Piratino no more
Garzelli grabs last-minute Giro win as Casagrande cracks

by Charles Pelkey
Milan, Italy

The narrow streets leading to the Piazza Carlo Felice in downtown Turin were so full of fans — young parents and children, fashion-conscious teens, old men resting on the top tubes of fine Italian bicycles — that it was nearly impossible for team cars to maneuver their way to the start of the final stage of the Giro d’Italia on June 4. Even individual riders had a tough time dodging and weaving their way to the morning sign-in.

Hearing, too, presented a challenge, as the already noisy mass would spontaneously get louder, in recognition of a favorite rider or team. There were shouts and approving applause for Axel Merckx, the Mapei-Quick Step rider who fought a terrific battle to win the eighth stage of the Giro into Prato. There were enthusiastic cheers for Jan Hruska, the young Czech who took the fast opening prologue in Rome and then surprised even himself when he stormed to a win in a tough mountain time trial to Sestriere. And at one point, the shouts turned into a roar.
 

The victor  celebrates in Milan (click for larger image)

The cause wasn’t immediately apparent, until a tightly packed group of riderless Bianchi bicycles appeared above the heads of the crowd. Beneath, the Mercatone Uno-Albacom team car was steering a slow and winding course through the lines of fans who had just spotted the Giro’s new leader, Stefano Garzelli. The 26-year-old from Varese had only the day before taken over the leader’s jersey, after wresting it from Francesco Casagrande, the Vini Caldirola-Sidermec team leader who had held the famed maglia rosa for 11 days. Casagrande had earned the lead in impressive style, charging up the Giro’s first major climb, the San Pellegrino in Alpe in stage 9 (see VeloNews, June 15). But it was a move that Casagrande was never able to repeat, as Garzelli and Lampre-Daikin’s Gilberto Simoni chipped away at the 29-year-old Tuscan’s lead.  And then came Garzelli’s decisive blow....

“Of course, I am disappointed to have lost the Giro on the last day, but I won’t give up because of it,” Casagrande said. “I have two, maybe three good years left, and I will try again.”

It wasn’t the first time in Italy’s national tour that the lead had changed on the next-to-last day. In fact, in the post-war history of the Giro, there have been five last-minute changes — six, if you count last year’s.

Garzelli and his teammates were surely thinking of last year, and they savored claiming the lead on the penultimate day of the Giro, almost a year to the day after the entire team — Garzelli included — had exited the race in protest over the forced expulsion of their leader, Marco Pantani. Pantani had been found to have a higher than acceptable red-blood-cell count — an indication that he might have used synthetic erythropoietin (EPO), the hormone that boosts a rider’s hematocrit level and, therefore, endurance.
 

But by the end of this Giro, Pantani’s shame and Mercatone Uno’s frustration were old stories. The fans were not only celebrating Garzelli’s win, they were ecstatic over Pantani’s return. Although he lagged through most of the race — after being out of the peloton, bar a couple of days in February since his expulsion — toward the end, Pantani showed more than a glimmer of the aggressive, attacking and, dare one say, swashbuckling style that earned him the nickname, il Pirata, the Pirate. This time, however, Pantani was here to support the man who had long been his tireless and supportive lieutenant, the man whom the tifosi had dubbed il Piratino, the “little pirate.”

Student becomes teacher Garzelli and Pantani (click for larger image)

The moniker had always seemed out of place, though, since Garzelli stands 4 centimeters taller than Pantani. Now it seems even less likely to stick.

“I think it’s about time to find me another nickname,” said a laughing Garzelli, after donning the winner’s jersey that afternoon in Milan. He was, of course, quick to credit the support and help he had received in the final days. The Giro winner was particularly grateful for his teammate’s performance in stage 19.

“Pantani helped me physically on the ride to Briançon,” Garzelli said, “but more than that, he helped me psychologically … he convinced me that I could win the Giro.”

But despite the credit, despite Pantani’s dominance of the headlines, and despite the fact that the Pirate may now be ready for the Tour de France, this was a Giro d’Italia won by Stefano Garzelli. It was a Giro he won in his own style, eventually dispatching Casagrande, past winners Pavel Tonkov (Mapei-Quick Step) and Ivan Gotti (Polti), and other pre-race favorites like Paolo Savoldelli (Saeco-Valli and Valli). This was a Giro Garzelli won where it was supposed to be won: in the mountains.

We pick up the story a day after Casagrande sensationally grabbed the race lead at Abetone….