ADAPT OR DIE

MAURIZIO EVANGELISTA, Procycling - issue 244 / July 2018

Keeping the best traditions and making changes to make races relevant

You might not believe it but two years ago, the Giro del Trentino – beloved, important, and with 40 years of history – was on the point of death. That’s right: the best preparation race for the Giro d’Italia was almost a goner. There were two reasons our backs were against the wall. One, the UCI did not back up the history and tradition of cycling with sympathetic calendar planning and our race found itself threatened with overlaps. The second problem was a symptom of the first: our finances were low. We were getting closer and closer to the age-old fate of so many races in Italy – closure. Our solution was to expand our region. We entered the Südtirol and crossed the border into Austria. These new regions’ financial input has helped turn the race around. Goodbye Giro del Trentino, hello Tour of the Alps. Some fans may lament the loss of the old name, but just look at who was on the start-list this year: Fabio Aru, Chris Froome and Thibaut Pinot.

We also made some important technical decisions. We decided to remain resolute about our date. Maybe we could move to June when the weather’s better, but what is this race’s meaning if it is not the rangefinder for the Giro? I know that this calendar slot really means something important when we invite the WorldTour teams, and their first question is not what fee we will pay them to attend.

But the key has been to reduce the stage lengths. This year we had four stages under 146km and one at about 160km. We kept a lid on excessive amounts of climbing and there were a variety of finales. We removed TTs. Some people were surprised. An ex-pro said to me, ‘But Maurizio, what about a stage for the sprinters?’ I replied, ‘This is the Tour of the Alps!’

There is an interesting tension now: all-out action for three hours, but then a calmness settles on the race. Froome told me this was exactly what he needed: a short, intense race, not long, draining one.

I think the stages have been a big hit with fans too. Bike racing is about entertainment and spectacle. We had three leaders in the first three days; the leaders attacked every day and the landscape was beautiful.

This new approach has its challenges. We are a small team working hard across a huge area. We deal with three different cultures where the cycling traditions vary. Sure, Trentino has a long history of cycling, but Tirol? Less so. That can lead to greater obstacles. Take Lienz, in Tirol. When it hosted races in the past, the finish line was usually outside the train station. Now, it’s a perfectly fine station but if you move the finish 50m, like we did, you can finish in the beautiful square with bustling shops and cafes. Is it more challenging from a logistical point of view? Sure – and that’s maybe why it was not done in the past. But it’s all about the spectacle, remember. 

I tell this story as a kind of parable. Cycling abides by old customs (and the contribution of some new ones that don’t work, like wall-to-wall TV coverage). Don’t get me wrong. As a former journalist and a longstanding cycling fan, I love cycling’s history and traditions as much as the next man, but we cannot keep things the same at any cost. Our fans are busy people. Riders are particular about their programme. When a race blocks traffic for hours on end, you don’t collect friends; when you plot a stage over six hard climbs, the first five are a promenade; when you put a sprint stage in a mountain race it becomes a day for the domestiques. Every rider should get their chance, but why should every rider get a chance in every race? 

I’m not saying our race is perfect. We can improve. All I’m saying is that organisers, especially of smaller races, need to think laterally. They must think about how to make themselves unmissable and unique. By all means heed tradition. But simply doing things a certain way and not challenging the rationale behind the tradition is a one-way ticket to insignificance.

Maurizio Evangelista is a former journalist, an author and the organiser of the Tour of the Alps, formerly known as the Giro del Trentino.