Among white roads and flowering vineyards of Montalcino, Mauro Schmid wins the “Brunello Wine Stage”

A tale of the most beautiful, popular and authentic Italy, that of the territories of wine and cycling, symbols of the soul of the Belpaese: the Giro d’Italia, which today in Montalcino experienced the “Brunello Wine Stage”, which started from Perugia, to arrive in the land of one of the greatest wines in the world, passing through the white roads surrounded by the beauty of the vineyards already in bloom, told to 780 million people connected from all over the world not only the breathtaking victory of the Swiss Mauro Schmid (Team Qhubeka ASSOS), who wrote an immortal page of cycling, but also of a territory that is the symbol of the best of made in Italy, of the Italian beauty made of history, architecture, agriculture and landscapes designed by man. This is the sense of the Giro d’Italia and of the “Wine Stages”, a well-established format (which over the years has turned the spotlight on Barolo and Barbaresco, on the Langhe, on Chianti Classico, on Montefalco, land of Sagrantino, and then on Franciacorta, passing through the Romagna of Sangiovese or the Prosecco Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene) and increasingly dear to the Giro d'Italia, which this year, more than ever, is also a symbol of restart and relaunch. The pink caravan, leaving from Perugia, after 163 kilometers and the final 35, epic, on the “white roads”, which made the selection, saw the champions of the two wheels compete on the Via Francigena, in the footsteps of the ancient pilgrims towards the millenary Abbey of Sant’Antimo, among the vineyards of Montalcino, founded by Emperor Charlemagne. A stage that, beyond the sporting feat, gave life, once again, to a story that fascinated the world, in an example of storytelling in which cycling, which is the sport most tied to the territories and is made of the deeds of men, in a game of parts, is a perfect reporter. A strong union, the one between wine and cycling, as recalled to WineNews by the vice-director of “La Gazzetta dello Sport”, Pier Bergonzi: “it’s no coincidence that Italy and France, the two most important countries for cycling, are also important for wine”. An event, the Giro d’Italia, capable of telling like no one else, to a very wide audience, the great wine territories, such as Brunello, as underlined by the director of WineNews, Alessandro Regoli, in a video on “La Gazzetta dello Sport”: “the image of the most beautiful Italy, true and popular as a bottle and a bicycle are”. A story, the one of the Giro, which interweaves wine to cycling which, in days like this one, would have said that great narrator of sports and wine and food who was Gianni Mura, “brings back the church to the center of the village and the runner to the center of the race”, and “is to be eaten and drunk”. “Wine and cycling are the result of men’s deeds. In both cases they represent a concentration of patience, talent and hard work”, said the president of the Consorzio del Brunello di Montalcino, partner of the “Brunello Wine Stage”, Fabrizio Bindocci. On the day of a stage of the Giro d’Italia that told the world about the beauty of Montalcino and of the Italy of wine.