1999 World Road Cycling Championships
Veneto, Italy ~ October 4-10, 1999
by Alan K. Kamada, The Spin Cycle European correspondent (click on pics to enlarge)

These are some of the notes recorded when a select few, the water carriers of the Capital Cycling Club, ventured to Italy last Fall for some riding, race watching, and good food and wine.  Our homebase was the famous Italian Cycling Center in Borso del Grappa, nestled at the foot of a 3-hour Dolomite climb known as Monte Grappa.  The unsung heroes of CCC included Kevin and Phoebe Coggins, Jeff and Roxane Roberts, Mike Lynch, Cynthia Wagner, and Jerry Johnson.

Elite Women’s Time Trial
We arrived in Treviso just in time to see the first competitors approach the finish of the women’s time trial.  Each rider was escorted by motorcycles and support cars.  After watching a few riders roll by, we walked down to the finish line.  Until this point there weren’t many spectators, but at the finish in the center of town there were plenty of fans.  Paola Pezzo, of mountain biking fame, was clearly the home crowd favorite.  The start at Piazza Duomo and finish at Piazza dei Signori were exactly the same as for the Giro earlier in the year; the first kilometer or so out of the old city center or centro was on small cobblestones.  Behind the finish line we saw the racers as they made their way to their support crews after completing their rides.  Boy, did some of them look wasted!  Cruising up the course a bit we saw that the Devil, of Tour de France fame, was in attendance and despite his rude aroma he was quite popular with the fans.  The winner of the 25.8km event was Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel from the Netherlands, who successfully defended her title with a winning time of 32:31.

Elite Men’s Time Trial
Today we rode to the course.  Once we got away from the towns and busy roads it was a pleasant ride through the countryside.  Along the way April, the day’s ride leader, provided some interesting details about the history of the area.  For example, the Montello was apparently the site of some vicious battles during World War I.  It is now a popular area for mushroom hunting, and it is said that the mushrooms are nourished by the bones of the dead.  Yummy!  It was about 20-25miles from Borso del Grappa to the course.  Along the way the climb at Montello, while pretty short, was actually fairly steep. ( Montello was also the site of the '85 Worlds where a young Greg LeMond experienced one of his most bitter defeats.)  We arrived early enough that we had time to have a nice lunch at a small nearby restaurant before the riders came through (The sweetest Osso Bucco ever.. the resturant was on their own time and were not prepared for the chaos of this day).  Back along the race route there were lots of fans lining the road, approximately halfway through the course at the 27km mark.  We were in the middle of nowhere and the spectators were several deep.  Prior to any action the locals kept things pretty animated, bickering about politics and what not.  In one heated argument a guy was literally shaking a stick at another - very entertaining!  
We saw all the racers come through, from the first little-known cyclists to the big names like Chris Boardman, Alex Zulle, Jan Ullrich, and Sergei Gontchar.  Motorcycles and other vehicles preceded the riders and the cheers of fans down the course signaled their imminent approach.  The last few were accompanied by a helicopter overhead, presumably for the RAITRE or Eurosport television cameras.  The top competitors came through pretty fast, especially considering the climb.  Out along the roadside, we had no indication of times or who was leading.  It turned out that newly crowned Vuelta-champ Ullrich was the eventual winner in a time of 1:00:28 for the 50.8km.  After the race it was complete chaos as everyone left the area: pedestrians, riders, and cars were everywhere and going in every direction.

Elite Women’s Road Race
The Junior Men’s road race was held on the morning of the Elite Women’s race, and we arrived in fair Verona in time to see the last few laps.  Local boy Damiano Cunego won in a solo break, securing Italy’s second gold medal of these championships (the first was in the Under 23 road race, a race Italy has won for the past 3 years).  After grabbing a bite to eat and picking up some souvenirs, we walked around the course and made our way to the team tents where we saw the Americans and all the others warming up.  The tension before the start must have been incredible.  As the riders were called to the line there were numerous motorcycles on the course, engines revving, and several helicopters above.  Finally they were off and the 150 or so cyclists were chasing about two dozen Moto Guzzis through the narrow, twisty, cobblestone streets of Verona, followed by about 30 team cars and support vehicles and watched overhead by a couple of helicopters.  Since the course took the riders out of town, it was now time for some sightseeing.  
The enormous Piazza Bra is lined with cafes and shops on one side and bordered by a well-preserved Roman arena on another.  Along the pedestrian-only corso to Piazza Erbe are more upscale shops.  Finally you end up in the piazza, where they say a market has stood for 2000 years, surrounded by beautiful frescoed buildings.  On our way back to the race route were yet more shops, the Casa di Giulietta (of Romeo and Juliet fame), and some Roman excavations beneath the streets.  Back at the course we watched as the riders raced along the old city wall and through a portal, then disappear up the road.  A nice touch was the loudspeakers at various places, allowing us hear the race announcers doing their thing in French and English in addition to Italian.
After several laps we retreated to a nearby bar and watched the conclusion of the race on television.  The Lithuanian team was strong, and worked over the remaining Italians and other chasers with repeated attacks on the final lap.  Edita Pucinskaite, winner of this year’s Grand Boucle, got away for good over the Toricelle climb and won the 114km, 7-lap race (it was one lap more than scheduled) handily in a time of 2:59:49, much to the delight of her happy fans.

