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Basso and Modolo smacked around by protesters!

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Zoncolan said:
They are not harmless.

They were far closer to political irrelevance about 5-10 years ago when they dipped below 5% nationally. Fortunately for them, on this evidence I suspect the Left in Italy lack any political nous and take the bait at any publicity stunts the Lega Nord take part in. No wonder Basso was grinning from ear to ear throughout the protest. Mission accomplished!
 
Apr 1, 2009
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Fergoose said:
No wonder Basso was grinning from ear to ear throughout the protest. Mission accomplished!

Yeah, I didn't really get that smirk? He would make a good politician IMO, has the required qualities.
 
The thing rotting the core of Italy is the politics and the Mafia.

People think Latin American nations are corrupt (and they are) but Italy is pretty much right up there.

Then you got Silvio Berlusconi, who to get back at a specific city that didn't support him cut their trash collecting.

We have seen an assortment of extremely poor candidates who don't have the capabilities to lead this world into the 21st. Century. All we have now is insecurity and echoes of more financial woes coming down the line.

as for the video, unless I missed something, all I saw was a policeman getting slightly grazed by a car. I didn't see any riders getting smacked.
 
Jul 18, 2010
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The UCI should not allow political parties of any stripe to sponsor propaganda events in it's name. Sporting events are supposed to be outside of politics. But letting the Italian equivalent of the Ku Klux Klan sponsor an event is really outrageous.
 
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Berzin said:
as for the video, unless I missed something, all I saw was a policeman getting slightly grazed by a car. I didn't see any riders getting smacked.
1:15-1:17 bottom right of the picture. Grey haired guy in a black T-shirt smacks Modolo and knock his sunglasses off.
Basso meanwhile has that odd smirk on his face and his helmet is slanted to one side, as someone hit him on the head.
 
Fergoose said:
Exactly. Everything has its own time. It’s why mainstream society now regard Paganism & Scientology as objects of ridicule and scorn whilst embracing the religious and spiritual movements that are at their height today.

Should we never hold a bike race in Flanders, Kurdistan, Kosovo, Scotland, Israel, Abkhazia? Geographic locations whose status and identity have been in flux in the past 100 years. What about the Vuelta going back into the Basque country or the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec? I don’t want to look at those cases in turn, rather my point is, there are a bundle of places in the world where you could host a bike race and it’d put somebody’s nose out of joint. That is in no way an argument for not having a bike race.

Politicians always use sport as a way of garnering publicity and support. Should we ban the TdF because Sarkozy uses it as a publicity vehicle (incidentally, another reason to like VdB!). Should we ban the Rugby World Cup because AIDS denier Thabo Mbeki jumped up and down on the podium with the triumphant Springboks?



And how many less would have been aware of it before the overzealous protests of what appeared to be a rather small grouping? The only winner from the protest is the Lega Nord as the protest succeeds on further putting both their bike race, and the concept of Padania, on the map.

The opinion of personalities within the LN towards homosexuals and immigrants is not relevant to this bike race – unless they have replaced intermediate sprints with “chase the North African” bonuses. The LN is a political party with a strong and legitimate democratic mandate spanning near twenty years regardless of your opinion on their policies. They often receive roughly 10-15% of the popular vote in areas they contest and others will know better than me if in 1997 their “Padanian Elections” really had a turnout of 4 million voters.

So yes, they may be lunatics, but they are not a lunatic fringe. They are elected into positions of power and have funds available. How they use those funds is up to them. The Italian people have ample opportunity at regional and national elections to give their verdict on decisions the LN make. The rest of Italy has a duty to respect the democratic process and are free to exercise their right to peaceful protest.

The UCI and (to a much lesser extent) cycling news, have a duty to not base their decisions on political judgements or affiliations.

Finally, the LN wish to separate away from southern Italy, the true hotbed of post fascist thinking (the pre-Fini National Alliance, Alessandra Mussolini etc). So in that respect, the LN could be described as anti-fascist.

So just because they are elected into positions of power, have funds at there disposal, receive all the necessary permits, etc., people shouldn't protest against what is so obviously offensive to many Italians? Something, which, because it is nothing more than a platform for a racist and xenophobic political campaign, should be no cause to stir the waters.

