by Carol McGann
With a 42-kilometer time trial in Verona left to ride, the Dolomites had decided little. The top four riders seemed to be nearly equal in ability, with most observers thinking Saronni the likely final victor:
1. Giovanni Battaglin
2. Tommy Prim @ 50 seconds
3. Giuseppe Saronni @ 59 seconds
4. Josef Fuchs @ 1 minute 10 seconds
5. Silvano Contini @ 1 minute 44 seconds
Davide Boifava, Inoxpran’s director for the Giro, was worried that things might not exactly go according to Hoyle during the final time trial, especially since the tifosi were desperately hoping Saronni would win the Giro at the last moment with a fabulous ride. Boifava told Torriani that he had nothing against him, but he was going to have a car with a video camera follow Saronni. That way, Boifava said, if Battaglin were to lose, the loss would be a fair and just one. It leads one to believe Boifava, an experienced and knowledgeable pro, had neither faith that Torriani would keep his hands off the final results nor belief that Saronni’s Gis Gelati team would behave themselves.
As he had in Montecatini, Knudsen won the Verona ride against the clock. Prim took second, Battaglin was 2 seconds slower than the Swede and Saronni just a single second behind him.
Battaglin had won the Giro d’Italia and did what so far only Merckx had done: win the Vuelta and the Giro in the same year. Battaglin’s victory was a time-bonus win, Prim’s actual elapsed time was shorter than Battaglin’s.
American George Mount had electrified American cycling with his sixth place in the 1976 Olympic road race. At the invitation of Mike Neel, an American racing in Italy, he eventually signed with the Sammontana team of Roberto Visentini and Moreno Argentin. In Visentini’s service he rode to a commendable 25th place.
Final 1981 Giro d’Italia General Classification: 1. Giovanni Battaglin (Inoxpran) 104 hours 50 minutes 36 seconds
2. Tommy Prim (Bianchi-Piaggio) @ 38 seconds
3. Giuseppe Saronni (Gis Gelati) @ 50 seconds
4. Silvano Contini (Bianchi-Piaggio) @ 2 minutes 59 seconds
5. Josef Fuchs (Cilo-Aufina) @ 3 minutes 19 seconds
25. George Mount (Sammontana) @ 39 minutes 20 seconds
Climbers’ Competition: 1. Claudio Bortolotto (Santini-Selle Italia): 510 points
2. Beat Breu (Cilo-Aufina) 300
3. Benedetto Patellaro (Hoonved-Bottecchia): 290
Points Competition: 1. Giuseppe Saronni (Gis Gelati): 215 points
2. Tommy Prim (Bianchi-Piaggio): 133
3. Giovanni Mantovani (Hoonved-Bottecchia): 127
A few months after reaching cycling’s heights, Battaglin’s career lay in shambles. In April of 1982 he crashed badly, breaking his collarbone, shoulder, hip and a vertebra. He said he should have taken a long time off in order to recuperate. Instead, just 20 days after the crash, he had the plaster casts removed and was soon racing, trying to get ready for the Tour. “I had to do it because the Inoxpran team was built around me and it could have folded if I hadn’t ridden the Tour.”
He said that instead of getting physiotherapy and making a proper recovery, he rushed back into the sport and was never the same again. After catching hepatitis during the 1984 Giro, he threw in the towel and retired to concentrate on his eponymous bicycle company.
1982. For years the Tour de France had been staving off financial ruin by accumulating myriad sponsors of various inconsequential awards, such as “friendliest rider”, but at the time, the Tour was swimming in money compared to the Giro. The Giro’s owner, RCS, was broke and would eventually undergo and emerge from bankruptcy. It had no money to give to Torriani. In a gamble reminiscent of the Giro’s origins, at the last minute Torriani and his new right-hand man Carmine Castellano cobbled together the finances to run the 1982 Giro. It was a close-run thing, Torriani having to put up a personal financial guarantee before the Giro could go forward. They found the money to put on the Giro by first getting RAI to televise the race and then securing Coca-Cola, which was just introducing “Sprite” into Italy, as a major sponsor. The race was saved. Many of the same faces from the 1981 Giro were on the starting line to begin the 16-kilometer prologue team time trial in Milan: Baronchelli, Contini, Prim (all three on the Bianchi team), Saronni, Moser and Visentini. The 500-pound gorilla in the room was the returning Bernard Hinault. He had attempted the Giro/Tour double in 1980 and after a smashing Giro victory, his knee failed under the added strain of the Tour. He didn’t have a stunning spring, but with assaults planned on both the Giro and the Tour, I’m sure he didn’t want his form to peak too soon.
