Giro d’Italia, who is Francesca Mannori, first woman at Var- Corriere.it

Irregular wakes, illegal towing, water bottles thrown in unauthorized areas, the small and big cunning of a day spent in the saddle, which deserve a reprimand or a fine (in Swiss francs, the currency of cycling). But also the good things, the gestures of solidarity and the ideas that allow us to organize ourselves better to follow a stage: there is the educational aspect, as well as the repressive one, the pioneer is keen to underline.

After being the first president of the jury at the Tour de France last year, Francesca Mannori from Florence, born in 1973, is the first woman in charge of the Var at the Giro, who has already been able to count on the work of Rosella Bonfanti for years as right arm of the director Mauro Vegni. Introduced in 2018, initially for the three grand tours and the five Monuments, then also extended to the women’s World Tour, as in football (the software is the same), the Var was born from the need to control the various aspects of the race more precisely: But a unlike football, which takes place on a delimited perimeter, with a certain duration and fixed rooms, here it is a question of examining a mobile field that moves for hours thanks to 176 runners, not 22 players, plus cars. Seeing everything humanly impossible. Twelve television cameras (5 on motorbikes, 4 at the finish line, 2 helicopters plus live coverage) wait for 21 stages every day for Francesca, director in the Var room located in the TV compound at the Giro (My kingdom), a fundamental member of the judging panel by the Belgian Luc Herpelinck (the president must not be from the country where the race takes place), which includes four other Italians.

How does this story begin? With jurisprudence and the idea of ​​being a magistrate, therefore with a certain passion for the rules – says Mannori at the finish line of yet another soaked stage -. Following my father to the races, where he was a speaker, I fell in love with cycling. I became a regional judge in ’93, national in ’98, international (UCI) in 2010. Presiding over the jury at the Tour was a beautiful achievement, the next point of arrival is the Olympics. Already in Paris 2024? Let’s hope.

Between the jury and the Var, he prefers the former: Because you’re running, in the heart of the action, but the video assistance is also involving me: an important support tool. Depending on what happens, I select the images that interest me, reviewing sprints (the fine with a 20-point penalty in Milan in Tortona, for example, ed) and controversial situations. Without looking anyone in the face: Francesca was on the jury when Elisa Balsamo, as world champion, was disqualified from Roubaix 2022 for prolonged towing of the flagship, so to speak. The rules first.

She didn’t get her degree in law, but she has to do with the application of the rules for work: Mannori is employed in a legal office in Florence that deals with intellectual property, trademarks and patents, cycling is a hobby to be cultivated on holidays, the professionalism of the judges not (yet) foreseen. For the first woman in a man’s world. Never suffered discrimination – he smiles -, I have always felt respect. an activity that I recommend to all: women are loyal, precise, disciplined and pragmatic. Who better than us?