From the Giro to the Tour de France. The effort is useless without a singer who creates the legend

Like Giovanna D’Arco, I distinguish in advance the voices that will say loudly in a couple of weeks: “But with these climbs, the Giro d’Italia is much harder than the Tour de France!”. Mind you, this doesn’t mean at all that surprising divination skills have suddenly sprung up in me, the truth is that the same thing happens every year. The phrase punctually winds its way among enthusiasts. It is now a ritual, like the dissolution of the blood of San Gennaro. Too bad the words “But with these climbs the Giro d’Italia is much harder than the Tour de France!” are devoid of any technical foundation, but above all historical and, let’s play this ace, also epistemological. From a technical point of view, the question is resolved with a simple consideration, however raised by an authority, Matthew Tosatto, the sports director of the strongest team in the world: the Ineos Grenadiers. “It is not possible to make this comparison. The Giro is run in spring, the Tour in July, with scorching heat, especially in the south of France. I remember, when I was a runner, the climb to the Col d’Envalira during the Tour. It was mid-July, in the Pyrenees. The climb is quite simple, with small gradients, but with those temperatures I found myself talking face to face with courteous, but to all intents and purposes, imaginary creatures who occasionally sat down on the handlebars of my bicycle”.