After a year off, the multisport event in support of Via di Natale and Cucchini confirmed the great sensitivity of the Belluno area towards those who suffer. Ennio Soccal happy: “We didn’t think we would be able to bring so many people”
After a year off, the Giro del lago di Santa Croce, a multi-sport event (cycling, jogging, roller and walking) proposed by the Alpago 2 Ruote & Solidarity committee, is back to be held in attendance. The Giro, now in its 27th edition, was staged yesterday and saw the participation of 3. 148 competitors: an important participation, beyond the expectations of the organizers, which allowed to collect 22,036 euros: this the proceeds from the registrations (7 euros per person) which will entirely support the activities of the Pordenone association “Via di Natale” and the Cucchini association of Belluno, two realities that are a reference point in the assistance to cancer patients and to their families and who live exclusively on donations. Each of the two associations will receive 11,018 euros. There were four routes available to competitors: a cycling test on 17.4 kilometers, a running test (on the same distance), one reserved for handybikes (always on the same distance), one on roller skates (4.8 kilometers). and a walk (7 kilometers).
To ensure the maximum safety of the participants, the road around the lake of Santa Croce was closed from 9.30 to 12.30.
To color the event, families and teenagers, children and grandparents, people aboard very special super-light racing bikes but also vintage bicycles or handcrafted bikes made of wood. The spectacle of crowded piazza papa Luciani was missed (to avoid gatherings as much as possible, no river departures were made divided by type of test, but “French” departures, that is to say to many small groups one after the other) but there was no lack of enthusiasm.
There was also the music of the Banda Santa Cecilia di Puos which, as in 2019, cheered the stages of departure. And Gianangelo Dal Borgo’s overflight was not missing either: no longer aboard Corvo Bianco but a new aircraft. The Giro and the Conca once again hit the mark. The president of the Alpago 2 Ruote & Solidarity committee, Ennio Soccal, is convinced of this, tired but satisfied at the end of a very intense day that closed an equally intense period dedicated to the organization of the event, an organization more complicated than in the past due to the limitations imposed by sanitary emergency.
“After the partial stop, due to a health emergency, in 2020, the year in which the Giro was not disputed but which still saw the fundraising, we were able to restart and this was fundamental, also in the future”, underlines Soccal, “We expected between 2500 and 3000 people, having exceeded 3 thousand is a fact that comforts us and that makes us say how the Giro is a felt event and how the Belluno area, but not only, is sensitive when it comes to supporting who suffers. We had participants from all over the Triveneto area but some competitors even came from further away. To each of them, as well as to each of the two hundred volunteers and to each of the companies that have supported us, as well as to the local administrations and the police, I want to offer my personal thanks and that of the committee. Yes, the Giro was a success. It was not easy to organize it, among a thousand limitations due to the health emergency, but we succeeded. There has been some flaw in the logistics field, due to the new starting formula, for which we apologize. I want to underline that it was the first Giro without Vittorio Mares, that the Giro conceived and drove it for many years. Our fond memory goes to him. To all, we give an appointment at the twenty-eighth edition, on August 21, 2022 ».
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