Without pretending to discover anything new, but referring to the tried-and-true saying that "there's nothing more unpublished than printed paper", we intend to focus a moment of attention on the name of a race, a classic of what we'll still call the amateur calendar, like the Coppa San Geo, which last year celebrated its hundredth edition. A milestone of great prestige, also in temporal terms, since the first edition was held in 1925, organized by the Lombard Regional Committee of the then U.V.I. on a 120 km route with start and finish in the Lombard capital, and a route that first stretched into the Como area and then into the Varese area before returning to Milan.

A characteristic of this race was that the organization of the following year's race was entrusted and fulfilled by the society that won the representative prize in the previous edition.

In 1982, a sort of turning point occurred with the organization of the Coppa. It was in fact continuously assigned to the G.S. Lombarda Tacchini of Calcinato, an active municipality in the lower Brescia area, south of Lake Garda, bordering the province of Mantua, always a land of fervent cycling passion and, in fact, in the Brescia area, the "opening classic" of the category finds here passion and resources to continue its historic tradition in an optimal "breeding ground" for two wheels.

And this, along with much more, was passionately collected by friend Angiolino Massolini, a distinguished journalist of Brescia's cycling history as well as a proud and multi-awarded "Alpine", a sensitive "black feather" constantly remembering his wife Marilena, who passed away at a young age, with various charitable initiatives in sports carried forward through the "Memorial Marilena".

His book "San Geo 100" is a successful and articulated summary of the Gran Premio, then Coppa, SAN GEO published by Falsopiano (www.falsopiano.com), with 183 pages of documented and pleasant history tracing the memory of the first 99 editions of the race invented by Geo Davidson. A book presented on this site on February 21, 2024 – read here - with tasty and comprehensive highlighted news.

The San Geo is, in practice, by antonomasia, the absolute opening classic of the Italian calendar, as the Milano-Sanremo was once considered for professionals.

In December 1989, thanks to Gianni Pozzani, a well-known figure in Brescia cycling - and beyond - the G.S. San Geo was born in a trattoria in Soprazocco, a fraction of the municipality of Gavardo, which has always "cared for and cares for" its race with passionate dedication, with directors-friends Luigi Borno (former president of Lombarda Tacchini) and Rudy Zucca at the head of a competent and passionate group of valid collaborators.

We've digressed a bit from the purpose of discovering why SAN appears before GEO. GEO is known to be the abbreviation of Georges referring to DAVIDSON, a historic figure in Italian sports from a family of entrepreneurs in naval supplies of Scottish origins who arrived in Italy in 1873, specifically in Genoa.

A versatile personality and athlete, his history and versatility (gymnast, cyclist, president of the glorious Genoa Cricket & Football Club) is remembered by Wikipedia in great detail. He was also president of the U.V.I. (Italian Cycling Union - today's F.C.I.) for several years, transferring the federal headquarters from Alessandria to Genoa.

And thanks to Angiolino Massolini, we learned that the SAN is due to a successor of Geo Davidson at the helm of UVI and FCI, the quintessential Milanese "presidentissimo" Adriano Rodoni, with iron hands in velvet gloves, when, still leading the Sport Club Genova located on the Milanese Navigli, in the Porta Genova area, a historic society also organizing various

San Geo. For intellectual honesty, Massolini attributes the source of this information to another journalist, this time from Bergamo (beyond the proverbial football rivalry between BG and BS), Luciano Pasinetti, also a journalist, who had collected it directly from Rodoni. Luciano Pasinetti from Bergamo and namesake of the late, eclectic Titta Pasinetti, also passed away at a young age and a disenchanted, brilliant, carefree pen, and much more.

Here is the (secular) origin of the SAN that appears before GEO, a cornerstone of cycling that was but, thanks to passion, dedication, stubbornness and "iron" capabilities, to remember a always prized product of the province of the Leonessa d'Italia, connects tradition with current events for the COPPA SAN GEO in a refined and successful "mix" of pleasant landscapes and competitive pedaled substance that will be proposed by spectacular television images.