The 22-stage, 4,010-kilometer Giro route looked to visit as much of Italy as possible. After the prologue in Milan, the route went south on the Tyrrhenian side of the Apennines all the way to the toe of the boot and then over to Sicily. Then the race headed north to the Dolomites and west to the Alps. The final stage was a 42.5-kilometer individual time trial in Turin.
On paper Hinault’s Renault team looked to be one of the weaker squads, but a team time trial is as much an exercise in precision and teamwork as it is of power. Renault won the opener, giving Hinault the first Pink Jersey, Moser’s Famcucine team being two seconds slower. The teams of Prim, Contini, Baronchelli and Saronni all finished about a half-minute back.
Each day over the next three stages the Pink Jersey changed hands, but always within the Renault team. Stage one gave it to Renault gregario Patrick Bonnet. The next day, Laurent Fignon became the leader after a second place to Michael Wilson, who became the first Australian to win a Giro stage.
Stage three was a 37-kilometer individual time trial going from Perugia up to Assisi via a short, moderate climb. Hinault won the stage with Prim second at 11 seconds, retaking the maglia rosa and keeping it until Moser won the seventh stage into Diamante on the boot’s instep. With a rest day and a transfer to Sicily, the General Classification stood thus:
1. Francesco Moser
2. Bernard Hinault @ 1 second
3. Silvano Contini @ 14 seconds
4. Tommy Prim @ 27 seconds
5. Giuseppe Saronni @ 49 seconds
The three Sicilian stages had some brilliant sprinting at the stage ends, but nothing happened to affect the overall standings.
If the organizers thought that the race might get hot after transferring to the mainland, where the riders had to cross the Sila mountains (part of the southern Apennines), they were wrong. A small break of non-contenders stayed away and the first chase group’s pace up to Camigliatello Silano wasn’t fast enough to drop Moser, so he retained his lead over the second rest day. From here, there would be eleven straight days of racing.
Stage twelve raced through the Molise region to its finish at Campitello Matese, a village high enough to have a ski lift. On the final climb Tommy Prim went too fast for almost the entire peloton. Hinault stayed with him and then lifted the speed still higher. Near the top, Mario Beccia attacked and Hinault decided to come along for the ride. They traded pace until they were close to the finish where Hinault dropped Beccia to claim the stage win, the 30-second time bonus and the maglia rosa.
The next day’s racing through the hilly Abruzzo region showed again what a skilled tactician Renault had in Cyrille Guimard. On the day’s major climb, Contini escaped with three other riders. Hinault chose not to go with the move, fearing being isolated and getting worn down by the others in the break. So he let them go and waited for help. When the last climb had been negotiated, Hinault and his team set about using the remaining 50 kilometers to reel in the Contini quartet, now three minutes up the road. During the infernal pursuit the gap was reduced to 64 seconds, letting Hinault keep his lead. Contini had done himself a lot of good, he was now only 31 seconds behind. Moreover, Hinault’s Renault team was showing some wear and tear with the Dolomites and Alps still to come. But, through intelligent patience and clever use of a
weak team, Hinault’s leading position had been preserved.
Stage sixteen ended with a hilltop finish at San Martino di Castrozza after 243 kilometers that also took in an ascent of Monte Grappa. Hinault, feeling that Contini was fragile and could be dealt with in the Alps, worried instead about the man he thought the real danger, Prim.
The descent of Monte Grappa was a disaster for many of the riders, an 8-kilometer section having lost its asphalt in the winter storms. Several riders flatted, including Prim and Hinault’s lieutenant Laurent Fignon, delaying both riders badly. Hinault tried to wait for Fignon, but when the ascent to San Martino arrived, he had to go with the leaders and without a teammate. Hinault wasn’t concerned with winning the stage and unworried that Contini was glued to his wheel. He wanted above all, to put time between himself and Prim. At the stage’s end he had put the Swede another two minutes back.
