Sunday from Mel to Alleghe with arrival at Piani di Pezzè. Here the “pirate”, still an amateur, imposed himself in 1992
After a year off, the Giro del Piave returns. The national cycling race for the Elite and Under 23 categories will take place on Sunday, June 13th.
The route has been renewed. The kilometers will be 135: you will start from Mel to go down towards Busche go up the Piave, touch Bribano and return to Mel, then go down again towards Seren del Grappa and then go up again touching Soranzen, Cesiomaggiore and Sedico, to then start towards Agordo, Cencenighe and Alleghe. Hence the surge towards the arrival of the Piani di Pezzè, a goal renamed Cima Marco Pantani in memory of the feat that the “Pirate” from Cesenatico made in the 1992 amateur Giro d’Italia when at the foot of the Civetta he imposed himself at the end of a very long escape, mortgaging the pink race.
Departure is scheduled for 1pm, arrival expected between 3:45 pm and 4:15 pm.
The Giro del Piave, which will celebrate the 76th edition, was presented yesterday morning at Palazzo Piloni, seat of the provincial administration.
“Thanks to Adriano Zambon and his organization, Oes, who managed to set up the Giro del Piave in a year in which setting up a sporting event is not at all obvious” said the president of the Province, Roberto Padrin. «This year we arrive at the Piani di Pezzè di Alleghe to celebrate Pantani’s feat, why not dream of an arrival of the Giro d’Italia for professionals?».
“We have prepared ourselves to best welcome the Giro del Piave, an event with high sporting content (in 5 kilometers you climb 487 meters, with an average gradient of 9.5 percent, ed) but also an opportunity to make our splendid territory known »said the mayor of Alleghe, Danilo De Toni.
“The bicycle is an important tool for tourism on the Left Piave and the whole Belluno area”, underlined Simone Deola, councilor for tourism of Borgo Valbelluna, who also recalled how the event is a memorial to Piergiorgio Sbardella, director of the cycling race, but also Mel’s mayor.
The organizer Adriano Zambon thanked all the realities that contributed to the Giro del Piave (among these the Fci committee of Belluno, represented yesterday by the president Mara Agricola) and underlined how Elite and Under cycling will be the protagonist on the Belluno roads also at the beginning of July : the fifth and final stage of the Giro del Veneto will take place on the roads of the province. As for the latter, it is the Sospirolo – Falcade, a fraction of 127,700 that will wind its way between Sospirolo, the Mis Valley, Forcella Franche, Gosaldo, Forcella Aurine, Voltago, Cencenighe and Caviola before the final landing.
As for the Giro del Piave, there were many first-rate cyclists who entered their name in the roll of honor and who also made the history of cycling.In 1920, second edition, none other than Ottavio Bottecchia won , the first Italian to win the Tour de France (he won in 1924 and 1925); in 1941 Giovanni Pinarello, founder of the bicycle company of the same name, imposed himself; in 1957 the winner was Arnaldo Pambianco, a rider from Romagna who in 1961 won the Giro d’Italia; in 1982 the Veronese Eros Poli was the first to cross the finish line, later Olympic and world champion of the 100 km team. Coming to the present day, in 2015, finally, the success went to Andrea Vendrame, the Treviso-born who won the Bagno di Romagna stage at the recent Giro d’Italia