Giro d'Italia, Nico Denz's victory shows that cycling takes inspiration from the soul of a place

It was Count Francesco Teodoro Arese Lucini who told the painter Francesco Hayez that there is always a spirited air in Cesano Maderno and that to change things that do not change it is best to make a move. His ancestors had bought that place of a few thousand souls, all of them bold, centuries before and had had to compromise several times to avoid finding themselves with their possessions on fire and them in their underwear. They were still the descendants of those who had revolted against the nuns of the monastery of Aurona because they found it unbearable that they were imposing half of their harvest on them. They burned everything. Not just the monastery. They were still the same ones who, armed with pitchforks, sticks and slingshots armed with wooden projectiles covered in pitch to set fire to, had lined up in front of the Arese-Borromeo palace because they found the taxes excessive. That time they did not smash everything up only because Count Renato II decided to negotiate. And it was no coincidence that the revolt against the Habsburg Empire, for which Francesco Teodoro himself was condemned to death, started right from Cesano Maderno .

There is no sport like cycling that is capable of taking inspiration from the soul of a place.

Towards Cesano Maderno, in the 18th stage of the Giro d'Italia 2025 , a large group of daring riders escaped from the group to avoid the stage ending as it could have ended: with a sprint between sprinters. Among them there were also some sprinters, those capable of immediately sniffing out the rebellious spirit of the places they are pedaling towards.

In Cesano Maderno the first to arrive under the finish line banner was Nico Denz , someone who experiences cycling as a revolt , always on the attack and who when given the chance to revolt is always the first to get in the way.

In solidarity with the riders who run the Giro d'Italia , here we decided to tell the stages of the Giro d'Italia doing their same hard work: a letter per meter of altitude difference. Here is the story of the eighteenth stage, the Morbegno-Cesano Maderno, 144 kilometers and 1,800 meters of altitude difference, in 1,800 characters (spaces included).

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