Cycling in the Dolimites in the Veneto region, where the Giro d'Italia visits next, is an experience not to be missed for cyclists of any ability.
The 2014 Giro d’Italia might have left Irish soil, but still to come is a region of Italy with particular resonance for Irish cycling fans.
Stages 17, 18 and 19 of this year’s race will visit the beautiful region of Veneto, where in 1960 Shay Elliott became the first Irishman to win a stage of the Giro d’Italia.
Stephen Roche and Martin Earley are the only Irishmen to have won Giro stages since, although Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan have been on the attack on the past week and had hopefully add to the Irish tally.
Elliott’s win came from a breakaway, and with bodies certain to be tired in the third week of the race, the winner of the lumpy stage 17 might well come out of the day’s escape.
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Stage 17 finishes in the town of Vittorio Veneto where Eddy Merckx and Gino Bartali have taken Giro stage wins in the past.
It was here that the Italians defeated the remnants of the Austro-Hungarian army in the final days of the First World War.
To mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the Great War, the final stage of the 1988 Giro d’Italia was held in Vittoria Veneto, a 43-kilometre individual time trial won by Polish rider Lech Piasecki. Andy Hampsten took the overall win.
The town has become an important tourist region not only because of its military history, but also because it is located near the hills of Prosecco where the famous sparkling wine is made. Anyone who travels over for the Giro should nab a bottle or three.
Stage 18 is a 171-kilometre mountain stage from Belluno to Rifugio Panarotta. Belluno, named “the shining city” by the Celts, sits on a spur of rock located where the River Piave and the Ardo Torrent meet.
The Schiara mountain peak overlooks the town and is part of the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage Site.
UNESCO says the Dolomites “are widely regarded as being among the most attractive mountain landscapes in the world” and is a mecca for cyclists from all over the world who want to take in some serious climbing in a beautiful region.
Stage 19 is an individual mountain time trial from Bassano del Grappa to Cima Grappa. It will be the fifth time the Giro has visited Monte Grappa. On the most recent visit in 2010, last year’s overall winner Vincenzo Nibali took the stage victory.
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Anyone traveling over should bring their bikes for the “Monte Grappa bike day” on May 24th, as the public will get a chance to tackle the slope before the riders get there. It’s an event made for Strava junkies and if you cannot make it this year it might be something you can try into the future.
Shay Elliott winning a stage of the 1960 Giro d'Italia in the Veneto region, a Mecca for cyclists. He was the first Irishman to ride the race and the first English speaking rider to win a Giro stage.
Monte Grappa was also the site of three battles in the First World War, with Italian forces defeating the Austro-Hungarian army on each occasion. Today, near the summit, a burial site for soldiers killed on both sides is a poignant reminder of the destruction of war.
Bassano is one of the centres of the global cycling industry, with companies like Pinarello, Campagnolo, Sidi, Battaglin Bikes and Selle Italia headquartered there.
In 1985, Bassano del Grappa hosted the World Cycling Championships, with the Netherlands’ Joop Zoetemelk winning the Men’s Road Race at the ripe old age of 38. He’s still the oldest man ever to have won the title.
Any one in the area until June 1st will see a race named after the first Italian winner of the Tour de France, Ottavio Bottecchia. Bottecchia was from the Veneto region and won Le Grand Boucle in 1924 and 1925, but was found dead on a roadside in mysterious circumstances in June of 1927. He was 32 years old.
Bottecchia was found with multiple injuries, among them a cracked skull, a broken collarbone. His bike lay nearby, entirely undamaged.
Some thought that he had been murdered by a Fascist gang, while the official verdict was that Bottecchia had succumbed to sunstroke. Years later, a farmer made a “confession” on his deathbed: he had seen a man eating his grapes and threw a rock to try and scare the man off.
The rock had hit the man on the head, leading the farmer to run over and check up on him. And after realising who the man was, the panicking farmer had supposedly dragged Bottecchia to the roadside and left him where his body eventually found.
The problem with the confession, Les Woodland wrote, was that grapes don’t ripen until the late summer. Who’d have been stealing sour grapes?
So if you are watching the racing in coming days, bear in mind the history of the region and its attractiveness to those who branch out and take in some leisure cycling overseas. Italy is beautiful anyway, but this region by bike really is a treat.
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