stage win, leaving de Vlaeminck livid. But before the reader feels too sorry for the Belgian, de Vlaeminck was guilty of using the same tactic himself when it suited him. Few riders in cycling history have been more ruthless than Roger de Vlaeminck.
Paolini’s stage win wasn’t important; it was how de Vlaeminck’s anger colored the next few stages and their outcome that mattered.
The next day’s stage was over the heavy (constantly climbing and descending) roads leading to Tivoli. Paolini was a good rider and tried valiantly to get away. After each of more than ten attacks, de Vlaeminck would pull the pack back up to him. After Paolini’s fruitless battering at the peloton, Baronchelli and Battaglin took advantage of a moment when the pack relaxed a bit to get away. They did so without Paolini, but they did pull Galdós, Panizza, Gimondi, Conti and de Vlaeminck with them. De Vlaeminck won the stage and Galdós kept his lead. That made four stage wins for de Vlaeminck.
La Gazzetta’s Rino Negri made a bet with de Vlaeminck. He asked de Vlaeminck if he would do better than Merckx had done in the Giro.
“That means seven stage wins. No, it’s impossible for me,” demurred de Vlaeminck.
“100,000 Lire?” persisted Negri. De Vlaeminck shook his hand and the bet was on.
Before the Giro started the next day in Rome, the riders went to the Quirinal palace to meet Italian president Giovanni Leone. Leone, like nearly all Italians, was following the Giro and asked de Vlaeminck if he were going to win the day’s short stage to Orvieto. De Vlaeminck promised to try. Orvieto sits atop an ancient tufa mound and the ascent to the city center is nasty, brutish and short.
Paolini was at it again, pummeling the pack and again, to no avail. Others tried to escape and each time de Vlaeminck personally did the work of policing the front and closing the gaps. Then, just at the right moment, with about a kilometer to go, de Vlaeminck was gone. The rest were helpless as the man called “The Gypsy” took stage win number five. Gimondi was irritated and chewed out his team’s sprinter, Rik van Linden, for coming off de Vlaeminck’s wheel. Van Linden defended himself with the truth when he told his team captain, “When Roger goes, it’s just like a hot bullet.”
The race transferred north to Tuscany. Stage thirteen was a 38-kilometer individual time trial at Forte dei Marmi, imperiling Galdós’ 23-second lead.
Galdós didn’t have to wait until the end of his ride to find out he had lost the lead. Just after leaving the start chute he crashed, while Battaglin surprised everyone with a ride that made him the leader. Many were astonished that a rider who had so far never shown a talent for time trials had done so well. Panizza was particularly grumpy, accusing Battaglin of drafting a police motorbike for almost the entire distance. The race jury investigated and found that at times the dense crowds along the route had hindered the lead motorbike, forcing Battaglin to close in on the policeman. Panizza must have wondered why only Battaglin had this problem.
The General Classification was quite different now. The Jolliceramica squad had grabbed the top 2 places:
1. Giovanni Battaglin
2. Fausto Bertoglio @ 1 minute 42 seconds
3. Francisco Galdós @ 2 minutes 40 seconds
4. Felice Gimondi @ 3 minutes 20 seconds
Wounded by the accusations, Battaglin promised to prove that he had the chops the next day on the timed hill-climb up Monte Ciocco. Again, everyone was dumbfounded by the result. A third-year pro whose father was a fan of Fausto Coppi won. Fausto Bertoglio had not only won the stage, he had seized the maglia rosa from his team captain by six seconds.
The General Classification: 1. Fausto Bertoglio
2. Giovanni Battaglin @ 6 seconds
3. Francisco Galdós @ 2 minutes 0 seconds
4. Felice Gimondi and Giambattista Baronchelli @ 3 minutes 0 seconds
Battaglin understood the consequences of the stage and announced that he was still the number one rider on the team. The team director, Marino Fontana, didn’t see things quite the same way. He must have been reaching for some stomach antacids as he said his Jolliceramica team now had two protected riders. As Alfredo Binda noted many years ago when he managed Coppi and Bartali on the same national Tour de France team, having two ambitious leaders on one team can be like putting a cat and a dog in a sack.
Fontana didn’t have to worry too much about his abundance of riches. The next day took the race north and west up the hilly Ligurian coast where the weather turned ugly, very ugly.
On the ascent of the Foce Carpinelli, Felice Gimondi glanced at the man who said he was still Number One and saw a rider having a bad day. The man whose first name means “Happy” thought this would be a perfect time to ruin Battaglin’s day, it being much easier to kick a guy when he’s down. Gimondi and Bertoglio went full gas and took a lot of horsepower with them: Paolini and de Vlaeminck along with three other members of Paolini’s SCIC team. Missing this move were Battaglin, Galdós and Lasa. Galdós and Lasa figured that the Giro was riding away, so they took off with Bitossi (who had tarried a while to keep an eye on Battaglin) and after a few kilometers, connected with the maglia rosa group. With every pedal stroke Battaglin was losing ground.
By the end of the day his catastrophe was complete. He came in almost 10 minutes after stage winner Bitossi.
