Two hairpin turns. The first named after Costante Girardengo, the second after Fausto Coppi. On the road that climbs steeply from Basaluzzo, those two hairpin turns at Pasturana, and then descends, almost straight, three or four kilometers, to Novi Ligure.

Cycling has returned to Pasturana. Here there is always an air of Milano-Sanremo, often of the Giro d'Italia, sometimes of the Giro dell'Appennino, even of the historic Milano-Sanremo. There is an air of cycling history, which also means geography. Time and space. Cycling marks calendars and maps territories. Less than before, the competition is fierce.

Pasturana smells of shepherds and pastoralism, its Piedmontese identity contested by Genoese and Milanese powers, the community still gathers around a castle perhaps from the seventeenth century and comes alive when the riders pass through. The preparation, like that of a celebration, the anticipation, like that of a wedding, then that long shiver, like a thriller, and finally a sense of emptiness that immediately demands another occasion.

For the 2026 Giro d'Italia, Pasturana dressed up for the occasion: pink, of course. Little flags, cockades, banners. Shop windows, balconies, gates. And those two hairpin turns named after Girardengo and Coppi. Plus a third, dedicated to all the champions. Domestiques included. Otherwise, without them, the captains would never be such champions and super-champions.

The Municipal Library, named after Eugenio Arecco (it was his wife Luisa who left a great collection of books), set up tables with books on Girardengo and Coppi, baskets with books on cycling and bicycles, panels from an exhibition dedicated to the bicycle in the Resistance. And more: it hosted workshops by Fernanda Pessolano for children, where the bicycle is the protagonist of poems and stories, drawings and cutouts, and an exhibition of watercolors and ink drawings with portraits of riders.

Here everyone, in their own way, pedals, starting with the Pro Loco. The Pasturana Brewery produced special bottles for the Giro d'Italia, from "La Specialissima" to "Filo di Fumo". Students participated in a pink ride. The town hall hosted meetings with Beppe Saronni and Beppe Conti, Dino Zandegù, Francesco Moser and Mara Mosole, as well as Faustino Coppi, who is almost a local here. Bars, bakeries and food shops extended their hours and specialties without limits. At the head of the group is the mayor, Massimo Subbrero, perhaps a remote relation to rider Matteo Sobrero of Lidl-Trek, number 66, but certainly the same identical passion.