This article was originally published in edition 135 of the Rouleur magazine, which you can subscribe to here
Like a plotline that unfolds chapter by chapter in a novel, the mid-race time trial of the 2025 Giro d’Italia, stage 10, which takes place on May 20, interweaves stories and destinies. And like any good story, there are multiple layers of meaning in the narrative of this stage: it’s the first time in 45 years, to the day, that the Giro has visited Pisa as a stage town. On May 20, 1980, the Dane Jørgen Marcussen won a stage in which the pink jersey changed hands from Francesco Moser to Bernard Hinault, who would eventually go on to win the race. And May 20 will be the 100th anniversary of the Corsa Rosa’s first visit to Pisa.
We are in Lucca, where stage 10 will start. Walking through the alleys of the city’s historic centre, there is the unmistakable and pervasive smell of Tuscan cigars. These are part of the history of Lucca, with links to a long tradition in the processing of tobacco. But the aroma is also an olfactory Proustian madeleine – a fragment of memory that takes me back to spring afternoons in the countryside, to outdoor games, to gelati enjoyed at a bar table, while the sound of voices and the smell of cigars smoked by newspaper-reading gentlemen hang in the air, a heady mix of nostalgia.
We reach the imposing city walls, constructed in the Renaissance and still intact today, and climb from the Porta Elisa entrance, which celebrates the contribution of Elisa Baciocchi, Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister, to the architectural and social transformation of the city in the early 1800s. And we walk under the trees on the avenue which runs along the top of the walls, among cyclists, runners and strolling passers by. This is one of Lucca’s green lungs, an open-air gym in the heart of the city.
We pass in front of the Antico Caffè delle Mura, opened in 1840 on the Baluardo di Santa Maria, where a military barracks once stood. From this elegant neoclassical coffee shop, it is possible to see both the historic centre of Lucca and the hills which surround the city. And from there, we continue toward Piazza Santa Maria, home of one of Lucca’s cycling points of reference: the Cicli Poli bike shop, which opened in 1934. The Unione Ciclistica Lucchese, founded in 1948, was once based here, and the past is still alive in this place, preserved among faded photographs and memorabilia. These include memories of Ezio Cecchi, runner-up in the Giro in 1938 and 1948, the second time by the smallest margin of victory ever in the race after he was divested of the pink jersey by Fiorenzo Magni with three stages to go.
“It is said that Magni had been illegally pushed and the jury, after an investigation following the complaints, penalised him two minutes. Despite this, the advantage he had accumulated allowed him to maintain the lead, finishing just 11 seconds in front of Cecchi,” explains Pierluigi Poli, who today runs the shop. “That decision sparked controversy. Fausto Coppi’s Bianchi team withdrew in protest, but the support for Cecchi did not change the final ranking.
“Cecchi lived in Monsummano, not far from here: he often trained in the area, had many friends and was very popular. The story caused a stir, so much so that a group of local athletes organised a fundraiser for him.”
From this event, the idea of starting a cycling club was born, a project that took shape thanks to the commitment of 47 founding members. Thus the Unione Ciclistica Lucchese was inaugurated, with green chosen as the colour of the jersey. In the shop’s memorabilia display, a jersey stands out that takes us back in time to 1980, to that Giro time trial held in Pisa. It is a wool jersey, slightly moth-eaten and marked by time, worn by Jørgen Marcussen in 1974, before he turned professional. Six years later, wearing the jersey of the Inoxpran team and in the middle of a long and respectable career, he triumphed in the Pisa time trial.
Next to Marcussen’s old jersey, there is a photograph of Pierluigi Poli as a young man, wearing shorts and a t-shirt with the shop’s logo, and next to him, none other than Fausto Coppi.
“The photo was taken on September 14, 1959, the day of the Feast of the Holy Cross, a holiday which we celebrate with a big party,” says Poli. “The night before, the historic centre of Lucca is lit up with thousands of candles for the ‘luminara’, a night-time procession that starts from the church of San Frediano and finishes at the Cathedral of San Martino, carrying a banner depicting the face of Jesus.