The General Classification stood thus: 1. Fausto Bertoglio
2. Francisco Galdós @ 2 minutes 0 seconds
3. Felice Gimondi and Giambattista Baronchelli @ 3 minutes 0 seconds
A couple of stages moved the race across northern Italy to the Dolomites. With only four stages left, snowplows were hurriedly clearing the Stelvio for the grand finale. Torriani had “Plan B” in his hip pocket: if snow should fall on the newly cleared road the Giro would finish instead atop Tre Cime di Lavaredo.
Stage eighteen with its ascent of Monte Bondone changed nothing, the leaders finished together. The surprise was that de Vlaeminck won the stage. He voiced regret that moving his saddle before stage three had cost him so much time.
That left Bertoglio with only two stages
where his lead could be in danger. Stage twenty, the penultimate day, was a classic Dolomite stage with four big passes: Staulanza, Santa Lucia, Marmolada and the Pordoi. Not unexpectedly the peloton fell to bits on the Marmolada: it’s a heartbreaking climb with long, straight uphill stretches that can seem endless. Here Bertoglio had only 12 riders with him, all of the contenders.
On the Pordoi the battle raged. Galdós attacked and de Vlaeminck countered. Oddly, Bertoglio, who had done such a fine job of monitoring the front and protecting his lead, mis-judged this move and let Galdós and de Vlaeminck, who was enjoying terrific form, move away with several others. On the descent Bertoglio, Gimondi and Giacinto Santambrogio closed to within 45 seconds, but then lost time from there to the finish. De Vlaeminck won the stage, his seventh for this Giro. With only the Stelvio stage left, Galdós’ savvy move had pulled him to within 41 seconds of Bertoglio. This was a race!
Neither Bertoglio nor Galdós slept well that night, both knowing how quickly 41 seconds could evaporate on the Stelvio’s 48 numbered switchbacks.
As the stage began, there was no action on either the San Pellegrino or the Passo di Costalunga, everyone was waiting for the Stelvio. A little after the town of Trafoi, well into the ascent, there were a few probing attacks that put Baronchelli out the back. Up the pass they went and with about eleven kilometers to go Galdós struck his first blow. Bertoglio and a few others were able to close up to him.
Galdós kept pouring it on and by six kilometers from the top it was Galdós off the front with Bertoglio on his wheel. Having the lead, Bertoglio needed only to stay with the Spaniard.
Over and over Galdós attacked and each time Bertoglio had no trouble matching the accelerations. Near the top Galdós tried again and this time Bertoglio counter-attacked. That was it. Galdós closed the gap and then attacked no more. Clearly Bertoglio was not going to lose the Giro on the Stelvio and he generously eased at the line to let his valiant opponent win the stage.
Italy was jubilant over Bertoglio’s being the first Italian to win since Gimondi in 1969. This was the high point of Bertoglio’s career. For all the brilliance of his Giro victory, he had only two other big career wins, the Tour of Catalonia and the Coppa Placci.
This was the first Giro won on a Pinarello bicycle. Giovanni Pinarello won a cash prize for being the last rider (then called the maglia nera) in the 1951 edition and used that money to start his famous frame building operation.
De Vlaeminck won his bet with Negri with a Merckx-beating seven stage wins.
Final 1975 Giro d’Italia General Classification: 1. Fausto Bertoglio (Jolliceramica): 111 hours 31 minutes 34 seconds
2. Francisco Galdós (KAS) @ 41 seconds
3. Felice Gimondi (Bianchi) @ 6 minutes 18 seconds
4. Roger de Vlaeminck (Brooklyn) @ 7 minutes 39 seconds
5. Giuseppe Perletto (Magniflex) @ 8 minutes 0 seconds
Climbers’ Competition: 1. Francisco Galdós (KAS) and Andrés Oliva (KAS): 300 points
3. Fausto Bertoglio (Jolliceramica): 240
Points Competition: 1. Roger de Vlaeminck (Brooklyn): 346 points
2. Fausto Bertoglio (Jolliceramica): 159
3. Felice Gimondi (Bianchi): 154
1976. After failing to televise one of the most exciting races in Giro history, RAI brought its cameras back for the 1976 edition. There was so much to love about the 1976 Giro. It was contested by most of the great riders of the era and to list them brings to mind hand-built steel bikes equipped with Campagnolo Super Record components, silk tubulars and racers in wool jerseys and cloth caps. On the starting line at Catania in Sicily were Merckx, Gimondi, Bertoglio, de Vlaeminck, Panizza, de Muynck, Moser, Sercu, Basso, Galdós, Baronchelli, Joaquim Agostinho and Bitossi. By the time the 1975 Tour had reached Paris, Merckx was a battered but defiant lion. A crash had broken bones in his face so that he could consume only liquid food and he had been viciously punched by a spectator, forcing him to take blood thinners and painkillers. Still, Bernard Thévenet was only able to beat him by 2 minutes 47 seconds. After that Tour Merckx was never the same rider. As the 1976 season began, he did win Milan–San Remo for a record seventh time as well as the Catalonian week. But that was it in the win column for the spring. He was second in Tirreno–Adriatico and sixth in both Paris–Roubaix and Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Coming to the Giro he was suffering from a nasty saddle sore.
