A dinner with the italians

Le 1er octobre, The Canadian Cyclist annonçait la mise en vente de billes pour LE party des Championnats du monde. Party with the Azzurri! This is probably going to be the party at the Worlds - a chance to have dinner with the Italian team! Organized by Giuseppi Ferrara, one of the initial founders of the Hamilton Worlds, the team will be having dinner at Liuna Station, the refurbished Hamilton train station on James Street. Ferrara says that the entire Italian team will be there including, yes, outgoing world champion Mario Cipollini and this year's favourite Paolo Bettini. The party takes place Monday, October 6th, starting at 6:30 pm. The cost is $75 per person, and includes a superb buffet dinner. There are only a limited number of tickets available, and you must book by Midnight (EDT) Sunday, October 5th. To reserve your tickets, click here. Mais les choses ne se sont pas passées exactement comme bien des fans l'avaient prévu. Et certains se sont exprimés sur le FORUM de The Canadian Cyclist.

Dinner with the italians
October 6, 2003 at 21:49

From the Editor: I have removed this extremely nasty post. Yes, there was a problem with the Azzurri dinner, which Giuseppi Ferrara explained to the participants: the Italian team plane arrived late (3 hours). The riders went to the hotel finally, and then the bus that was to bring them to the dinner disappeared, so vehicles had to be sent to get them. The original plan was that the team would arrive before the party and have a quiet meal in a separate room before joining the guests as they ate dinner.

This did not happen as planned, obviously. The team arrived and had dinner in the private room (they had a menu planned specifically for the riders). Giuseppi came out and explained this, and said that the riders would come in to see the fans once they had finished eating. The riders did come in, were introduced, circulated, signed autographs, posed for pictures, etc. They then went back into the private room to finish their meal before heading back to their hotel.

There was nobody but the Italian team and their people in that room - I couldn't get in, neither could Curt Harnett for CBC. Paolo Bettini came out for an interview, and so did other riders such as Dario Frigo, Francesco Casagrande and team manager Franco Ballerini. Some of them spent 30-40 minutes with the fans (after flying for 8 hours - by the time they ate, it was past 1 am Italian time).

If you are disappointed, that is something that you should discuss with Giuseppi, he is very reasonable. I believe that some people went in with unrealistic expectations of spending hours with the Italians - this never happens, especially when they are just arriving and preparing for the biggest race of the year. Most of the people, from what I saw, understood the situation, had a good meal and cycling talk, and then had time to meet some of the top cyclists face to face, which was exactly what they were hoping for.

So, if you are unhappy, that's fine, but we will not tolerate the nastiness that was posted here originally.

October 7, 2003 at 7:40

You make me laugh/sick. The point I'm trying to make is that the organizers of the dinner sold the ticket telling people that they would eat with the team. Not in the same building but in the same room. I/we would have understood that they need their time and space to eat and I/we would have left them alone to do so.

You don't sell dinner ticket to eat with the team and then sit them in a room off to the side with only the v.i.p's. Guiseppe had no intention of having the team eat with us. The room seats 1000 people and there were no tables set for the team. A friend of mine is from the same town as one of the racers (in Italy) and when that racer saw him in the hall he gestered to him to come in and join him for amoment. When my friend (a 70+ year old man) went to enter the room, he was stopped at the door by none other then Guiseppe. The only reason why he (my friend) went to the dinner was to say hi to that rider.

When I see Guiseppe, I will tell him "AGAIN" that the dinner was wrong. I'm sure the team director at least could have ate with us. I mean lets not forget that these guys fly first class and sleep the whole flight. I'm sure they don't fly coach.

Next time sell your cycling dinner tickets to some other suckers.

P.S. It was sad, but nice to see Curt in the same room with the rest of us suckers. A World Champ, but obviously not a friend of Guiseppe.

October 7, 2003 at 8:51

I hope my ticket to watch the race on Sunday is not set in a bar watching on t.v. Lets hope I can stand on the side of the road.

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