Alessandro Petacchi’ slightly untidy stage win in Parma yesterday afternoon means that the Ale-Jet from La Spezia moves up one place in the list of all-time stage winners in the Giro d’Italia. The Lampre-ISD sprinter’s 22nd victory in his home tour means that he rises from eleventh place, which he shared with Franco “Crazy Heart” Bitossi, to ninth, where he joins the legendary Fausto Coppi and Roger “Monsieur Paris-Roubaix” De Vlaeminck.
Clearly this achievement does not elevate Petacchi up to Coppi status for, while he was getting those stage wins, the Campionissimo was also winning five Giros overall. In a career that was truncated by World War II, and a life that was cut short by malaria, Coppi was undisputedly the greatest rider of his generation, is still regarded by many as the greatest ever Italian rider. For many, the long legged Piemontese is greater even than Eddy Merckx; Coppi may not have Merckx’ volume of victories, but when his lost years are taken into account he compares very well.
Il Campionissimo is honoured each year by the “Cima Coppi”, a prize awarded to the first rider over the highest climb in the race.
De Vlaeminck also won his stages while in search of overall victory, unfortunately for the great cobbles specialist though, he never quite made it.
Petacchi just needs one more win in this race to catch up with the great Francesco Moser, who took 23 stages, along with the overall in 1984. Moser was probably the last great Italian all-rounder, capable of taking victories on almost any terrain. As well as his Grand Tour stages he won two editions of the Giro di Lombardia, and his Paris-Roubaix triple between 1978 and 1980 is a feat that only the legendary Octave Lapize had done before, and that was before World War I!
The next rider on the radar is Petacchi’s recently deposed team manager Giuseppe Saronni, who took 24 stages in the late seventies and early eighties. Although his name is currently under a cloud due to his association into an alleged doping ring, the 1982 World champion remains one of Italy’s greatest riders of the period.
Just one up from Saronni is the legendary Eddy Merckx. Like Coppi, the Cannibal took his stages while winning his five overall maglia rosas. An extra three wins would hardly elevate Petacchi to the status of the great Eddy, and it’s almost surprising that the Belgian is not higher up the list; he tops the pile in stage wins at the Tour de France.
The sport has changed since Eddy’s day though, with overall classification riders less willing to mix it in the front of the peloton.
Should Petacchi catch up with Merckx the next rider on the list would be the original Campionissimo Constante Girardengo, who won a total of 30 stages either side of World War I; it’s probably a bit too much to expect the 37-year-old to take eight more stages though, as the days when he could take nine stages in the race are far behind him.
Like Merckx, Girardengo, the great champion from Novi Ligure, Piemonte, was an all round rider, who won the overall Giro twice, in 1919 and 1923. He also won Milano-Sanremo six times, a record only topped by Merckx’ seven; Petacchi has just one victory in la Primavera to his name.
In the unlikely event of Petacchi managing to overhaul Girardengo’s total in the few remaining years of his career, his next target would be another inter-war legend in Learco Guerra, who has 31. Known as "la Locomotiva Umana" (the Human Locomotive), Guerra is at least a little comparable to Petacchi in that he was a flat stage specialist. He too won the Giro too though, unlike Petacchi, taking an incredible ten stages on his way to the 1934 race; all this in a career that straddled those of Alfredo Binda and Gino Bartali.
Should the Ale-Jet be able to overtake the Locomotive though, the legendary Binda will be the next man on the list, and his total of 41 wins is surely out of reach. Binda, from Cittiglio, just west of Varese, was arguably Italy’s first great cycling superstar; he was the first man to win five Giros; a total that’s been matched but never beaten.
On his way to victory in the 1927 race Binda took an incredible twelve of the fifteen stages on offer and, such was his dominance of the event he was actually paid not to turn up in 1930. After his retirement, Binda went on to coach his two great successors in Bartali and Coppi.
Mario Cipollini is the man who sits on top of the Giro stage winners’ tree, the Re Leone finally beating Binda’s record in 2003. Even the great Super Mario had the humility to admit that he was not in Binda’s class though, but his total of 42 victories reflect the changes that the sport has undergone since the great man’s day.
Petacchi is the closest rider in the current peloton to Cipollini’s total but at the age of 37, it’s a big ask for him to take another 20 stages. RadioShack’s Robbie McEwen is the next nearest with 12, and so if the record is ever to be beaten, and it may never be, it’s likely that the rider in question has yet to start his Giro career; yesterday’s runner up Mark Cavendish currently has five.
Without controversy he would be higher
Petacchi’s win count now stands at 22, but, were it not for the controversy of his 2007 salbutamol positive, it would be higher. Despite only serving a ban of a few months, the Ale-Jet’s results in that year’s Giro were retrospectively erased, costing him the five victories that would have meant that he was catching up with Girardeno today instead of joining Coppi.
Cipollini and Binda would still likely be out of his reach, although that suspension meant that he missed the 2008 race, and his transfer to the smaller LPR Brakes team may have cost him the team support needed to take stages, but without the over-use of asthma medication Petacchi would be higher up the list.