“It will be a big pink party for the whole city and it is to guarantee everyone, adults, but above all children, to participate en masse that I thought it right to sign the order closing all schools, of all levels, for Tuesday 12 May, the day of arrival in Cosenza of the fourth stage of the Giro d’Italia 2026. I expect entire families to participate in this beautiful sporting ritual which has been repeated for 109 years and which has seen Cosenza, for many editions, be the stage, arrival, departure or simple transit location of the pink race”.
Thus Mayor Franz Caruso in a statement in which he expressed his satisfaction with the arrival of the historic pink race in Cosenza where the Giro d’Italia convoy will arrive for the fourth stage (Catanzaro-Cosenza), the first in Italy after the first three stages which will take place in Bulgaria, where the Giro will start on 8 May.
“We are proud of the arrival in Cosenza of the Giro d’Italia, almost 40 years after the last time, in 1989, that our city was the arrival stage – said Mayor Franz Caruso – and we are grateful to the organizers for choosing our city as the first arrival city in Italy of the Giro of the 2026 edition, considering that both the prologue and the first three stages will be run in Bulgaria. Cosenza boasts a good tradition in this sense. History reminds us that the first time that the pink race stopped in Cosenza was in 1929, on the occasion of the Potenza-Cosenza stage and the victory of the legendary Alfredo Binda who repeated the success obtained in our city also in the following stage, the Cosenza-Salerno, and then won the final victory at the Giro in that edition”.
Another historical precedent of the Catanzaro-Cosenza was in 1930. Domenico Piemontesi won it. Other historical stages that touched the city of the Bruzi were in 1949 with the victory of Guido De Santi in the Villa San Giovanni-Cosenza, while in the immediately following stage of that year, the Cosenza-Salerno, it was the champion Fausto Coppi who climbed onto the shields and crossed the finish line victorious. In times not very distant, historians and fans of cycling and the pink race will remember, in 1961, the success of Antonio Suarez Vasquez in the Reggio Calabria-Cosenza, that of Jean Stablinski, in 1967, again at the end of a stage from Reggio Calabria to Cosenza and, in 1972, the victory of the Belgian Roger De Vlaeminck, in the Montesano-Terme-Cosenza (the next stage was the Cosenza-Catanzaro with the victory of the Swede Gosta Petterson). In that year the final victory of the Giro went to the great Belgian champion Eddy Merckx. Roger De Vlaeminck’s success in Cosenza was repeated in 1976 with a sprint finish at the Bruzio finish line at the end of the Reggio Calabria-Cosenza stage. In 1981 it was Moreno Argentin who crossed the finish line in Cosenza victorious in a sprint at the end of the Sala Consilina-Cosenza stage. 5 years later he would become world champion. The Giro is once again in town in 1986 with the arrival of the Nicotera-Cosenza, won by the American Greg Lemond. Another stage of arrival in the city of the Bruzi, in 1989. At the end of the Scilla-Cosenza Rolf Jaermann won. More recent stages, the Cosenza-Matera, in 2013, with the departure from Piazza dei Bruzi. Last stage, but in transit, in 2020, the year of the pandemic, when the Giro passed through Cosenza, for the 103rd edition (the stage was the Mileto-Camigliatello Silano). It all happened not in spring, as is tradition, but on October 7, precisely because of the pandemic.
The school closure order
Mayor Franz Caruso has ordered, with his own ordinance, on the occasion of the arrival in Cosenza of the Giro d’Italia, the closure, on Tuesday 12 May, of all educational institutions, of all levels, public, private and equal: nursery schools, primary schools, first and second level secondary schools, including nursery schools, and the “Stanislao Giacomantonio” Conservatory of Music. The mayor’s ordinance provides for the possibility for school directors and the director of the Music Conservatory to evaluate the opening of their institutes to authorize the carrying out of competition activities and/or projects scheduled on the same day of May 12th and relating to extra-curricular activities.
“The Giro d’Italia – it is underlined in the Mayor’s provision – constitutes a sporting event of international importance capable of generating significant effects in terms of promoting the image of the city, valorisation of the territory, tourist attractiveness and economic spin-offs. For the realization of the event, the Municipality is directly involved, for a complex series of organisational, logistical, traffic, safety, assistance, decoration, set-up, technical support and promotion activities. In particular – the ordinance further explains – they are among the obligations of the Authority the support for the technical coordination of the event, the management of traffic and road closures, the involvement of the Municipal Police and civil protection services, the adoption of safety and security measures, the cleaning of the areas involved, the urban decoration, as well as the preparation of the necessary services and authorizations. Furthermore, during the two days connected to the event, the 11th of May for the preparation phase, the 12th for the carrying out of the event, a significant criticality for vehicular traffic is foreseeable. will affect the city. The foreseeable influx of public, the measures connected to the management of the “safety and security” measures of the event, the closure of the sections of the city route involved, will obstruct or, for some sections, completely prevent ordinary vehicular circulation and the reaching of the city schools”.