Corsa Rosa by Brendan Gallagher

Author:Brendan Gallagher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

10

Nothing and Nobody Can Outfox ‘the Badger’ (1977–86)

The departure of Merckx from the scene allowed others to breathe and alternative storylines and characters to develop, for a while anyway, before the arrival of another dominating rider in Bernard Hinault who was to produce some of his greatest rides at the Giro d’Italia. The mix in 1977 was eclectic to say the least. The reigning world champion Freddy Maertens was the ‘foreign raider’ and, although known primarily as the world’s best sprinter and a serial stage winner, he possessed the all-round ability to contest GC races as well. In 1976 he had finished eighth at the Tour de France and just before he arrived in Italy Maertens claimed the best stage win of his career by taking the GC at the Vuelta a España. Admittedly it was the flattest Vuelta in history as Maertens helped himself to a remarkable 12 stage wins but he always possessed unusually good endurance for a sprinter. He would clearly dominate the early flat stages in the Giro a few weeks later but could he hang tough in the mountains as well? A rugged, volatile Flandrian, Maertens had a history of doping although he insisted never in Grand Tours – and there were also admissions of heavy drinking. He was box office, though, a character and a flamboyant but consistent stage winner. Indeed, he always claims his 54 wins in 1976 should be considered the biggest annual haul in road-racing history, arguing it was superior to the 54 Merckx also claimed for 1971 which included three track events.

Lined up against Maertens was the stylish Francesco Moser, the latest big Italian hope who was coming into the form of his life; indeed, he was to win the World Championship a few months later at San Cristóbal, Venezuela. Moser was to become a big ‘player’; in the Giro, in the ten seasons from 1977 to 1986 he claimed six podium places, including a win in 1984, but he was generally riding slightly against the odds. A superlative time-trial rider, Moser was a big, hefty man by cycling standards and, although he could often channel that power successfully on the climbs, the possibility of a bad day in the mountains was never far away. He was generally walking a tightrope but the prospect of the brilliant natural sprinter and the exceptional natural time-trial rider having to effectively fight out the maglia rosa in the mountains was intriguing and full of potential for the spectator.

The rider nobody had really factored in was Belgium’s Michel Pollentier, Maertens’s gregario di lusso, who had twice finished seventh at the Tour de France, in 1974 and 1976. Pollentier was to achieve lifelong notoriety in 1978 when he was thrown off the Tour de France when taking the yellow jersey at the top of the Alpe d’Huez climb for attempting to supply a false urine sample. The Belgian filled a condom with an untainted sample and concealed it under his armpit where it was attached to a tube from which he intended to provide the sample.

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