Groundbreaking Giro d'Italia director Carmine Castellano dies aged 89

The former Giro d’Italia director Carmine Castellano has died at the age of 89. The Italian was at the helm of the corsa rosa from 1993 to 2005, and he oversaw numerous innovations at the race, including the introduction of the Mortirolo, the Zoncolan and the Colle delle Finestre.

A native of Sorrento, Castellano’s long involvement with the Giro began in the 1970s, when longstanding director Vincenzo Torriani consulted with him on the design of stages in southern Italy.

In 1982, Castellano moved to Milan to work full-time for the Giro organisation, and he would succeed Torriani and become the third director in the race’s history in 1993. Indeed, Castellano had already taken responsibility for the entire course design in 1989, and one of his first calling cards was the addition of the Mortirolo the following year.

Finding new dramatic new ascents was a hallmark of Castellano’s tenure, with the mighty Zoncolan included for the first time in 2003. Castellano’s final Giro in 2005, where he worked alongside his successor Angelo Zomegnan, saw the introduction of the sterrato of the Colle delle Finestre, site of a remarkable denouement as Paolo Savoldelli held off Gilberto Simoni’s late charge.

In his book Mountain High, Daniel Friebe outlines how Castellano first visited the Finestre in 1995, when he and his driver Alberto Della Torre were forced to walk the final kilometres of what the Giro director called “an impassable goat track.”

There were shades of Alphonse Steinès’s legendary reconnaissance of the Tourmalet in 1910 about the endeavour, but Castellano’s idea of bringing dirt roads back to the Giro would come to fruition a decade later. 

That vision would go on to inspire a trend in professional cycling. Strade Bianche is the most obvious example, but ASO, too, would later add gravel to Paris-Tours and even to the Tour de France itself. 

Castellano also helped to create the identity of the 21st century Giro, with the Trofeo Senza Fine first awarded on his watch in 2000, while he also began to mimic the Tour by taking the Grande Partenza outside of Italy more frequently.

In 1996, to honour the centenary of both the Olympic Games and La Gazzettadello Sport, the Giro began in Athens, while Nice hosted the start in 1998 and the 2000 Giro began in the Vatican. 

In 2002, to mark the introduction of Euro, the Giro visited the other founding members of the European Union – the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and France – in the opening days.

Castellano’s time in the lead car also coincided with one of the most turbulent eras in the Giro’s history, with the race dogged by repeated doping scandals. In 1999, Marco Pantani was excluded from the race on the penultimate day due to an elevated haematocrit level. 

The 2001 Giro would grind to a halt when riders went on strike following a police raid in Sanremo following a series of doping cases. Castellano’s diplomacy was essential to ensuring the race would resume and reach Milan, but he understood the Giro’s credibility had been severely damaged. “The Giro has lost an arm, and I have lost a piece of my heart,” he said.

After stepping down as race director, Castellano remained a custodian of the Giro’s heritage, overseeing the publication of the race’s official history and statistics in 2012. On Tuesday, La Gazzetta dello Sportrecalled a quotation from Castellano that could serve as his epitaph: “The Giro is part of Italy’s heritage; I was merely its custodian for a while.” 

He did the state some service.