Bepi Bazzana, the close collaborator of patron Cainero, had warned everyone: an inspection by a motorcyclist with all the trimmings was needed to close the circle on the preparations for the penultimate stage of the Giro d’Italia 2023, the Tarvisio Monte Lussari which will take place on 27 May.
No sooner said than done, the four-time king of Paris-Dakar Edy Orioli got on a motorcycle yesterday at the sanctuary from the road that climbs from Valsaisera and which will be the scene of the last 8 km of the stage.
The entrepreneur-motorcyclist has covered the km now completely rearranged with his enduro and has simulated in the hardest stretches what will happen on the afternoon of that late spring day.
With the cyclists busy climbing in three heats, precisely to allow the motorcycles that will accompany them to descend at the end of each test and then go up again following other cyclists, the biggest unknown will be the modest speed with which they will have to climb the bikes. Clutches at risk, therefore, according to the myth of the Dakar. Very reliable vehicles as well as very experienced motorcyclists will be needed to avoid trouble.
A motorcycle breakdown could cause the smooth running of the leg to go haywire.
«This is why – explains Andrea Cainero, who is coordinating the organization of the local Committee while awaiting the return in the form of his father Enzo – Monday’s summit in Tarvisio with the Giro director Mauro Vegni and the racing director Stefano Allocchio will be important. We hope to be able to reduce the number of bikes needed to accompany cyclists, perhaps less than a hundred will be enough. Surely expert riders will be needed also because the vehicles that will follow the riders of the last heat will have to carry the mechanic with a bike on their shoulders and the driving difficulty will increase. We hope to have Orioli in the team of drivers too ».
Can you imagine the king of the Dakar escorting the pink jersey? In short, all that remains is to oil the organizational machine. With the leaders of the Giro, the stage committee, the municipal council of Tarvisio on Monday there will also be representatives of Promoturismo, Civil Protection and FvgStrade for the Region, with the president Massimiliano Fedriga who will also send one of his councilors to Valcanale.
The goal is to strengthen relations after the mockery of the arrival of the Giro lost by Trieste to the advantage of Rome and to strengthen collaboration to bring other stages on our roads. Attention then, the king of the desert Edy Orioli yesterday, in addition to warning about technical problems, by getting on his motorbike he was able to see how the road repair works on the eight km, half of which with “Zoncolan type” slopes, are now been completed. In short, operation completed, before the arrival of the snow, waiting for days on the Lussari.
This was Enzo Cainero’s biggest worry, finishing the work before the winter and then, in the spring, proceeding with the final details. The patron, recovering after the illness that hit him at the beginning of October, is constantly informed. And the good news from Lussari seems to do him a lot of good.