On 10 June 1984 a memorable Giro d’Italia ends. Francesco Moser wins it at the last stage. He had long been the pink jersey, also favored by the chronicles, by the fact that at the last minute the patron of the Giro, the legendary Vincenzo Torriani, had decided to give up on passing the caravan from the Stelvio due to snow, proposing an easier route precisely for Moser who struggled in the mountains. But the following day the Frenchman Fignon had attacked in the Dolomites and won the pink jersey which Moser recovered on the last day by winning a memorable time trial at the Verona arena with two minutes of gap. Unforgettable (even for Fignon who tried to say that in that last stage the helicopter in tow had favored the Italian champion by creating eddies of air that propelled him). Where is the innovation? Certainly not in the helicopter blades. According to the Quattro Bit blog, that was the first Giro that saw a decisive use of the personal computer. At the time, I quote the blog, there were two companies competing for the small home computer market: Commodore, with the C64, and GBC, which imported the Sinclair Spectrum. To make itself known to the general public in 1984 the Spectrum became the official computer of the Giro. It was used to make the initials of Rai, which had a videogame knowledge that today appears prehistoric to us, never at the time was received with wonder; and it was used “to comment on the salient phases of the competition” we read in an article of the time taken up by Quattro Bit.
Sergio Chiesa writes with really emphatic tones: “The Spectrum … has always behaved wonderfully, as if it were a musical instrument in the hands of the programmers who extracted the highest notes … As in all experiences, at the beginning, there is a certain diffidence, a certain fear , a certain fear of not knowing exactly how to behave, when to act. From the beginning, the preparation of the technicians and the reliability of the Spectrum have solved those small problems that have arisen and that had not been foreseen. We all were well aware of having to give our best, to prove that our Spectrum, small in size but great in performance, was the best and that it was so effective that it could keep up with a professional organization such as RAI’s. Our Spectrum withstood the challenge so much that even the RAI technicians and the good and likeable director Giancarlo Tomassetti in the end congratulated the whole team “.
The task of the Spectrum was to provide statistical sheets on the riders, their participations, victories and so on; individual cards with the sporting data of the individual athletes and finally the program of the following stage animated by the drawings. Even the winner of the Giro seems to have been intrigued by this new technological presence. Chiesa always writes, unable to hold back his emotion: “Moser became interested in computers and while he was talking to me … from time to time with an almost blessing gesture he greeted the crowd that recognized him and cheered him”.
.