The last edition of the Giro del Piemonte to have crowned a rider from the Region goes back to Italo Zilioli. It was 1970, starting and finishing in the small municipality of Marano Ticino in the province of Novara, and that success in the subalpine region, dated July 30th, was the most worthy conclusion to a memorable month for the then Faema-Faemino rider, who managed to wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de France, thanks to his victory in the La Rochelle-Angers stage, a symbol of the lead he maintained all the way to Valenciennes.

In practice, Zilioli, bound by an unbreakable friendship to Eddy Merckx, held first place in the general classification right ahead of the "Cannibal". Who, by the way, certainly didn't miss out on winning the Giro del Piemonte, which duly happened in 1972. Where? Still (climbing the Mottarone) in the tiny Marano, home of the event thanks to patron Adriano Bossetti, engineer heading the local S.I.T.I. A page of patronage that became increasingly rare in Italian cycling.

Returning to Zilioli, coming directly from post-Tour circuits, he presented himself relatively under the radar at what was indicative for the Leicester World Championships. In the race, the now 85-year-old resident of Ruffia, in the province of Cuneo, made his presence felt, earning himself a call-up to the Italian national team that was more than justified.

And it is a special week from an evocative point of view for Italo Zilioli, who won the Tre Valli Varesine in 1963 and the Coppa Agostoni in 1964. Formidable those years on the Turin cycling scene, and curiously in the quartet that monopolized the current Gran Piemonte was the Canavese rider Franco Balmamion, who finished third behind the Tuscan Simonetti, while fourth place went to Pietro Guerra, 30 seconds behind the winner. "The Tuscan Simonetti, who had tried to surprise the Turin rider by attacking less than 2 kilometers from the finish, was caught and overtaken with ridiculous ease when the banner of Marano Ticino was now no more than 700-800 meters away. Balmamion and Guerra, the other two members of the quartet that had firmly held the reins as protagonists of the race, didn't even have the chance to play their card in the sprint for victory. Another fifteen men, those whom Zilioli had stubbornly led in the attack for more than 150 kilometers, finished more than a minute behind the winner, while the peloton with all the "greats", from Basso to Gimondi, from Bitossi to Adorni and Motta, "finished almost 3 minutes behind Zilioli" wrote Gianni Pignata in La Stampa.