In fact, the very event itself has been meant from the outset as a conscious and direct provocation to the rest of Italy and they, the Lega (and you), complain when the rest of Italy takes offense and returns the favor! The most uncivil of Italian right-wing political factions, which has repeatedly and agressively insulted fellow Italians as well as non-nationals, suddenly is scandalized by the comotion it has caused. What an earth shattering surprise! Whar a perverse irony! While riders like Basso decry "we're just here to race" after being smacked in the head, as if they didn't know what dangerous waters they had voluntarily decided to swim in! Normally this is a case for which one gets what one has asked for.

Then to have a national sport federation legitimize and approve an event run by a bunch of racists is simply deplorable especially in light of Italy's fascist history, even if the stupid riders seem not to have any, absolutely none, consciousness of these facts. None of which applies to the Tour de France, though.

Apart from your callousness being regrettable, you have a depraved ethical and democratic sense deficient in any form of common sense that has quite naturally left me aghast.
 
rhubroma said:
So just because they are elected into positions of power, have funds at there disposal, recieve all the necessary permits, etc., people shouldn't protest against what is so obviously offensive to many Italians?

By all means voice your concerns and protest. What I object to is people using inappropriate tactics including assaulting a rider(s) and jostling with police forces (resulting in one officer almost getting run down) – thereby granting the LN a simple and entirely predictable propaganda coup (“look at the ill-disciplined criminal rabble who oppose us and our civilised & peaceful bike race”).

The mere fact you can even engage in such a protest should tell you a fair bit about the lawfulness of Northern Italy. Try a similar protest at the Tour of Beijing and see what happens to you.
 
Fergoose said:
By all means voice your concerns and protest. What I object to is people using inappropriate tactics including assaulting a rider(s) and jostling with police forces (resulting in one officer almost getting run down) – thereby granting the LN a simple and entirely predictable propaganda coup (“look at the ill-disciplined criminal rabble who oppose us and our civilised & peaceful bike race”).

The mere fact you can even engage in such a protest should tell you a fair bit about the lawfulness of Northern Italy. Try a similar protest at the Tour of Beijing and see what happens to you.

They came to obstruct a race. What would you have had them do? Just stand on the roadside booing while it passes by?

What do you know about Northern Italy? There's no mafia, crime rates are extremely low, the living standard is high. What has taken place is a legitimate attempt to halt an event that is a national disgrace, but for which there is a political and indeed cycling establishment that has actually sanctioned the disgrace. Thus an access to democratic protest was inevitable. There are times when such aggression can only be repaid in kind, but it isn't as if legists or cyclists were being killed so lets not sensationalize, it only plays into the Lega Nord's craven agenda.

So at the Tour or Beijing they would have just sent the army in and opened fire?! :eek:

Perhaps at Beijing, but certainly not in France. And your comparisons are brazenly misplaced.
 
There's no mafia, crime rates are extremely low, the living standard is high.

Careful, you were starting to sound like a Lega Nord political leaflet! :)

That was my point. I’ve relatives in Lombardy and know Northern Italy is a nice place with living standards still the envy of much of Europe. It has somehow managed to maintain this despite being governed by a political group that neutral observers here might consider maniacal tyrants, due to some sensationalist language used in the thread.

so lets not sensationalize, it only plays into the Lega Nord's craven agenda.

Finally, agreement.
 
Fergoose said:
Careful, you were starting to sound like a Lega Nord political leaflet! :)

That was my point. I’ve relatives in Lombardy and know Northern Italy is a nice place with living standards still the envy of much of Europe. It has somehow managed to maintain this despite being governed by a political group that neutral observers here might consider maniacal tyrants, due to some sensationalist language used in the thread.

Finally, agreement.

Apologist!

Actually that Bossi, Calderoli, Maroni and company are basically clowns, who are only dangerous to the rest of Italy fino a un certo punto, means that some may have actually perceived in my remarks that they represent a return to Hitler and the concentration camps. Although I dispelled such illusions from an earlier comentator. While this may be a bit sensationalized it is nonetheless no excuse for the Giro di Padania. With a nation facing the grave economic state of affairs such as Italy is how could any public money, which means Italian tax payers' euro, have been channeled by government through the Lega to the event? While there are no jobs and public services are being cut, we get instead the Giro di Padania! This is what the protesters righteous indignation is all about.

This is not at all surprising, though, in Italy with a prime minister such as Berlusconi, who, amidst the economic crisis that risks sweeping away Italy, the euro, Europe and the world, is locked up in a chamber with his lawyer Ghedini in order to study an anti-interception decree. While the country is going straight to hell, he's preparing another law ad personum. And he has only held on to power, especially after Fini's falling into disgrace, exclusively by the support of the Northern League recently, in exchange for an unjust federalism that will destroy an already annihilated south and, which, in reality, will never come to pass. Just to placate the legist, Italy slips further into chaos and despair.

