Ninety years ago: 3425 km, 14 stages, 50 riders. The first Vuelta. Beppe Conti continues to pedal into history with "There Was a Vuelta" (Graphot, 176 pages, 15 euros), the story and stories of the great Spanish tour, up to the 2025 edition, which began in his land, on his roads, those of Piedmont. And he does so with his recognizable pace, as a communicator, grateful and appreciated, in print and on television.

About Vicente Trueba: "He seemed to be the favorite even of the young lawyer Agnelli, who actually never really loved bicycle races. Trueba was 1.54 tall and weighed 50 kg, they called him 'the flea of Torrelavega'. Or of the Pyrenees. He had inaugurated the climbers' classification at the 1933 Tour de France, the first time the ranking was proposed, passing first over all the hills, from Aubisque to Ballon d'Alsace, from Galibier to Tourmalet. The problem was that downhill he would lose all the ground gained uphill. Or almost. He was afraid and descended very slowly. At the first Vuelta, he then discovered he had a tapeworm. Goodbye hopes." About Edoardo Molinar: "He was from Rocca Canavese, class of 1907. And he passed away in that small village on September 22, '94. He raced among independents, was strong uphill, won a race on Puy de Dome, participated three times in the Giro (seventh in '37) and twice in the Tour (thirteenth in '34) always in the isolated category. In those years Molinar had moved to live on the French Riviera. At the 1935 Vuelta he won the thirteenth and penultimate stage from Caceres to Zamora, right in front of the race leader Deloor (at the time wearing an orange jersey). Molinar finished fourth in the overall classification and won the climbers' ranking ahead of all Spanish riders, thus entering the history of the Vuelta of Spain."

Among statistics: "Fausto Coppi never won a classic in his region, Piedmont. Never a Milano-Torino, never a Giro del Piemonte. He who triumphed five times at the Giro, twice at the Tour, achieving the double between the two grand tours twice, which at the time was not thought possible from a physical standpoint. But not only Coppi. 'Miguelon' Indurain won five consecutive Tour de France, won two Giros d'Italia, achieved the seasonal double twice. But he never won the Vuelta of Spain, the stage race among his people. Incredible! Always defeated, sometimes not even present, almost out of spite. He brushed it once in '91, defeated by a rider who once in his life knew how to go faster than him even in a time trial. His name was and is Melchor Mauri, two years younger than 'Miguelon', born in '66, from Vic in Catalonia. Mauri had been a teammate of Indurain and Delgado in previous seasons." And a curiosity: Vuelta 2005, positive in anti-doping, "Heras fired from his team, two years of suspension, farewell to racing. But he went on with Spanish ordinary justice, until in 2012 a court gave him right. There had been errors and irregularities in the analysis. The 2005 Vuelta returned, his fourth Vuelta. But it wasn't over yet. Heras continued with the complaint to obtain even clearer justice. And ten years after what happened at the Vuelta, he was proven right. The Spanish state, found responsible for what happened, had to compensate him with a sum of about 720 thousand euros."

Beppe Conti can afford the luxury of writing about himself, in the first person: "I was following the Tour of Romandy, always a splendid week-long race for tuning up before the Giro d'Italia. There was the protagonist of the classics, Moreno Argentin, who was also thinking about the pink jersey. But suddenly Argentin falls ill, urinary tract problems, very strong. And he withdraws. Exactly on the day Giovannetti jumps to the command of the Vuelta. What to do? Today everything would be followed on TV. At the time, fortunately, no. I alert the newspaper, I decide, I had this privilege at Tuttosport. I leave Switzerland and with the rental car go to Linate. I board the first flight to Barcelona. And I follow the Vuelta. The editor, the great Piero Dardanello, a journalist of race, threatens on the phone: 'Look, if Giovannetti doesn't win the Vuelta, you'll pay for the travel and accommodation expenses'. He would never have done it. And then Giovannetti wins the Vuelta and space is never lacking in the newspaper every day to tell his fierce defense, the attacks of the Spanish, Colombians, Russians, Germans, French."