Flat and calm at the Giro-E, but the sea has nothing to do with it. We are in the only Emilia-Romagna stage of this year’s edition, a dry plain and an altitude difference tending towards zero (one hundred metres) which anticipate an daunting task: the captains, former champions and professionals, although holding back, will not go slower than 30-35 kph, so no motors today (they switch off at 25 kph) to help the cyclists who aren’t so electric.
We start from Argenta, province of Ferrara, an area crossed by the Reno river and with numerous bodies of water, to arrive in Cento. Beautiful places to experience by bike: the Ciclovia delle Antiche Paludi Bolognesi passes through here, a cycle path that connects the city of Bologna to the Po Delta Regional Park area, crossing the territories of Castenaso, Budrio and Molinella to reach Campotto, in the municipality of Argenta, and the Valle Santa. We are in the Campotto valleys, what remains of the ancient Argenta and Marmorta valleys. Worth seeing in the city, therefore, is the museo della Bonifica (Land reclamation museum) at the Salarino water pumping plant. Another must is a visit to the Don Giovanni Minzoni Museum, dedicated to the priest killed in Argenta in 1923.
In Cento, there is the 14th century fortress. The interiors, completely restored, boast rooms of artistic value or historical interest, such as the fireplace room, the chapel, the three-mullioned window room, the cannons, the dungeons. We toast the passage of the Giro in Piazza del Guercino, the living room of Cento, overlooked by two important porticoed buildings of great historical and artistic value: the Town Hall and the Governor’s Palace.
The Argenta-Cento stage
From a cycling point of view, in 2022 Argenta hosted the arrival of the first stage of the Giro Under 23 and subsequently the first Italian gravel championship for professionals. Cento, on its part, has hosted an arrival of the Giro d’Italia only once: it was the 12th stage of 1995 (start from Borgo a Mozzano), won by Jan Svorada.
Cyclist of the day – Sacha Modolo
Pro until 2022, Sacha Modolo is in his second Giro-E. “I liked it last year, Trenitalia and RCS Sport were happy and here I am, back at the Giro-E”. He is the captain of the former Ferrovie dello Stato, with a very respectable résumé: 49 races won in his career, including two stages at the 2015 Giro d’Italia. Then a Coppa Agostoni, a Bernocchi, a Memorial Pantani and a stage at the Tour de Pologne. A sprinter, he has participated in nine Giri d’Italia.
“Last year I suffered less in the Giro,” confesses Sacha.“I had just quit and I was sort of rejecting cycling and racing. This year however, especially at the arrival in Prati di Tivo, when I was with the masseurs, I suffered, and I say I would like to return to racing, not as a protagonist because my legs are no longer up to it, but to the world of racing yes. I’ve always been a winner and sometimes I imagine myself having a team, encouraging the boys to do well… In the team car I would bend the steering wheel with my hands… I’m competitive even at playing bowls, imagine if I were in the team car. Our difficulty in the Giro-E is when, as in Bocca della Selva, with 2,600 metres of altitude difference, we have to push some clients, because we have to get them all to the finish. These are the cases in which someone like me turns on the motor. Then I have a nice bike, it looks like a normal bike, it only weighs 12 kilos, even without the motor it’s not heavy to push, so I use it very little. Many who criticise pedal-assisted bikes do so because they have not understood its real value: it serves to allow certain routes to those who would not be able to do them. Of course, if you give it to a former pro, it’s funny.”
City of Sport and Health, an opportunity for young people: in Montichiari the series of ANCI workshops at the Giro d’Italia continues.
The ANCI workshops continue in the municipalities hosting the Giro-E stage starts, travelling up the peninsula with the ,great sporting event, aiming to improve the level of engagement of young people in public policies and in the valorisation of resources in the area as drivers of sustainable local development, through the common thread of sport and its values.
The calendar continues on Saturday 18 May at 11.30 in Montichiari with the workshop entitled “Artificial Intelligence and the monitoring of SEA for Municipalities“.
On this occasion, thanks to ANCI Lombardia, committed to the use of Artificial Intelligence in services for Municipalities and for the assessment of environmental impact, this topic is discussed in a moment of sharing reflections and proposals with local administrators, after greetings from the General Secretary of ANCI Lombardia Rinaldo Redaelli.
This initiative takes place as part of the broader support and financing program for Italian municipalities under the National Youth Policy Fund, created through agreements with the Italian Department for youth policies and universal civil service of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
Like in every stage, the ANCI also kicks off the Montichiari Giro-E stage with its own cycling team, led by skier Giorgio Rocca and made up, like every day, of local administrators and ambassadors of the area.
For info and registration click here: link