Photo of Hinault
The General Classification stood thus: 1. Bernard Hinault
2. Silvano Contini @ 26 seconds
3. Mario Beccia @ 1 minute 40 seconds
4. Francesco Moser @ 2 minutes 16 seconds
5. Tommy Prim @ 3 minutes 9 seconds
In stage seventeen it again came down to the final climb, the Passo Croce Domini. Baronchelli leaped away. Then, seeing that Hinault appeared to be a bit over-geared for the climb, Prim escaped, quickly followed by his teammate Contini as well as Metauro Mobili riders Marco Groppo and Lucien van Impe.
Hinault had two Spanish riders with him who refused to help, while the break made up of five strong riders (three Bianchi and two Metauro Mobili riders) formed a smooth-working machine that rode powerfully into the headwind they encountered after the descent. They extended their lead over the chasing Hinault group to more than two minutes. Contini won the stage and was now the Pink Jersey, leading Hinault by 2 minutes 14 seconds.
Stage eighteen was only 85 kilometers long, with a hilltop finish on Montecampione. As the climb started, Hinault went to the front and just went fast. He liked to ascend mountains at a steady speed without unsettling changes in pace and as he put the screws to the field, Contini came off. Prim, in an act of misguided team spirit, went back for him. Contini immediately sent him back up the road to make sure Bianchi wouldn’t lose everything on a day when Hinault was throwing high heat. Hinault finished at the top of Montecampione alone with Contini 3 minutes 25 seconds back. Hinault was again the Giro’s leader.
After stage eighteen the General Classification stood thus: 1. Bernard Hinault
2. Silvano Contini @ 1 minute 41seconds
3. Tommy Prim @ 1 minute 53 seconds
4. Lucien van Impe @ 2 minutes 47 seconds
5. Giambattista Baronchelli @ 3 minutes 49 seconds
The final mountain showdown was run on as dramatic a course as could be imagined. Stage twenty-one was 254 kilometers going from Cuneo, south of Turin, over five major Alpine mountains: the Maddalena, Vars, Izoard, Montgenèvre and Sestriere, ending in Pinerolo. This was the same route used in stage seventeen of the historic 1949 Giro where Fausto Coppi had displayed extraordinary superiority, beating Gino Bartali by 12 minutes and third-place Alfredo Martini by almost 20 minutes. Hinault said he had no intention of trying to equal Coppi’s wonderful solo ride into history. He only wanted to make sure Prim didn’t win the Giro.
The first three climbs weren’t ridden aggressively, but they took their toll, only thirteen riders remaining together in Briançon for the start of the Montgenèvre. Bianchi had all three of its top guns, Prim, Contini and Baronchelli there while Hinault was completely isolated. With all of those fine cards in their hand, Bianchi did nothing. The front group went over the final two climbs almost intact, at no point was Hinault put under pressure. Saronni won the sprint, Hinault was second followed by Prim and Contini. Giancarlo Ferretti, the director of the Bianchi team is nicknamed Il Volpone (“the Fox”) for his tactical astuteness. I wonder why.
The General Classification with the climbing completed but before the final 42.5-kilometer time trial stage in Turin:
1. Bernard Hinault
2. Silvano Contini @ 1 minute 56 seconds
3. Tommy Prim @ 2 minutes 3 seconds
4. Lucien van Impe @ 3 minutes 7 seconds
5. Giambattista Baronchelli @ 4 minutes 22 seconds
Hinault delivered a fabulous time trial, the second fastest in Giro history so far, giving him two Giri. That summer he also won the Tour de France, at last getting his double and joining Coppi, Anquetil and Merckx.
It looked as if Ferretti had made the same mistake in 1982 that he made in 1981. By not putting his powerful team solidly behind Prim, he had squandered two opportunities to win the Giro. Over and over again Hinault was alone, without teammates, and vulnerable to attack. But Ferretti, like the Giro itself so often, wanted an Italian to win the Italian race.
