Tour’s shadow hovers over the Giro
ROME The Giro d’Italia bills itself as “the toughest race in the world’s most beautiful place,” but a shadow still hangs over it: the Tour de France.
Mauro Vegni is looking for a bit more sunshine.
“We think we can rebuild our reputation and strengthen our brand given Italy’s incredible appeal as a country,” Vegni, the Giro’s race director since 2012, said from the Genovese coastline, where the competition began on May 9.
While the Giro has always lagged behind its French rival, a generation ago the two races were much closer in size and importance. Cycling’s biggest names — the likes of Belgium’s Eddy Merckx, Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, and Italy’s’ Fausto Coppi — typically participated in both.
Then came Lance Armstrong. The now-disgraced American focused exclusively on winning the Tour, participating in other races mostly as training, so that he would peak every July just as the French race was scaling the slopes of the Alps or Pyrenees.
It worked, and Armstrong won seven times (though he was stripped of his titles after investigators found he took performanceenhancing drugs).
Armstrong’s rise helped make the Tour a global brand, leaving the Giro and the even smaller Vuelta a Espana as also-rans. In his 17 years as a pro, Armstrong rode the Tour 13 times and the Giro and Vuelta just once each.
“I’m Italian but what can I say? The Giro is a wonderful race, warmer and more human, but the Tour is the Tour,” said Felice Gimondi, a legend from the 1960s and 1970s who is among the handful of riders to have won all three European grand tours.
Gimondi, nicknamed “The Phoenix,” wistfully recalls the screaming crowds as he made his way up the Alps in the Tour. “It’s the greatest show on earth in biking,” he said, “with more money, more sponsors and the best competition.”
Vegni acknowledges that the Giro can never outshine the Tour, but he says he can bring back some of the lustre of previous generations.
His plan is to boost the race’s appeal among riders by stressing the difficulty of the climbs and the extra credibility a Giro win can mean. And he wants to win more fans by underscoring the beauty of the Italian countryside as a draw for spectators.
That, Vegni says, will bring more corporate support, the lifeblood of any professional competition.
Steve Maxwell, a management consultant in Colorado who studies professional cycling, estimates the Tour brings in some $67 million US in annual revenue, about triple what the Giro earns. RCS Sport, the owner of the Giro, and Amaury Sport Organization, which owns the Tour and the Vuelta, declined to provide financial details.
To some extent, the Giro has suffered from the increased popularity of competitive cycling. Two decades ago, there were about 120 major races around the world, whereas today there are roughly 500, Vegni says. That provides more competition for top riders, especially non-Europeans who can find races closer to home, such as the Tour of California in the U.S. or the Tour Down Under in Australia.
Vegni has won over one key rider, Alberto Contador. The Spaniard, who won the Tour in 2007 and 2009 and the Giro in 2008, has said he will “try to go down in history” by winning both in the same season — a feat accomplished by only six riders.