Giro d'Italia Comes to the Consulate

In the month of May, small and big towns become hosts to one of the multiple stages of Giro d'Italia. Funded in 1909 by a journalist Tullo Morgagni, the bicycle race has since become the most important after Tour de France. The modern edition of Giro d'Italia consists of twenty-one daylong segments over a 23-day period (including 2 rest days), during which people gather along the locations of the different stages to see the cyclists passing through. The winner of ‘Giro d’Italia’ wins the "maglia rosa" (pink jersey), the same shade of pink as that of "La Gazzetta dello Sport," the sport newspaper which organizes the race every year.

Consul General Natalia Quintavalle and Gianni Bugno present the maglia rosa  

 Cyclist Gianni Bugno

First-place trophy, the "Trofeo Senza Fine"

New York is ready to admire a little piece of Giro d'Italia this Sunday when the Gran Fondo Five Boro will take place. The cyclists will ride through the five boroughs of New York City with a start line at 7:45 at the intersection between Franklin Street and Church Street in Manhattan.

The TD Five Boro Five Tour was already a very popular and widely supported sporting event, but joined by the Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia as partner, it gave life to Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia Five Boro, and at the same time gained even more prestige.

“The Five Boro is an amazing race that attracts over 30.000 thousands racers including a thousand of Italian and Italian-American cyclists. The Five Boro will take place this Sunday just a few hours after the start of the 2013 Giro d’Italia that will start in Naples” said Natalia Quintavalle, Consul General of Italy in New York, while introducing the event. Also during the introduction, addressing Gianni Bugno, Giro d’Italia winner of 1990, who will ride among the other bikers on Sunday, Quintavalle stated: “It is an amazing experience for me to ride the bike in New York City along with him. Even though Mr. Bugno and I will be next to each other at the starting line, I would like to tell Gianni ‘I will not wait for you to be together at the finish line, so you better hurry!'”

Winner of the World Cycling Championships in 1991 and 1992, Bugno said, “I would like to thank you for inviting me here, to New York. Riding in a traffic-free New York is an emotional experience, an experience that I will share with other cyclists. I do not ride professionally anymore, but just as an amateur, so the Consul will have to wait for me.”

“Giro d’Italia has been know as the toughest bicycle ride in the world, made of effort, sacrifice and history, and we are now trying to bring these values to the Gran Fondo Giro d’Italia,” said Lorenzo de Salvo from RCS Sport, which organized the event together with Bike New York.

The race will have its finish line in Staten Island where a pasta party will be held for all the riders. The Grand Fondo Giro d’Italia Five Boro is a great way to learn the positive values of sport and to see almost an entire city without traffic.