That's just how it is, in the history of sport all streaks are naturally destined to be interrupted... And that's just how it was at the 1976 Campania - half a century ago, 50 years before the new edition announced for September - a foreigner crosses the line first for the first time.

And first at the sprint, on April 1st, 1976 - what an abundance of firsts - Rik Van Linden flashes across the finish line at the Arenaccia, the Belgian talent imported by Bianchi, who burns with a devastating rush Marino Basso (Furzi) and the other Flemish author Roger De Vlaeminck (Brooklyn).

Van Linden wins, after the second-place finishes in our race's honor roll of Hoevenaers, Anquetil, Sercu, and it is a victory of absolute rank, which further qualifies the Campania's trophy cabinet, in what was its 44th edition. In a finishing order worthy of a great road classic, which also includes Bitossi, Gavazzi and Moser on the podium's edge, Van Linden exalts in Naples that quality of roaring sprinter that he had announced in previous years, on the international stage, conquering the Paris-Tours, the traditional recital of the greatest speedsters, in 1971 and 1973. In the first case, beating as a young debutant - he was only born in '49, we still remember him in photos - two predators of the finish line like Marino Basso and Gerben Karstens.

Van Linden, then, who still in '75 had won the points classification at the Tour, conquered the Campania after a couple of months of convalescence from the fall he suffered in a Six-Day race in Milan. And he who was the Rik III in the hagiography of the Flemish for whom cycling is religion - after Rik I (Van Steenbergen) and Rik II (Van Looy) - won with full merit a race that was moreover monotonous, as Adriano Cisternino noted in Roma, because of a course that was too unselective.

The usual Agerola, in fact, on this occasion was well 80 kilometers from the finish: they weren't heading from Castellammare directly to Naples, but instead dragged themselves after the descent into a tedious wandering through the hinterland between Sarno, Nola and Pomigliano that made any attempt unlikely, and foreshadowed a compact group finish... Rik Van Linden, to clarify the point, on the Agerola was dropped by a minute and a half from the leaders, but over the long flat stretch managed easily to rejoin the leading group: with the precious help in the chase, as he recalled after the sprint, from his brother Alex and Giacinto Santambrogio, his teammates. The only solo of the race, leafing through the chronicle, remained the romantic one of Pasquale Pugliese, the young Irpinian from Zonca, number '83', who from the group and with his license had escaped only to pass first through his hometown, Prata di Principato Ultra: and earn an exclusive round of applause. Otherwise first, Rik Van Linden. Rik I at least, for that April 1st, 1976 and for the proud history of the Campania. How many firsts, more than seconds, to tell the story of cycling. Especially half a century later.

(Abstract from the editorial project 'The History of the Giro di Campania' by Gian Paolo PORRECA, LeVarie publisher. On the occasion of the race's return, after 25 years of suspension, scheduled for Sunday, September 20th)