The Italian National Road Race Championships are held annually. They are a cycling race which decides the Italian cycling champion in the road racing discipline, across several categories of rider. The event was first held in 1906 and was won by Giovanni Cuniolo. At the beginning there were often back-to-back wins from many riders. Costante Girardengo made the remarkable achievement of 9 wins between 1913 and 1925. Perhaps if it were not for the First World War, which blocked the running of the championship for four years, from 1915 until 1918, Constante would have gained additional victories. Despite this, he also holds the record for most consecutive wins, with 7. After his winning streak ended, another Italian cycling legend, Alfredo Binda, won 4 races in a row. Learco Guerra succeeded him with 5 consecutive wins. Since then the event has not been dominated to the same extent, although Fausto Coppi claimed 4 victories. Recent multiple victors have included Giovanni Visconti, Paolo Bettini, Salvatore Commesso, Massimo Podenzana and Gianni Bugno. The current champion is Franco Pellizotti. None of the road champions have also managed to win the time trial race.
Read more about Italian National Road Race Championships: Women
Famous quotes containing the words italian, national, road and/or race:
“The French courage proceeds from vanity—the German from phlegm—the Turkish from fanaticism & opium—the Spanish from pride—the English from coolness—the Dutch from obstinacy—the Russian from insensibility—but the Italian from anger.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Success and failure in our own national economy will hang upon the degree to which we are able to work with races and nations whose social order and whose behavior and attitudes are strange to us.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“With only one life to live we can’t afford to live it only for itself. Somehow we must each for himself, find the way in which we can make our individual lives fit into the pattern of all the lives which surround it. We must establish our own relationships to the whole. And each must do it in his own way, using his own talents, relying on his own integrity and strength, climbing his own road to his own summit.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“I don’t like the idea of the black race being diluted out of existence. I like the idea of all of us being here.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)