Beniamino Schiavon, from Laigueglia, was the director for many years of the local Autonomous Hospitality and Tourism Agency, under whose impulse the Trofeo Laigueglia was born in 1964. Many stories from the first editions were collected by his sons Massimo and Roberto before Beniamino's passing in 2023. We present them in a sort of stage race towards the opening classification of Italian cycling.

1966 - WHAT HAPPENED TO JEAN STABLINSKI?

At the finish line, news arrived of a crash during the descent of Testico that involved several riders, including Jean Stablinski: a quick check at the finish line revealed that only the Franco-Polish rider was missing. Some said he had fallen in the terrain below the road and, as often happens, the story changed, grew, and mutated from mouth to mouth.

Beniamino Schiavon gathered a group of people and with two cars began searching from the point where the crash was reported, but among the bushes and lands below the road, there was no trace of Jean. Then one car reached the hospital in Albenga and the other in Alassio, but nothing, desperation was rising.

With Pino Villa, the last attempt was at the hotel where the rider was staying. Arriving at the hotel, they found him calmly sitting at the table, a bit battered, with a few scratches, but with a plate of pasta in front of him. Stablinski told the incredulous organizers the details of the crash: after climbing back up from the terrain below the road, he had stopped the first truck passing by and loaded what remained of his bicycle to be taken to the hotel by that very kind truck driver.

4 - to be continued