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Gran Fondo BGY and the odd couple of planes and bikes

The Gran Fondo BGY cycling event promotes the culture of cycling and enhances Bergamo's tourism potential, thanks to collaboration with the airport

3 April 2025

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5' min read

An Iata code in the title of a cycling event had never been seen before. In its originality, however, it has nothing to do with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. The juxtaposition, which may seem strange at first, creates an interesting and far from dramatic contrast. Bergamo and its international stopover, in fact, are betting more and more on cycling with the Gran Fondo BGY, an event that is both traditional and innovative at the same time, scheduled for Sunday 4 May 2025.

The event has a twofold objective. On the one hand, to make the passion of amateurs for strenuous and challenging routes survive and thrive. On the other, to spread the culture of cycling in the city, enhancing its tourist potential with concrete initiatives.

The recipe is ambitious and aims at qualifying the area with its multiple access possibilities and uniting it in a very unusual combination for Europe, planes and bicycles.

It is not an American-style 'fly'n bike' practised in the world of aeroclubs or little more, known and minimally organised only for the benefit of general aviation users, often with their own means. Here, the idea is more structured, which is why the management company of Bergamo Airport has bet as title sponsor on the cartel event in the cycling sector in its area for the past three years. The aim is to use the promotion to enhance the work done: to make an international civil airport capable of welcoming cycle tourists and cyclists. This is thanks to state-of-the-art services and organised routes to explore the city and its surroundings in an organised and efficient manner.

This is a first: the world of civil aviation supporting an event that was born to compete but is increasingly becoming a catalyst for tourism, as the Marathon dles Dolomites and other Alpine counterparts in particular teach us, can only become a case study of urgent analysis for the rest of the almost forty or so similar structures in Italy. And there is no shortage of opportunities to push cycling mobility also with its messages to the population: 'pedal and let pedal' is the claim of an awareness-raising advertising campaign referring to this event, which appears as of now on a bus of the Azienda Trasporti Bergamo.

A story to preserve

Firstly, the organisers have focused on not losing the charm and legacy of a traditional, even historic event: we are talking about the 27th edition of one of the most historic gran fondo in Italy, born in a golden age when events were dedicated to great champions. Since then it has counted over 92,000 participants. It is no coincidence that this one was named after the man who, together with the current organiser, Giuseppe Manenti, had brought it into being and made it grow: we are talking about Felice Gimondi, who passed away in 2019, an iconic figure of Italian cycling, an unforgettable Orobico champion of narrow wheels. The great winner of Giro, Tour and numerous classic races had proposed his favourite climbs in the Bergamasque Valleys to a then growing public of amateurs who loved to gather with their racing bikes to compete in 'cyclopolitan' events of European significance.

Three paths, less agonism and more inclusion

Today, the landscape has changed. The number of events and participants is in sharp decline, a phenomenon accentuated by Covid but which had already begun in previous years. Gran Fondo is a shrinking sector, which suffers from significant public disaffection because many participants have become fed up with the overly extreme races themselves, particularly by numerous former or failed professionals who usually immediately push the bulk of the participants 'out of the race'. Many 'quieter' users therefore find themselves back in traffic all too soon, and, given the general lack of sensitivity of administrations and police forces in stopping vehicles for long periods for a cycling event other than the Giro d'Italia, many cyclists abandon competitive events.

For these reasons, the organisers of this event have also found arguments to react to this now unstoppable trend. To suit different physical abilities, three routes are planned: 89.4 km, 128.8 km and 162.1 km. The most demanding includes seven climbs, with over 3,000 metres of altitude difference. But what is most important is that we have admitted non-competitive participants, satisfying the desire of many to experience a sporting adventure together with friends, in the joy of the group, without the stress of performance and also with the help of pedal assistance: moreover, a rare feature in this type of event, as many as 71 of the initial kilometres are common to all routes.

The organisers also chose to particularly welcome women, who were offered free registration on 8 March. As for foreigners, the numbers are growing steadily, as they are attracted by the ease of reaching the starting village with their own legs directly from Orio al Serio airport.

Multimodality: from plane or train to bike

Innovation at the airport began in 2021 with the certification as a 'bike-friendly company'. A change that has involved 4,000 employees of the airport and related companies. A European record recognised as the first enterprise of its kind by Fiab. The idea is to close the ring of intermodality, 'one of the fundamental themes on which Europe is concentrating its efforts', explains Giovanni Sanga, president of Sacbo's board of directors. "From Orio al Serio we will be able to use not only the plane by 2026, but also the train, not forgetting the motorway toll booth two kilometres away as the crow flies. And to valorise cycling for employees on their way to work. An initiative that is part of a corporate commitment and an opportunity to promote the sporty use of bicycles along the many cycle paths that criss-cross the Bergamo area, connecting to wider contexts. For example, we have the Bergamo-Brescia link and other projects such as the Munich-Milan cycle path. Today, cycling is no longer a tourist niche, but has become a widespread and articulated reality. In addition, we have laid the foundation stone for a new hotel near the P3 car park, where rooms will be equipped to store bicycles and other valuables for fans of the sport'.

Not only gran fondo

Proof of the validity of the Bergamo area for the development of the bicycle as a means of urban transport and a tool for tourism is also the proliferation of activities rooted in spring. Proof of this is Bike Up, scheduled to take place next week, from 11 to 13 April, which is in its sixth edition in Bergamo: this is the Italian event dedicated to e-bike testing in both urban and extra-urban contexts, which combines testing with the discovery of the territory. And speaking of the cycle paths that are needed, what is the busiest production site in the province: also to highlight the strength of the bike and the far-sighted vision that the airport has put into it, on the evening of 12 April, in the moonlight, the historic A.ri.bi. (Associazione per il Rilancio della Bicicletta - Association for the Relaunch of the Bicycle) proposes a night-time bicycle ride to promote bicycle safety, starting from the city and going around the perimeter of the entire facility.