As for Gimondi, the other giant, there was nothing in his spring to suggest that he was going to ride the Giro with exceptional form. Johan De Muynck probably looked the best, having just won the Tour of Romandie.
The route itself was suitable for a good all-rounder. It started in Sicily and wiggle-waggled up the peninsula, landing in the Alps before heading across to the Dolomites.
The Sicilian start was tragic. Juan Manuel Santisteban was helping his KAS teammate José Linares González rejoin the peloton after a puncture when he mis-judged a corner and ran headfirst into a steel guard rail. Santisteban was dead before he reached the hospital. When Sercu won the sprint and the year’s first Pink Jersey he had no idea that there had been an accident.
The day after Tom Simpson died in the 1967 Tour, an Englishman was allowed to win the next stage. Torriani promised the Spaniards a similar neutral stage to commemorate their countryman, but no Spaniard was given an opportunity to roll across the finish alone immediately after Santisteban’s death because the Classification times of nearly all of the peloton were separated by mere seconds. Letting a Spanish rider win a stage and gain the bonus time would mean giving up the Pink Jersey. The stage was contested with vigor, and won by the speedy Sercu for his second win on that split-stage day.
The Belgians continued to have their way with the Giro over the remaining Sicilian stages. Francesco Moser managed to win stage four, but it was a Pyrrhic victory for the Italians because the big prize, the maglia rosa, went over to Roger de Vlaeminck. Before crossing the Strait of Messina the General Classification stood thus:
1. Roger de Vlaeminck
2. Francesco Moser @ same time
3. Giambattista Baronchelli @ same time
4. Alfio Vandi @ same time
5. Felice Gimondi @ same time
De Vlaeminck was also the points leader while Merckx made the Belgian domination complete by carrying the Climber’s Jersey over to the mainland.
After Francesco Moser had taken the stage four sprint from de Vlaeminck, Moser indulged himself in a little public gloating. De Vlaeminck told the young Italian that he would be waiting for Moser at the finish line in Cosenza.
The prediction came true, but not quite the way anyone wanted it to come out. As the sprint was winding up, Moser bumped Sercu, sending both flying. De Vlaeminck said he was sorry to win that way and looked forward to another chance to beat Moser in a clean sprint.
Stage six ended in Matera, an ancient city in the arch of the Italian boot. Originally Matera was a city of caves carved into the ancient rock 9,000 years ago and has been almost continuously occupied ever since. Being one of the oldest occupied sites in the world, the streets are narrow and none of them are straight. The Brooklyn team of de Vlaeminck and Johan de Muynck felt that the treacherous, hilly city had trouble written all over it. Their director told them to be sure to be at the front of the peloton when the pack reached the town.
Sure enough, they were at the pointy part of the pack as they blasted through Matera. But as de Muynck was negotiating a difficult descent, two non-Brooklyn riders on his wheel crashed, blocking the way and making a hash of everything. De Muynck won the stage and a fuming de Vlaeminck came in 21 seconds later. De Muynck was in pink and de Vlaeminck was miffed because he felt his teammates should have waited to help him win the stage. De Vlaeminck, already stiff-jawed over de Muynck’s beating him in the Tour de Romandie, was so angry with his young gregario, that he decided to punish him, refusing him the team
’s support the rest of the race.
The first time trial at Ostuni in the heel of the Italian boot changed things. Merckx was thinking that a dead-flat time trial would be the perfect place for him to take the lead. He selected a 54 x 13 and ended up losing almost a minute because his gear was too small! Moser learned that a monster gear would be needed when his teammate Ole Ritter finished in time to tell him that even a 55 would be inadequate. Moser had his mechanic hurriedly mount a monster 56. Gimondi spotted Moser’s mechanic racing to put on the big meat and had his wrench do likewise. Moser won the time trial with Gimondi only 7 seconds slower. The rest of the field lost a minimum of a half-minute. On such things great victories can rest.
The new General Classification: 1. Francesco Moser
2. Felice Gimondi @ 7 seconds
3. Johan de Muynck @ 40 seconds
4. Roland Salm @ 59 seconds
5. Roger de Vlaeminck @ 1 minute 1 second
When the next day dawned, Moser’s gregari knew they would be in for a day of hard work defending his slim lead as the race hit the hills of Irpino, northeast of Naples. Their job would be doubly difficult because Moser’s gut was acting up and the Belgians had not come to Italy for the sights, they came to win. As soon as the peloton reached the mountains, de Vlaeminck started breaking legs. He jumped away from the pack. He was brought back. Again he attacked and again he was brought back; each time Moser’s men pulled the pack up to de Vlaeminck. Then de Muynck went. Again Moser’s gregari dug deep and closed the gap. With this attack, the riders could see Moser was in trouble. Then one after another of de Vlaeminck’s Brooklyn boys took turns slapping Moser around. First Ronny de Witte, then Willy de Geest hit the field and then finally Patrick Sercu got away.