“When Coppi left Bianchi, we sold his bikes. There was a working relationship between him and my father Antonio, who is also in the photo. That day, Coppi had competed at the Lucca stadium. There are two more photographs, taken in 1953 and 1956 and I’m with him in both of those as well. Coppi came to compete at the city stadium three times – it wasn’t a velodrome, but they occasionally used the athletics track for bike races. I also remember well his participation in a road race held on a circuit along the city walls in 1948. That time, however, his brother Serse won.”
In 2024, the Giro returned to Lucca after 39 years, and Benjamin Thomas won in a sprint against Michael Valgren, a day that Poli remembers clearly. “The final kilometres turned into a party, with two wings of people either side of the road,” continues Poli. “The Giro also pulls in those who don’t usually follow cycling. If the Giro goes to Rome, it’s a different story, because the city is more spread out and the public is different. Here, however, the bike is part of everyday life, both as a means of transport and for sport. Over time, Lucca has changed – today it is an increasingly popular tourist destination, with a growing number of international visitors. We have adapted by offering a bike rental service. Our horizons have broadened.”
Poli’s words are reflective of a broader debate on the role of the bicycle in cities of culture and on challenges related to sustainable tourism. In recent years, the tourist influx in these cities has grown significantly, opening up new perspectives for the management of their urban spaces. In this context, Lucca has chosen to focus on slow, self-aware tourism, with the capacity to spread visitors beyond just the historic centre. A concrete example of this strategy is the Strade di Lucca Bike Hub project, a network of interconnected cycling routes that connects the towns and cities of the Plain of Lucca – Capannori, Altopascio, Montecarlo, Porcari, Villa Basilica and of course Lucca itself. The cycling itineraries crisscross the countryside, taking in the hills and historic villages and offering tourists the chance to discover the region on two wheels. Among these, the Grand Tour Strade di Lucca is the jewel in the crown, a 169-kilometre circuit that passes through areas of natural beauty and places of historical interest.
Crossroads of pilgrimages
Lucca has been a waypoint along the Via Francigena, a pilgrimage route between Canterbury and Rome which links many of the cathedral cities of Europe, since the Middle Ages, and in the streets of the old town one senses that connection with history. There are traces of all the eras that have shaped the city’s identity – Roman, medieval, Renaissance, the 17th and 19th centuries... and shortly we reach another place steeped in cycling passion: the Enoteca Vanni wine bar, a few steps from the Pupporona fountain in Piazza San Salvatore. The fountain, built in the 19th century, includes the figure of a Naiad with one breast exposed, a detail that has earned it the affectionate nickname, from the local dialect, of ‘puppora’, which means breast. Drinking water flows from the mouth of a lion, making this a popular stop for cyclists traversing the city. At Enoteca Vanni, which has been open for 60 years, a handcrafted bicycle is displayed in the window during special events.
“I recovered an old saddle, mounted a coaster brake and used a Christmas bauble cut in half,” explains Paolo Vanni, the owner of Enoteca Vanni. “I am a great design enthusiast and I like to assemble recycled pieces, working with the welder. I took the fork of a racing bicycle and welded the tubes that make up the handlebars. For the frame I chose steel tubes. Then I painted everything and displayed the result in the window. Lots of passers-by stopped to photograph it.”
Vanni’s eyes light up as he talks about his passion for design. On his cell phone, he shows me a photograph of another model he has made with cantilevered tubing. He proudly says that every time he displays it, it arouses curiosity, and for this reason he is going to have it on display when the Giro visits Lucca.
“I bought about 30 aluminium bicycles in bulk, the ones with the orange wheels that are to rent in Milan and Florence,” continues Vanni. “Now I’m thinking about how to modify them. They are particularly interesting because they are designed to be outdoors: made entirely of aluminium, so no rust. They need to be cut and adapted. The bicycle is an essential means of transport, but it must have precise measurements, otherwise pedalling becomes uncomfortable. And it is exactly this aspect that fascinates me the most.”
Pisa: Ingenuity and Resilience
Pisa welcomes us with its lungarni, the streets that run along the Arno, framed by elegant historic buildings. As we walk through the streets of what was once a maritime power, it’s easy to reflect that the stage from Lucca to Pisa this year is an echo of previous chapters in Giro history. In 1977, the Norwegian cyclist Knut Knudsen won a time trial between Lucca and Pisa, for example. But it is also a living, thriving place, where people go for commerce and for leisure.
