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LATEST FEATURES: LIVE FROM LAKE COMO
By Gregor Brown
September 8, 2011
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2008 Giro di Lombardia, Damiano Cunego w/ Lega Nord Party leader Umberto Bossi
(Photo: Yuzuru Sunada)
Cycling has its share of gorilla advertising via fans wishing to push their cause as the race rushes by on television. When the Tour de France reaches the Pyrenees the Basque fly their flags, the races in Belgium see numerous yellow Flemish flags with the black lion and in Italy, it is often the Lega Nord waves.
The funniest gorilla advertising may be the Dirk Hofman Motorhomes sign usually seen in Paris-Roubaix's Arenberg Forest sector. Italy's Lega Nord lacks the same humor as Dirk Hofman, in fact, it is pushing to split Italy and for its own northern separatist state. Its flags, white with a green leaf, are often at Italian races, such as the Giro di Lombardia. Lega Nord's flags filled the background of the photos when Belgian Philippe Gilbert won last year in Como, in Italy's north.
The Lega Nord pushed its way into cycling even further this year via its own five-day stage race, the Giro di Padania. Padania is the name of Italy's Po Valley that stretches from the Alps near Turin to the sea near Venice. Since the 1990s, the Lega Nord used it as the name of its proposed state, covering Italy's northern regions that are mostly above Tuscany.
The race is the idea of Michelino Davico, who is a Lega Nord under-secretary. Alitalia sponsors the leader's jersey, which is colored in Lega Nord's green colors. Attention, though, has been more on Davico's and Lega Nord's politics than the race for the green jersey. Protesters blocked the race and on stage two, slapped several riders.
"It's terrible to mix sports and politics," former cyclist and head of the Association of Professional Cyclists (CPA), Gianni Bugno told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "It seems obvious to me that this race won't continue next year."
'Racism, rigidity'
Italy faces an economic crisis similar to Greece's and is attempting to pass new austerity laws. Lega Nord plays on this tension while it pushes for a northern state without Italy's poorer, southern regions. It is considered a racist group to some considering its views on southern Italians and foreigners working in the north.
Hosting a race, as Bugno said, may have been the wrong way for the Lega Nord to campaign.
Giovanni Visconti races for team Farnese Vini and wears the Italian national colors thanks to his third win in the national championship in June. In a pre-race interview, he reminded Italians of a united country.
"I don't want to get mixed up in the politics, but those who govern needs to forget about racism or rigidity," he told Tuttosport newspaper. "There's no north and south if it's not written on the map."
Supporters of a united Italy blocked the roads on stage two as it travelled through Savona on the Ligurian coast. They waved Italian flags, signs – one reading "Separatist rats, return to your holes" – and some pushed the riders. |
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