Elite Men’s Road Race
The finale of the championships began as a cool, foggy morning but warmed to a beautiful Fall day in the Veneto.  We got to the course early to see the racers at the team tents.  Not long after our arrival the squadra azzurri bus pulled in accompanied by the cheers of the tifosi.  However, it was the Dutch fans that were the most enthusiastic with their loud cheering and singing; they even brought bullhorns, drums, and a band!  The event staff was trying to clear the area of spectators, but as no carabinieri or weapons were involved we did our best to elude them.  We saw all the big names up close, including the Americans, who were warming up, eating their energy foods, getting massages, and just hanging out before the race.  We also had seen some guys named Miguel Indurain, Eddy Merckx, Francesco Moser, and Bernard Hinault in the crowds.  What was a little surprising was that despite professional care, the bikes were remarkably beat up after a season of racing.
The race today was long, 16 laps of the 16+km course, and much of our time was spent roaming through Verona again.  The city center is fairly small as the Adige River limited growth.  Unlike in the centro, the course was not barricaded on the other side.  There were a couple of nice bike shops, but as this was Sunday and everything was closed, all we could do was drool in the windows.  Across the Adige was where the fan clubs of Italian strongmen Mirko Celestino, Andrea Tafi, Davide Rebellin, Gianni Faresin, and Daniele Nardello were doing the Italian equivalent of tailgating.  Unfortunately, none of these heroes would figure into the final equation today.  Yesterday worked out so well we did the same today: watched the early part of the race, cruised the town, saw the riders periodically as they passed by, and caught the rest of the race including the finish on television in a bar.  The pack of over 170 riders and the trail of cars speeding along (fast!) were impressive.  This led to a remarkable number of dropouts from this 260km marathon; only 65 competitors were left on the final lap with just 49 finishing.  As the race neared completion fans in the smoky bar became more and more excited, cheering on their favorites in a variety of native tongues.
In the end the winner would come from a break made up of American Chann McRae, Frenchman and former Postie Jean-Cyril Robin, the newly crowned TT world champ Jan Ullrich of Germany, Belgian favorite Frank Vandenbroucke, defending champ Oscar Camenzind and Marcus Zberg of Switzerland, unknown Oscar Freire Gomez from Spain, Dmitri Konyshev of Russia, and Francesco Casagrande of the host country.  McRae, whose name the TV announcers didn’t know (they kept calling him “Americano”), led the pack wide through the final turn and then slowed to let the other riders come around.  Nobody did, except Freire, who jumped away 500m from the finish in an apparent suicide move that was ultimately and wildly successful in winning the 1999 world championship.  Due to injury it was only his 11th race of the year with no wins!  Freire’s move was so impressive, or the others riders thought so little of his ability, that he won, arms raised in victory, by 4 seconds (6:19:29).  And it left the fans in the bar stunned in silence and, in some cases, disappointment.
At the USA team tent after the race, Chann McRae was being interviewed by VeloNews.  While his 5th place was highly respectable and a strong finish to a successful season, he was clearly disappointed.  He said he had targeted this race based on his fitness at the end of the year, but to his credit he did a lot of work chasing down attempted breaks during the last lap.  Chann said he thought Vandenbroucke was the man to watch (like just about everyone else), but when the Belgian didn’t get away at the Toricelle he knew it wasn’t to be VDB’s day (especially after an earlier crash).  Instead he marked Ullrich out of the final turn, but by then it was too late.  McRae said he knew nothing of the new world champion, didn’t even know if he rode in the Vuelta (he didn’t).  So in the end it was a relative unknown surprise winner (although a silver medalist in the Under 23 race at the 1997 Worlds) and Spain upstaging the other nations in the showcase event of the 1999 World Championships in Verona.

Epilogue
        Obviously, this trip was more that just watching bike races.  We spent plenty of time meeting people at the Italian Cycling Center (Mari Holden’s parents, old friends from Serotta and prior trips, and ICC regulars from all over the world and nearby- including Greensboro!), sightseeing, eating great food, drinking prosecco, drinking wine, drinking grappa, and, of course, riding bikes.  Did I mention drinking wine?  Venice was just a short train ride away and was definitely worth seeing, as was Verona, which everyone agreed was one very cool city (even without bike races).  Nearby Bassano del Grappa, while fairly small, was as picturesque as any Italian town with its old city center and ancient bridge across the Brenta River.  Sneaking in and riding our bikes on the velodrome that was home to the 1985 World Track Championships was something to remember.  And we also had the opportunity to visit the Scapin, Duegi, and Giessegi factories, and engaged in that endless and continual search for Italian bike shops.  Everyone brought back plenty of memories and several new jerseys.  Don’t be surprised if sometime, somewhere in the peloton, one of us utters a Georgism.  Ciao!