Cycling, Cassani: “Points on the route of the Dieci Colli, how sad”. Larghetti: “Criminals and cowards”

BOLOGNA – Still pins in Val di Zena, to damage cyclists. This time to report what happened is Davide Cassani, former coach of the Italian men’s national cycling team, and the context is the Granfondo Dieci Colli, a classic of amateur cycling in Bologna. “On the Quinzano climb – he writes – I see Simone Velasco”, a professional racer, “stopped on the side of the road. Puncture. After a few minutes he passes me at double speed but at the top I find him stopped due to a second flat tyre. And like him many other participants. It is the second time – he adds – that the pins are thrown in Val di Zena and the author of this gesture, perhaps he does not know that in doing so he has jeopardized the safety of hundreds of people. How sad”. A similar episode happened last June during the Val di Zena bike day. And next Sunday, May 7, we will return to Val di Zena for the first of four cycling Sundays in the Bologna area, between the Apennines and the plains.

Fortunately, nobody was injured. But there is so much anger in the bicycle world. “The road belongs to all people, the highway code describes it as the place where vehicles, people and animals circulate. The intolerant would do well to review the rules and remember that even bicycles are vehicles approved and regulated by the code of the road and have the right to use it with respect for all”, are the words of condemnation by Simona Larghetti, metropolitan councilor with responsibility for cycling mobility and road safety. “Behind these serious criminal episodes there is the idea that some vehicles have less right than others to use the road: certainly the coexistence between different means can be tiring but it must be stated without delay that there are no exclusive rights on the roads by any user. On social networks we can already read disconcerting and inhumane comments that exude hatred and intolerance towards those who use the bike. This mentality must be changed, threats and sabotage qualify those who do them: criminals and cowards”.