It is not the first time of these intrusions: from Pantani’s cat in Maiori 26 years ago, to the cows in a group at the 2015 Tour
In the beginning it was Chiunzi’s cat. But as a group they entered – always running – dogs, horses, cows, even koalas. Remco Evenepoel is not the first champion to have to deal with an undue intrusion during the race. Also because it seems that the animals enter with outstretched legs, knowing exactly where to strike: this time out of 160 runners and one dog went to catch the world champion, not camouflaged enough, with that designer black cape in the colors of the rainbow. Twenty-six years ago, still in these parts, a cat who went down in cycling history chose Marco Pantani above all. That maybe he would have won his first Giro a year earlier, if bad luck hadn’t manifested itself in a feline form. A white cat, according to the first chronicles of the time. Black, according to the legend that was later handed down for obvious reasons. Grey, as Pantani himself described it and as it is probable that it really was. In any case inappropriate.