When we reach the Piazza del Duomo, our attention is captured by the crowded tables of the bars on Via Santa Maria, in the same place the riders will finish the time trial. We are in the artistic heart of the city, a stone’s throw from the iconic Leaning Tower, whose construction in the 12th century on subsidence-prone clay soil has given the building its famous tilt.
But as well as being, on the face of it, a badly-planned construction in terms of structural integrity, the Torre has brought tourists in their multiple millions, and is also an emblem of humanity’s ingenuity and resilience in the face of the challenges imposed by nature. It has been interpreted by many to be a spiritual and religious symbol; its levels describe an ascending path.
“I find the interpretation in which the tower symbolises the inner journey of the soul in its search for elevation and transcendence fascinating,” says Daniela Petraglia, owner of the restaurant La Pergoletta in the heart of old Pisa. “During Covid, the square was deserted. Once I managed to take my teenage son there and experience a moment of absolute peace with him.”
La Pergoletta opened in 1959 and was taken over by Daniela’s mother, Emma, in the 1980s, and is housed in a historic tower house. It owes its name to the pergola that wraps around the veranda of one of the two dining rooms, including, of course, an increasing number of cyclists.
“Over the past 20 years, we have become very close to the world of cycling, a fact that is sometimes underestimated despite its positive impact on tourism,” says Petraglia. “Once upon a time, cyclists arrived in small groups or in pairs, with simpler needs. Today, they travel in larger and well-organised groups, often with support vehicles to transport their bikes. The requests have changed: there is a lot of attention to security, so we have equipped ourselves with a warehouse, sometimes manned to ensure greater protection.” At the table, however, Petraglia emphasises with satisfaction that cyclists are not about to give up the pleasure of good food: “They treat themselves to an evening, they drink wine, they have fun without worrying too much about sporting sobriety, they want to try the local specialties... What strikes me most is the love and care they reserve for their bicycles. They are explorers. They love to get lost in hidden corners and reach places that would be inaccessible by car.”
We continue to the Piazza dei Cavalieri to admire the Torre della Muda and Palazzo dell’Orologio, which is famous for having been the prison of Count Ugolino della Gherardesca, a nobleman and naval commander, in 1289. Accused of treason, he was condemned to starve to death with his children and grandchildren, a story immortalised by Dante in the Divine Comedy. The Palazzo’s famous clock will be a reminder to the riders of the Giro about what is at stake in the time trial between Lucca and Pisa, measuring out the gains and losses in seconds and minutes.
As we walk to the train station, we reflect on the overlap between these famous places, tourism and cycling. If once travelling on two wheels was a niche phenomenon, today it represents a more conscientious and environmentally friendly form of exploration. It can also help reduce pressure on cultural centres, which are often crowded with tourists, and raise awareness of the surrounding areas, less frequented by the mainstream but equally rich in history and landscapes. One place to explore this transformation in depth is Smile & Ride, which is located right in the station square and offers bicycle rentals and tours.
“The owner and I strongly believe in the importance of promoting what I call alternative Tuscany, less known than Siena or Val d’Orcia,” explains Daniele Pelorossi, a member of the Smile & Ride staff. “To promote Pisa and its region, I designed a 525-kilometre circuit, the Bike Trail Terre di Pisa, which passes through authentic villages and along secondary dirt roads, with practically no traffic.” Pelorossi enthusiastically explains how the project, promoted by the Chamber of Commerce of North-West Tuscany, has given tourists the opportunity to leave the beaten track, enjoy a more immersive experience in the landscape and culture, and show them sights that will elude those who go only by car.
“At the end of April, an annual bike-packing cycling event takes place on the circuit, which passes by Volterra, the Devil’s area with its geysers, San Miniato and Peccioli, designated as the most beautiful village in Italy in 2024,” continues Pelorossi. “The last big challenge on the route is Monte Serra. And by 2026, the route will become permanent and passable at any time of the year, thanks to dedicated signage.”
If once Lucca and Pisa fought over territory and power, this year they find themselves brought together in an event that tells us not only about sport, but also about the changing times in which we live. The Giro d’Italia time trial, with its start and finish in these two cities, is a demonstration of how cycling, on top of sporting rivalry and the cheers of the crowds, can create bonds, break down distances and teach us about ourselves.