Final 1982 Giro d’Italia General Classification: 1. Bernard Hinault (Renault) 110 hours 7 minutes 55 seconds
2. Tommy Prim (Bianchi-Piaggio) @ 2 minutes 35 seconds
3. Silvano Contini (Bianchi-Piaggio) @ 2 minutes 47 seconds
4. Lucien van Impe (Metauro Mobili-Pinarello) @ 4 minutes 31 seconds
5. Giambattista Baronchelli (Bianchi-Piaggio) @ 6 minutes 9 seconds
Climbers’ Competition: 1. Lucien van Impe (Metauro Mobili-Pinarello): 860 points
2. Bernard Hinault (Renault): 380
3. Silvano Contini (Bianchi-Piaggio): 290
Points Competition: 1. Francesco Moser (Famcucine): 247 points
2. Giuseppe Saronni (Del Tongo): 207
3. Bernard Hinault (Renault): 171
1983. The 1983 edition went easy on the climbing (and the rouleurs), with only one hard day in the mountains, stage twenty out of the twenty-two scheduled. It was assumed that the route had been crafted with both Giuseppe Saronni’s superb sprinting and tolerable ascending skills and Moser’s big gear mashing and poor climbing in mind. Of the 162 riders who showed up in Brescia on May 12 to begin the race for the Pink Jersey, there were only a few true contenders. The odds-on favorite had to be Giuseppe Saronni, the reigning World Road Champion. Since winning the Rainbow Jersey in Goodwood, England in late 1982, he had gone on to win the Tour of Lombardy, Milan–San Remo and had come in second in Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Roberto Visentini (who replaced Battaglin as the leader of the Inoxpran team, which was riding Battaglin bikes) and Tommy Prim were also high on the list of possible winners. Prim was saddled with his Swedish nationality, so far a handicap on the Bianchi team. Bianchi, an Italian company wanting to sell oodles of bikes in Italy, had preferred an Italian winner. Ironically, Bianchi is now owned by Grimaldi Industri, a Swedish company.
The Giro was supposed to start with a prologue individual time trial. The riders were suited up and the first man to ride, Jesus Ibañez, was on his bike. But then he had to wait, and wait some more. Striking workers were blocking the road and the police, not wanting to make a bad situation worse, didn’t interfere. The prologue was cancelled.
They moved on to the next stage, a 70-kilometer team time trial going from Brescia to Mantua, which Prim’s Bianchi squad won. And, surprisingly, Bianchi’s director Ferretti had Prim cross the line first, letting the Swede become the first 1982 maglia rosa. The team’s times didn’t count towards the General Classification except for the time bonuses given to the top three teams, putting Saronni, whose Del Tongo team came in fifth, in thirty-first place at 40 seconds.
The next two stages let the sprinters show their speed. Fifteen kilometers before the end of the third stage there was a crash, taking about twenty riders down. Trapped behind the pile-up were Saronni and Moser. Capitalizing on the situation, Baronchelli and Battaglin hammered all the way to the finish line in Fano, beating the unlucky riders by 27 seconds.
The first hint as to who could climb came in stage four, with its
six-kilometer ascent to Todi in Umbria. Lucien van Impe had driven the field hard up an earlier, more modest climb and had split the pack. Saronni out-sprinted the surviving 40 riders. By virtue of sprint time bonuses, Paolo Rosola was leader and Saronni was in fifth place.
The next day Saronni generated near panic when he got into a fast moving break on the road to Vasto because many of the big names had missed the move, including Prim, Moser and Baronchelli. Ferretti showed his intentions when he made Contini slow the break while Prim didn’t do any work helping the pack chase the escapees. The break was caught after more than 100 kilometers of pursuit, mostly because of Moser’s long, hard stints at the front of the chase. Then another break went and this time it was Saronni and his teammate Didi Thurau who did most of the work of shutting down the escape. But Eduardo Chozas had slipped away from the break to win the stage, keeping just 21 seconds of what had been a four-minute lead, plus a 30-second time bonus, after 60 kilometers of hard work.
Rosola had missed the important moves and Contini, despite Ferretti’s favoring Prim, was the maglia rosa.
Stage six ended with the first hilltop finish of the year. Spanish rider Alberto Fernández made a series of in-the-saddle attacks and after the third, he was clear with six kilometers to go to the top of Campitello Matese. Saronni, with Franco Chioccioli and van Impe right with him, finished 23 seconds behind. The day was a disaster for Prim and Moser, who both lost more than two minutes.