|
|
 |
La Dolce Vita
|
|
|
|
|
|
Motogiro d'Italia road rally
Jeff Buchanan
10/01/2005
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Zep Gori/Dreamengine
|
Reviving Italy's golden age of
racing.
The residents of Morciano di Romagna don’t seem to mind the parade of
exotic motorcycles storming through their narrow streets, a cacophony of
straight-pipe exhausts resonating against ancient stone facades. Even better,
neither do the local police, who have made it clear that the riders may regard
speed limits—and most traffic signs—as suggestions. The town’s joy is captured
in the faces of its schoolchildren, who have the afternoon off to watch our
vintage machines stream past.
 |
| (Click image to enlarge) |
|
|
This tacitly condoned, two-wheeled lawlessness
is not as reckless as it sounds—after all, we can hardly get into too much
trouble with a scant 175cc of 50-year-old Italian iron buzzing beneath us. For
the next five days, protagonisti—or players—from around the world will be
cheered across Italy as we participate in the country’s oldest timed motorcycle
rally, the Motogiro d’Italia. Each May, the Giro—as it is affectionately
known—celebrates the country’s golden age of motorcycle competition as
protagonisti, attired in the era’s racing leathers and half-shell helmets,
traverse more than 1,200 kilometers of Italy’s undulating topography.
The
first Motogiro ran in 1914 and, over the ensuing four decades, rose to
prominence as Italy’s premier long distance road race. The 1954 event saw no
fewer than 50 motorbike manufacturers represented in a grueling, eight-stage,
3,414-kilometer race. August companies such as Ducati, Morini, Gilera, Moto
Guzzi, Rumi, and MV Agusta designed machines specifically for the event. And
riders, including Giuliano Maoggi, Emilio Mendogni, Leopold Tartarini, and Remo
Venturi, became heroes to the legions of devoted fans who lined the course in
the Motogiro’s heyday.
The Giro survived both world wars, but in 1957 fell
prey to bureaucracy when the Italian government put a stop to all road
competitions. After a 44-year reign as the country’s most prized motorcycle
race, the Motogiro d’Italia ceased to exist. The villages and winding mountain
roads of Italy would not again hear the sound of the Giro’s small-displacement
racing engines until 2001, when Dream Engine—a Bologna-based events
company—revived the competition in cooperation with Ducati. It was an
overwhelming success: The 2005 race fielded 400 international
protagonisti.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();){kind=link}