Cycling, Granfondo Via del Sale in Cervia: from Maradona to Merckx, Cassani tells us the secrets

Two splendid routes cross the Romagna in bloom. The first edition on April 6, 1997, a bet launched by Claudio Fantini in Cervia, on the sea, on the beach. It all started with a family bathroom, and in the space of a few years the way of understanding sport with a view of the sea has been revolutionized. “Going under an umbrella and playing golf or beach volleyball: this beach has turned into an open-air gym”, says Davide Cassani, the former Azzurri coach who opened his club together with Fantini in the winter of 1997. first cycling school right here.

The routes

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Here is the Granfondo Via del Sale in Cervia, which has always taken place on the first Sunday of April, and offers two tracks. The long route of 152 kilometers and 1957 meters in altitude, with the climbs of Montecavallo (8.2 km at 6%) in the Meldola area; Ciola (7 km at 6%), also included in the Nove Colli di Cesenatico route; Montevecchio-Cima Pantani (4 km at 6%) tackled by Borello with the words “Go Marco, Forza Pirata” on the asphalt, and at the top the Cippo which recalls the climber from Romagna; finally that of Paderno/Collinello, above Bertinoro, 4.5 km long. Or you can choose the medium route of 105 kilometers and 964 meters in altitude, with Montecavallo and Paderno/Collinello. Departure and arrival on the seafront Grazia Deledda, the start on Sunday 2 April at 8. But don’t miss the Cervia Cycling Expo, which opens on Friday again on the seafront, an outdoor pole that stretches for a kilometre. Just as among the thousands of enthusiasts at the start there will be Gianni Bugno, the two-time world champion from Monza.

Davide Cassani, what is the Granfondo Via del Sale in Cervia?

“In 1997 Fantini called me. He had just launched the first edition of the Granfondo, he explains these projects to me, our friendship and collaboration begins, here we create my first cycling school, over the years Pantani, Sacchi, Indurain, Merckx have come, and then the Granfondo has always grown more, so as to become one of the most important in Italy. And on 8 October there is also the Granfondo Strade Bianche del Sale, which rediscovers the dirt roads of this area”.

“Look at the view, lift your eyes from the road. You pass in the park of the Salina di Cervia, where there are flamingos. And then the Castle of Teodorano, a small village. Or the Ciola ascent, the same as the Nove Colli, to be climbed among the flowering trees”.

Fantini also organizes the Ironman in Cervia in September.

“Claudio is a volcano of ideas. He inherited the family bathroom, and it all started from the Fantini Club beach in Cervia. He brought beach volleyball to Italy, organized the first competitions, enlivened our beaches, he was a true innovator: he created a beach volleyball stadium, even Maradona came to play beach soccer with him. The sports beach, volleyball, basketball players, cyclists, now the Ironman and golf too. A gym on the beach, where you can play any type of sport, there’s any type of pitch”.

How is the Granfondo route?

“Easy at the beginning and at the end, the wind is always against you, in the morning and in the afternoon. The landscape is very beautiful, after the plain there are the hills of Romagna, which are the same as those of the Nove Colli, with the difference that here you go less inland because the route is shorter. But this isn’t just a Granfondo: it’s one of the innovations of a seafarer who changed the tourist aspect of this area of ​​Romagna. His logo is Sportur, sport and tourism: he has put that passion for sport into it, uniting the sea, the beach and Cervia with sport. In his bathroom you can breathe all of this ”.