Five days to the Giro d'Italia 2025. While waiting for Roglic and Ayuso, Bernal and Carapaz, Ciccone and Tiberi, Van Aert and Pidcock, we live the countdown through the stories of ancient protagonists. Today, -3 to the start, it's Gigi Sgarbozza's turn.

A cyclist remains a cyclist. This is the case of Gigi Sgarbozza. A cyclist by nature, a cyclist as an commentator, a cyclist even now in front of the TV or with a phone. Eighty years old, five-six years as a professional, a stage win at the Giro and one at the Vuelta, three days in the red jersey as leader of the general classification at the Vuelta. And much more. As he says, "a true story".

Sgarbozza, did you start cycling out of vocation or imitation?

"Out of hunger. Poverty that could be cut with a knife. My father from Pordenone, emigrated to Rome in the 1940s, a farmer on Via Salaria, cultivating land in Ladispoli, specializing in artichokes. My mother from Amaseno, in Ciociaria, back and forth to Ladispoli in a day, they met like this. Then Giancarlo and I, him two years older than me, little school and straight to work, him a carpenter and me a blacksmith, together on bikes - two old wrecks with a rack in front and back - selling rubber my father extracted from tire treads by removing the carcass. It was him, Giancarlo, the real cyclist. But life was cruel and snatched him away, struck by lightning at the edge of the town. It was 1957. And then everything fell apart. My parents died of heartbreak. I went to live in Rome, first with an aunt in Cinecittà, then, when I started racing, in a rented room in Porta Latina".

1968 was a revolution for you too, right?

"Giro d'Italia, fourteenth stage, Vittorio Veneto-Marina Romea, 17 men in a breakaway, no one in the overall classification, I was there with a teammate, Guido Neri. We were fully in agreement: he wouldn't help me and I wouldn't help him, each free to race his own race. I identified the man to beat, the Frenchman Grosskost, stuck to his wheel, but it was the wrong wheel, 400 meters from the finish he was second to last and I was last, so I started to come back and didn't stop until I won. And with the money earned at the Giro, I went into debt to buy a house in Grottaferrata".

Was it an era of great sprinters?

"Merckx was the strongest, Sercu the fastest, Basso the most explosive, but also the most of a bandit, Zandegù the most powerful, Reybrouck the most cunning... I was quite sharp, let's say intelligent, which is why I collected a lot of placings. Second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth..."

For example?

"1969 Giro d'Italia, seventh stage, Viterbo-Terracina, the sprint finished in a photo finish, first Merckx, second Reybrouck, third me by 30 centimeters after more than 200 kilometers. If I had won, it would have been the turning point. Sometimes someone sends me the video of the sprint on the phone. I watch it and enjoy it".

Were you free or a domestique?

"Free, free to try and fail and try again even at the cost of failing again. Only in 1970, at Dreher, the sports director Cribiori explained to me that at the Giro d'Italia I had to lead out the sprint for Sercu and that in all other races I would be the captain. But I couldn't be either a domestique or a captain, and at the end of 1971 I stopped racing. I was 27 years old. But if cycling had been like today, maybe I would have continued".

Why?

"Uphill, captains would hang onto domestiques or get pushed by spectators, to convince them Taccone would yell 'my gears are broken', some could do the first 100-150 kilometers almost without pedaling, and the judges would turn a blind eye, even two. Real cycling is today's, a battle from the first to the last kilometer, team tactics, strength and intelligence, strategy and technology, a show".

Crashes? Bonks? Abandonments?

"Many crashes, but never a fracture. Rare bonks, on climbs up to a thousand meters I held on, on long climbs I would give up immediately, join the grupetto and finish half an hour behind the winner. Never abandoned, and never arrived outside the time limit".

Your friendship with Sergio Zavoli?

"It dates back to when he had stopped hosting 'Processo alla Tappa' and I had already stopped racing. He had a villa in Monte Porzio Catone, right next to Grottaferrata. You must come visit me, he would say. And so every Monday morning I would go to him and for a couple of hours we would chat, about cycling and football, about Giro d'Italia and Serie A, about Merckx and his Roma. His friendship honored me. He wanted to know what was happening, what was being said, what people were thinking. The voices of the people, the voice of the people".

A nice satisfaction.

"I've had others. Alessandra De Stefano calling me to be a regular guest on 'Processo alla Tappa', Merckx was the one who wanted me with him. My two daughters, one an art historian, the other super-graduated, a teacher in high schools and director at Feltrinelli. And my three granddaughters, all top of their class. In this, let me be clear, they took nothing from their father and grandfather".

ALREADY PUBLISHED

ITALO ZILIOLI

PIETRO PARTESOTTI