Marco Saligari – The Commisar's Report

Behind the wheel
Photo: © Tim Maloney

Marco Saligari was a pro for 12 years, where he earned the nickname “Il Commisario” for his ability to astutely read a race and provide leadership on the road for his team-mates. Since the beginning of this year Marco has been the director of sport for Colnago-Landbouwkrediet, a squad of 23 riders, most of whom are “neoprofessionisti” or young riders. Saligari will be writing a column this year for Cyclingnews.com

Index to Marco Saligari diary entries

Philadelphia & Freedom

June 14, 2002

I'm sending this to you from America, where our Colnago-Landbouwkredit just completed the First Union Week of races in Philadelphia. These are excellent events, especially the First Union USPRO Championships we raced last Sunday. The quality of this race is just like a European World Cup... we were very impressed and hope to come back next year.

The Giro d'Italia is finally over and looking back on last week, we were facing very hard, selective climbs like the Marmolada, the Pordoi, Campolongo, with a finish in Corvara where a lot of our riders just missed elimination crossing the line 20" ahead of the time cut off. That would have been no way to end their Giro!

The second stage in the Dolomiti was similar to the previous day, but it had that tough, terrible 20km climb to Folgaria at the finish. In this stage, our plan was to protect Popovych as he was sitting in a respectable 12th place on GC. I must say that on this stage, we saw the best ride by Popovych of the season so far. Well he wasn't able to drop everybody and take the race lead; that's what Savoldelli did to take the Maglia Rosa from Evans. But what I remember about the stage to Folgaria was seeing Popovych ride better on the toughest day of the Giro, at the end of the third week of racing. In fact, for the first time as a pro rider, Popovych told me he went past his limits on that final climb and finally felt that he had confirmed his status as a professional rider.

Our Colnago-Landbouwkredit riders went through the Giro with a lot of courage and determination, always ready to race in the various situations that came up day after day in one of the most stressful Giros ever. I an honoured to have worked with these guys as their team director in this year's Giro.

Now my wife and daughter and I are off on a one week vacation to discover America!

A prestissimo
Marco