There are some discourses that should find fertile ground only and exclusively in bars. Precisely for this reason it is impressive to see that many of these themes begin to flourish not only during the trumps of the country, but also in the large television salons where the issues to be dealt with should possibly be higher, because even when it comes to sports, there are lower and higher themes, more worthy and less worthy.
But in the era of Big Brother (Big Brother), which from an Orwellian dystopia has become a mass television show (a mass in which very few remember the origin of the title), what is low is also what makes the most of the audience.
Obviously we have to live with all this, but always with an eye on those few heroes who are still trying to cultivate some small plants that will certainly not yield industrial quantities of fruit, but on the other hand will put quality at the center of attention.
Attention! Don't be fooled: sometimes something really interesting can come from those bar talk, but only and only if time is spent on it, as well as a good dose of attention and care.
There is, that I know of, a bike enthusiast who has never discussed the - almost - existential combination of “Giro-Tour”. “Corsa Rosa-Grand Boucle”, “Maglia Rosa-Maglia Gialla” are all themes that split and divide not only French and Italians, but also Italians and Italians, as well as French and French.
Yet it now seems that the dispute over which is the greatest stage race of the cycling season is taking a unique and irremediably decisive turn.
At the same time it must be said that this center of gravity, all shifted towards the transalpines, is a pure question of money: not prestige, not glory, only and only how much money moves behind one event or another counts.
But why does this happen and however, that romantic cycling no longer exists who animated the eternal challenges between Coppi and Bartali?
A World Tour team must be able to count on a minimum budget to be defined as such, a budget that comes from the sponsors that the team can find. The big names who bet on cycling to make a profit are different: let's just think of the English giant INEOS by Jim Ratcliffe (whose assets would amount to more than 3 billion euros) or the Kazakhs of Astana (taken over in 2006 by a consortium of some of the most important energy companies in the country).
The cycling teams do not take, as happens in motor sports, a share on the television rights, but little changes because the goal is in any case have the brand on display in front of the cameras, perhaps sending one or two runners on the run to have an even more exclusive stage.
Obviously, not all competitions have the same media coverage: in this sense the Tour de France beats the Giro d'Italia “with your hands in your pockets”. The numbers of the French are impressive: the Tour alone offers the various sponsors 70% of their annual visibility. Furthermore, if the Grand Boucle has a turnover of around 150 million euros (the Giro at most 70, in pre-Covid), more than half of these revenues come from television (we are talking about 80 million approximately ).
The official broadcasters of the competition are France TV Sport and Eurovision, although in total there are more than thirty broadcasts around the world that broadcast live the three weeks of racing. So it is interesting to compare the relationship between ASO and France TV Sport and that between RCS Sport and RAI: while in France there is a solid agreement between television and organizers that field 25 million a year until 2025, in the Bel Paese every year we have to witness the usual boring back and forth between RAI and RCS Sport which obviously ends with an agreement much poorer than the transalpine one.
The other way than the team has to earn is essentially that of racing prizes and even here we can say that the Grand Boucle is worth twice as much as the Corsa Rosa. In fact, in the 2018 edition the total prize money in France reached 3 million euros, while in Italy the organizers made available only 1,5 million. The ability to find sponsors and suppliers is the task of the organizers, who the more powerful they are, the more capable they are of enriching the race and consequently making it more attractive for the two-wheel magnates.
It is therefore not surprising that the American Amaury Sport Organization (ASO) arrives where RCS Sport still dreams of setting foot. In all this it must also be admitted that ASO's task is facilitated by the greater prestige that the French competition has on a world sporting level: it was born first, it has the iconic arrival at Les Champs Élysées, can rely on a more lively cycling movement and a thousand other more or less questionable reasons.
Thus the choices of the gods appear clearer Big Teams to field the best formations in the Tour, rather than in the Giro, leaving the crumbs to a path that this year looks really promising but that will only be able to count on 2 members of the UCI Top 10: Richard Carapaz and Joao Almeida. In addition to the Ecuadorian champion and the Portuguese, there will also be Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), the sprinter Mark Cavendish (who with the four victories at the Tour last year has equaled Eddy Mercx's record in the number of French stages won in absolute, namely 34 ) and starlet Tom Pidcock, world champion in Cyclocross. In short, the cast is not the worst, but it seems that we will have to get used to seeing more and more the Giro d'Italia as a launching pad for promising young people and an end-of-career catwalk for old glories, because in July in France there will be all the stars of the moment: Alaphilippe, Van Der Poel, Van Aert, Pogacar, Roglic are just the names that make the most noise, but the list of phenomena could continue for several more lines.
Can anything be done to change this trend? In May no, on the contrary: you have to sit on the sofa (or, for those who can, go down the street) and enjoy the show, because even without the uphill attacks of "Pikachù" (Pogacar) or without the infernal rhythms of WVA (Wout Van Aert) you can have fun: maybe it's the right time for the eternal unfortunate Mikel Landa or a return in style by former winner Tom Dumoulin. The good thing is that it will be an unpredictable Giro, as opposed to the past edition in which it would have been more difficult for Bernal to lose the "infinite trophy" than to win it.
On May 6th it starts, but from Hungary, where two stages suitable for sprinters will take place and in the middle a time trial which, however, will make little difference. Returning to the Bel Paese starts immediately with a bang: 172 km in the Sicilian mountains with arrival on Etna. First real call for the men of the classification. Days follow when you go up the Peninsula touching Procida (Italian Capital of Culture), Molise, Emilia and then on to Genoa and then move to Piedmont and finally see the dreaded Alps.
The starter is the climb to Cogne, then immediately the five stars of the 202 km stage that connects Salò to Aprica. But the Regina stage is certainly number 20: from Belluno to the Marmolada (Passo Fedaia), with in the middle the San Pellegrino Pass and above all the Pordoi Pass, which could prove to be the reaper of illustrious victims.
But surely something needs to be done because the Corsa Rosa does not deserve so little attention: it is still a theater that has hosted heroic battles, dizzying climbs and the greatest performers this sport has ever known. First of all, we must realize that cycling - like everything else - is now going in this direction and we can no longer tell the story that returning to the Romanticism of cycling is still possible.
Perhaps ambitions will return to command the money, but it is certainly not something that will happen any time soon. Consequently, if the economic levels of what is now defined the "Superalloy" of two wheels cannot be reached, we can only be content with having the most fascinating race. And as for the samples, we will be eagerly awaiting better times.
The times when we will stop telling ourselves fairy tales and on the streets will finally return to live the epic.
Article Maglia Rosa, an increasingly faded color From Sports born.