It is simply indecorous and shameful that the Italian (I repeat I-T-A-L-I-A-N) cycling federation sanctioned this event. And with Italy's fascist past!

Viva il Giro di Padania!
 
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Zinoviev Letter said:
Good to see that the protests are continuing. They successfully disrupted the first two stages, but were held back by the police on stage three. Fortunately, a local Mayor stepped in to disrupt the stage instead, by refusing to allow it into his city.

After approving they would race through the city though, I have to imagine.
Why not refusing to give his permission in the first place?
 
La Canaja said:
After approving they would race through the city though, I have to imagine.
Why not refusing to give his permission in the first place?

I suspect that he was trying to cause maximum disruption and inconvenience to the race. If that's the case, then I applaud him. Alternatively, he may have come under pressure because of the protests and the wider hostility which this wheeled provocation has stirred up.
 
Sep 4, 2011
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Zinoviev Letter said:
I suspect that he was trying to cause maximum disruption and inconvenience to the race. If that's the case, then I applaud him. Alternatively, he may have come under pressure because of the protests and the wider hostility which this wheeled provocation has stirred up.

This way he's not causing any inconvenience to the party leaders who organized the race, which are hopefully the ones he's trying to fight against. Instead, they're getting more and more media coverage.

The only ones he's damagin are the riders, who in most cases have no fault at all.
 
La Canaja said:
This way he's not causing any inconvenience to the party leaders who organized the race, which are hopefully the ones he's trying to fight against. Instead, they're getting more and more media coverage.

The only ones he's damagin are the riders, who in most cases have no fault at all.
It's a bit of a gamble, really. If you disrupt the race, the Lega Nord and the whole concept of Padania get a lot more publicity, but you might prevent it from being organized next year. If you don't do anything to disrupt it, the short-term impact would surely be smaller, but in the long term Padania might become just as "natural" and accepted as Trentino, Veneto or whatever.
 
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How about doing something before, when the race was shaping out? How about putting some pressure on the President of the Republic for instance?

You're not disrupting anything with a bunch of idiots punching the athletes or an attention who.re denying the access to his city. You should have said something at the very beginning, publicly ask that the race was not given the permission to be organized to some national institution.
But now, come on.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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If there was someone I'd suspect of being pro Lega Nord it would be Basso lol. That said, he's friends with Lo squalo dello Stretto di Messina though.

Anyway, well deserved victory for Basso. This will make his less depressed for the coming winter :p
 
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So today somebody put nails on the road. Race organizers tried to clean it but they probably didn't manage to do it perfectly. Luca Mazzanti had an accident because of a punctured tyre during a descent: broken nose and a deep cut close to the jugular.

A rider risked his life. And still people were chanting "Go to work" to the cyclists throughout the whole route. Not soccer players, but cyclists who ride 30k km every year and in most cases are paid as white collar workers.


This has nothing to do with being against the concept of Padania. There were several ways to protest against it before the race took place. But they didn't say a word. They wanted this, a stage where to perform their act in front of a vast media coverage. This is pure violence, something that italian protesters are too familiar with, no matter what the cause is.
 
La Canaja said:
So today somebody put nails on the road. Race organizers tried to clean it but they probably didn't manage to do it perfectly. Luca Mazzanti had an accident because of a punctured tyre during a descent: broken nose and a deep cut close to the jugular.

A rider risked his life. And still people were chanting "Go to work" to the cyclists throughout the whole route. Not soccer players, but cyclists who ride 30k km every year and in most cases are paid as white collar workers.


This has nothing to do with being against the concept of Padania. There were several ways to protest against it before the race took place. But they didn't say a word. They wanted this, a stage where to perform their act in front of a vast media coverage. This is pure violence, something that italian protesters are too familiar with, no matter what the cause is.

Dude, they've thrown nails on the road at the Tour how many times in the workers strikes of the past?

It's called a protest. Read up about them. It's pretty normal. But if the rider did get hurt for this reason, and I won't believe it unless it comes from certain sources, then he will certainly think about his job differently in the future.

Perhaps you have no idea how offensive the party behind the race is to many Italians, but obviously this played no part in the cyclists choice in riding or not. Under the circumstances, however, they were either stupid not to have considered the risks or else willing supporters of the manifistation, in which case there isn't much to feel sorry about.
 

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