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Simoni finishes Giro d'Italia on top

Published: Jun. 1, 2003
Photo: Graham Watson

For nearly two weeks now, there has been little doubt who has been in charge of this Giro d’Italia. On Sunday, the man poised to ride into Milan to claim the final maglia rosa of this race would leave no one on the side of the road wondering just who the race leader might be.

Wearing his pink jersey, astride a pink Cannondale, with pink Mavic wheels, Gilberto Simoni had plenty of room to spare as he left the starting gate of Sunday’s 33km time trial through the streets of Milan. By the time he arrived at the finish, the Saeco man had lost a bit of his eight-minute buffer, but easily took the overall title, giving Italian riders seven straight victories at their national tour – his second in three editions of the race.

Celebrating his victory in front of Milan’s main cathedral – the third largest Catholic church in the world – Simoni was universe away from the disappointment he experienced last year when he was ejected from the Giro after testing positive for cocaine, a charge he was later cleared of.

This Giro, the 86th edition of the race, concluded with an individual time trial that was essentially a formality for the Saeco rider, but the battle for second remained hard-fought until the finish in Milan on Sunday.

A clear shot into Milan
Stefano Garzelli (Vini Caldirola-Sidermec) maintained second place over Landbouwkrediet-Colnago’s Yaroslav Popovych by beating the Ukrainian by a mere three seconds, leaving him with a thin, five-second final margin.

Sergei Gonchar, won the stage, about 20 seconds ahead of three Fassa Bortolo riders, Marzio Bruseghin, Aitor Gonzalez, and Dario Frigo.

“I had gone three years without a victory, so today was a great day for me, and I even shed some tears afterwards,” said the Ukrainian, who last year also rode for Fassa Bortolo but now brought a fine stage win to his small De Nardi-Colpack team. “I constantly pushed as hard as I could and stayed over my limit the entire time.”

The speeds of over 50kph that the 2000 world time trial champion maintained after three hard weeks of racing was hard enough to imagine. However, it is even harder for an American to imagine that he had giant, world-renowned thoroughfares in one of the world’s great cities of fashion to himself.

Gonzalez
Gonzalez
Photo: Graham Watson

Can you imagine New York’s Fifth Avenue and 33km around the city closed for a bike race?

Redemption and victory
Simoni, 31, also won the Giro in 2001, and both times there was a bit of an edge to his victory and subsequent comments.

In 2001, the drug bust in San Remo resulted in Frigo’s elimination from the race, just as he was poised to challenge Simoni for the lead. In one evening, Simoni’s major competition was gone, but the race was irrevocably tainted, too.

Simoni
Simoni
Photo: REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

Simoni, then riding for Lampre, won the last mountain stage over the Mottarone above Lago Maggiore on a 40km solo attack in the rain. He said at the time that he felt compelled to make a statement wearing the pink jersey that demonstrated his own (clean) strength and dominance as well as put the Giro in a good light against the negative backdrop of the drug raid.

This year, he won three stages, two of which were after the race was completely in his pocket. He said he was not giving any gifts to other riders, because he never forgot that it was the other riders who had demanded his ejection from last year’s Giro after a positive drug test for cocaine that was later overturned.

Simoni’s stage wins made the difference in another category, as Simoni also won the purplish “ciclamino” jersey of the overall points victor. Garzelli was tied on points with Simoni, but his two stage wins to the Saeco rider’s three determined the champion.

The elimination of Fassa Bortolo’s Alessandro Petacchi, who had won six stages and held a commanding lead in the points competition, opened the door for the two to duke it out for the win in a second category. Petacchi had crashed hard in the Bolzano time trial and was unable to finish within the time cut on the tough stage through the Piedmont Mountains on Thursday.

Looking back over the three weeks, Simoni said that perhaps the Giro’s most decisive moments came in a stage he didn’t win.

“The stage that made the difference was the Terminillo (where Garzelli beat him in a sprint),” Simoni said, “since we put all of the other contenders out of the race.”

Indeed, former Giro and Tour champion Marco Pantani agreed.

“My race was closed on the day of the Terminillo,” Pantani observed.

Simoni's first major attack came on Stage 10 and from then on, he was in rosa
Simoni's first major attack came on Stage 10 and from then on, he was in rosa
Photo: Graham Watson

But clearly Simoni made his first mark on this Giro on the tenth stage when he made a surprise attack on unrated, but difficult, climb in the Appenines. “For me, Faenza was the other most critical stage in the race,” Simoni said of the stage in which he took the leaders’ jersey from Garzelli.

A battle for second
Since Garzelli’s crash on the descent of the Colle de Sampeyre in that same rainy, hail-pelted stage on Thursday that claimed Petacchi and 40 other riders through abandonment or elimination, Popovych has gained time in the mountains on him. He soundly beat Garzelli in the Giro’s other time trial (by 43 seconds over 42.5km), and he only had two seconds to make up to take over second place on Sunday, but Garzelli had reason to work hard.

The two were matched exactly at the 11km checkpoint. By 20km Popovych had gained a second. Over the ensuing 13km to the finish, Garzelli gave it his all and regained that second and added three more. Garzelli took a well-earned second place. However, the 23-year-old Ukrainian has served notice that he will be a rider to contend with in future grand tours.

Race Note
Remarkably, even with the course cleared, the world of motorized vehicles almost had a disastrous effect on the stage. An airplane attempting to land at Milan’s Linate airport crashed into an electronics factory in the suburb of Ponte Lambro.

The time trial course wrapped around Linate along the Lampro river, between the airport and Ponte Lambro, directly under the intended path of the plane. It crashed within 500 meters of the race course, but did not otherwise affect the race.

The two pilots were killed, but as it was a Sunday, the factory and the entire industrial district within which it was located were deserted. Gianni Faresin of Gerolsteiner reported seeing it go down and explode during his race.

Last 20 winners of the Giro
1984: Francesco Moser (ITA)
1985: Bernard Hinault (FRA)
1986: Roberto Visentini (ITA)
1987: Stephen Roche (IRL)
1988: Andy Hampsten (USA)
1989: Laurent Fignon (FRA)
1990: Gianni Bugno (ITA)
1991: Franco Chioccioli (ITA)
1992: Miguel Indurain (SPA)
1993: Miguel Indurain (SPA)
1994: Yevgeny Berzin (RUS)
1995: Tony Rominger (SWI)
1996: Pavel Tonkov (RUS)
1997: Ivan Gotti (ITA)
1998: Marco Pantani (ITA)
1999: Ivan Gotti (ITA)
2000: Stefano Garzelli (ITA)
2001: Gilberto Simoni (ITA)
2002: Paolo Savoldelli (ITA)
2003: Gilberto Simoni (ITA)

Jersey Winners - 2003 Giro d'Italia
Overall winner (pink jersey): Gilberto Simoni
Points winner: Gilberto Simoni
Mountain winner: Fredy Gonzalez
Intergiro winner: Magnus Backstedt
Team standings (time): Lampre
Team standings (points): Fassa Bortolo

To see how this final stage of the Giro unfolded, just follow this link to bring up our live update window.

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