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CyclingValais and Crans-Montana on the road to the Giro 2023
Wait a little longer before booking your vacation for the next Ascension weekend. Because the Tour of Italy will pass through the Old Country!
The Alps will be put to good use during the next Giro.
AFP
An arrival in Crans-Montana on Friday May 19 and a departure from Sierre the next day. Here is what the organizers of the Giro made official this Monday, at the Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber in Milan. Superb news for the Valais resort, which is thus easily consoled for still not having succeeded in securing a Tour de France finish for the second time in its history. As a bonus, the passage of the Tour of Italy coincides with the Ascension weekend, which ensures large television audiences and crowds along the roads.
The madness of this stage.
DR
“It’s a huge chance to be able to highlight our region this spring thanks to the Giro.”
The start of the 13th stage will be given in Piedmont, in Borgofranco d’Ivrea. The runners will arrive in Switzerland via the Grand St-Bernard (32 km at 5.87%, maximum gradient 8.3%), at nearly 2,500 meters above sea level. It is at the top of this pass that the “Cima Coppi” will be judged, ie the pass with the highest altitude reached by the passage of the riders on the Tour of Italy. The athletes will then tackle the Col de la Croix de Coeur and its some 15 km at more than 8%. After 208 km of effort and nearly 5,000 meters of elevation, on May 20, the peloton will leave Sierre, in the direction of Lombardy and Cassano Magnago.
Un million de budget
“It’s fantastic to be able to present our canton through such a legendary race, smiled Steve Morabito, president of the Valais cycling federation and former professional rider, who himself took the start of the event six times. With Crans-Montana and Sierre, we quickly found partners who have great know-how in organizing events and who are very motivated to show our extraordinary cycling routes to the whole world.”
The budget of the Valais organization is around one million Swiss francs. It will accommodate the approximately 2,000 people who make up the Giro caravan – riders, team staff, media, etc… – and the 400 vehicles that go with it. The organizers have already announced that the arrival and departure sites will be accessible “easily and free of charge”. “Such a great opportunity rarely arises and it’s a huge chance to be able to highlight our region this spring thanks to the Giro”, welcomed Tiffany Müller, director of Sierre Tourisme.
Route for Evenepoel?
This 106th edition of the Tour of Italy will start from Fossacesia, in the Abruzzo region, on May 6. It will therefore pass through the Swiss during its second weekend of competition, before – as usual – rubbing shoulders with a tough third week and ending in Rome on May 28. In view of his profile with three time trials and nearly 70 km of solo effort, the logical big favorite will necessarily be the Belgian world champion Remco Evenepoel.
The Tour of Italy has long been run between Italians and only on the territory of the country. Then, in 1938, when it was necessary to go for a jump on the other side of a border, it was Locarno and Ticino that were honoured. As a bonus, it was Lucerne Léo Amberg who won there. It will take twelve years and a new arrival in this city located on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore for Switzerland to see the Giro once more. Zurich’s Hugo Koblet took the opportunity to raise his arms.
Switzerland, a regular
Then, the passages were more frequent. The race for the pink jersey came to St-Moritz in 1951 and 1954 (two new successes for Koblet!), Sion in 1957 (victory for Louison Bobet), Loèche-les-Bains in 1963 (Vito Taccone), Saas-Fee in 1965 (Italo Zilioli), at Monte Generoso in 1974 (José Manuel Fuente) and in 1989 (Luis Herrera), Lenzerheide in 1995 (Mariano Piccoli), Lausanne in 1996 (Alexander Gonchenkov), Mendrisio (Matteo Fagnini) and Lugano (Sergei Gonchar ) in 1998, Locarno in 2008 (André Greipel) and one last time, once more in Lugano, in 2015 (Sacha Modolo).
Sierre has already experienced a start. It was 1963 and the peloton then set off towards St-Vincent, in the Aosta Valley. The Valais has also been visited three times by the Tour de France: in Verbier in 2009, in Finhaut-Emosson in 2016 and in Crans-Montana. It was in 1984, via Pas-de-Morgins, for a victory for Laurent Fignon.
