Entries for the 2024 Moto Giro d’Italia are now open and anyone thinking of taking part is urged to register as soon as possible. For the 2023 event, the maximum number of 200 entrants was reached by December 2022 when a waiting list was started.
The Moto Giro d’Italia is a historical re-enactment of the oldest and most prestigious Italian motorcycle race, the Circuito d’Italia. That event was first run in 1914 and peaked in the years between 1953 and 1957 when all road races in Italy were abolished after a terrible accident at the Mille Miglia.
The 2024 Moto Giro d’Italia will be the 33rd re-enactment and will run over 19-25 May 2024. There’s another reason for entering early. A discount will be given to the first 80 entries received – this offer closes on 30 September 2023.
The 2024 event sounds fantastic from what the organisers, the Moto Club Terni, have said so far and there’s a new preference for historic vehicles, with a scoring system that rewards older motorcycles.
“Our planned programme for the next edition will see us cover many of the roads that were the subject of a large part of the original routes and stage venues of the 1950s,” said the organisers.
“In 2024 these historic stage venues will include Bologna, from where the Start and Finish were made at the time, Parma, Alessandria, and Viareggio, which were also the subject of the historic stage venues.”
The route crosses some of Italy’s most enticing regions including Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, Liguria and Tuscany.
“The route will wind through valleys, plains, hills, mountains, and the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea,” continued the organisers.
“There will be visits to unique museums and ‘World Brand’ industries.
The entire 2024 route will pass through cities that are among the best known in the world for their beauty, history and culture, and are fully part of the ‘Made in Italy’ world brand.”
However, they also point out that both the route and the dates must be approved by the Italian Motorcycle Federation, and consequently the programme may be subject to change.
Some comments from 2023 riders
Bernt ‘Velocette’ Sannwald: Thank all of you for another splendid 2023 event. It was again wonderfully organised and Tuscany showed its amazing landscapes, villages, castillos and churches. Unbelievable the highlight of it all: the arrival at the Piazza dei Miracoli.
Tim Benians: “I wanted to thank you and your team for what was an excellent Moto Giro, enjoyed by Roger and me, as well as all our team from the uk. We all had a great time! On balance I think widening the appeal and boosting the numbers was a good thing. It meant we saw many new faces, and more classic machines in greater numbers than I can remember over the five Moto Giros I have experienced.
Burt Richmond: “On behalf of the Lucky Bastards, we wanted to thank you for producing another very memorable vintage riding event! The hotels were great, the served dinners were a pleasant change and the good feelings of all the people from all over the world was exceptional. Mille grazie!
Sascha Kripgans: “Just to say thank you for another wonderful memory! Nigel, Barry and I had a great time on MV Agusta, MiVal and Honda CB160. I really did love your choice of roads – particularly the 168 hairpin bends (my friend in the sidecar to the Norton Commando counted them!) to the hill village on the last day. What a challenge!
Alan Morrow: “I had a most incredible experience and enjoyed every single moment of the event. It came with many adventures, such as my Lodola 235 GT breaking down on the second day, setting out again on a 850 Moto Guzzi hire bike, experiencing the most incredible roads and soaking up the exquisite landscapes of Tuscany.”
Organiser’s report on the 2023 Moto Giro d’Italia
The 2023 edition of the Historical Commemoration of the Moto Giro d’Italia, organised by the Moto Club Terni and the Italian and International Motorcycle Federation, will enter the annals.
A success exceeding all expectations both for the number of participants, two-thirds of whom were foreigners, and for the choice of routes and above all for the enthusiasm with which the colourful caravan was welcomed not only in the stage venues, but also throughout the itinerary of over 1500 kilometres, most of which in Tuscany.
At the end of six very tight stages, with special stages on the verge of a hundredth of a second, the coveted History Re-enactment class went to the very expert Foligno doctor Marco Tomassini who wrote his name on his Gilera 175 Supersport for the third consecutive time in the roll of honour of the gran Fondo of vintage motorcycles, bringing the total number of victories to nine.
Behind the Umbrian rider were the Lombard Marco Bonanomi on MV Agusta 175 CSTL and the Dutch Eric Willemse on Guzzi Lodola 175, all bikes built in 1957.
As mentioned, the fight for the supremacy was exciting and uncertain until the end. In fact both Tomassini and Willemse had started quite badly, giving the green light to Bonanomi who at the end of the third stage, Arezzo – Chianciano Terme, which also marked the lap of buoy of the event, he found himself in the lead with a fair margin over his rivals.
However, the driver from Merate, already winner of other editions, perhaps could not stand the pressure and in the fourth and fifth fractions he began to “argue with the stopwatch” losing all the margin gained by allowing Tomassini to first catch up and then overtake him, even if the gap between the two has always remained narrow.
At the same time, Franco Carboni, Giacomo Viganò and the aforementioned Willemse who won the final stage in Pisa also regrouped.
Therefore decisive, as in other editions, it was the last leg. Even if Tomassini managed to keep the lead in the standings with some mistakes, Bonanomi recovered a few points but not so many as to overtake the Umbrian and so he had to settle for the place of honour.
He was ahead of Willemse who, thanks to the stage victory, overtook Carboni completing the podium, fifth went to Viganò who, after a good start, did not do the same in the final two sections.
In the Heritage class, reserved for motorcycles of all engine capacities built between 1920 and 1950, saw the success of Mario Levati on a 1949 Matchless G9 500, the standard-bearer of the organising motorcycle club preceded Alessandro Ghetti from Rimini by only four points on Moto Guzzi S 500 of 1939 and Gigi Spinelli on a Guzzi Airone 500 of 1949.
Also in the match was Augusto Zaghini from Romagna on a Guzzi 2VT 500 of 1934 who led in the first three stages then finished fourth and the Dutchman Loeck Tuinman riding the Guzzi Condor 500 of 1938.
The very tight eight also in the Classic category, the most numerous after the Historical Re-enactment and reserved for motorcycles of all engine capacities, built in the sixties/seventies.
Here Paolo Penzo (Aermacchi 350) and Stefano Bisazza (Honda XL 600 RM) ended on equal points, with the final victory going to the former, only thanks to the coefficient discriminating on the historicity of the bike.
Behind the couple entered in the Moto Club Terni was the German Michael Cassel on a splendid Benelli Sei 750, now an aficionado of the event together with his wife Brigitte Benner, also competing in the Moto Giro Turismo category astride the Suzuki Bandit 65 F. She finished second behind the journalist Claudio Antonacion Benelli Leoncino and ahead of compatriot Christopher Halfknight (Lexmoto LJ 250), the three finished within the space of just three points with the standings changing every day.
Finally, the Scooter class was dominated by the very expert Roman Francesco Muroni on Vespa Piaggio PX 150 who won all the stages. Behind him the Bolognese Silvano Fabbri (Kimko New People) and the Apulian Giuseppe Bellanova (Piaggio Vespa 300 GTS).
The special prize from the Italian Motorcycle Federation reserved for the most beautiful and most historically valuable motorcycle was assigned by a special commission to the 1931 Sarolea Type 31S raced by the Belgian collector Olivier Cambier.
During the awards ceremony, satisfaction for the success of this thirty-second edition was expressed by the president of the Moto Club Terni L.Liberati – P.Pileri Massimo Mansueti and by the tourism sector manager of the International Motorcycle Federation, Kalaitzis Panagiotis.
Congratulations also came from the vice president of the Italian Motorcycle Federation Rocco Lopardowho took part on a motorcycle in the fourth stage, which took place entirely between the Valdichiana and the Vald’Orcia with departure and arrival in Chianciano Terme. This stage was also attended by the three-time 125 GP champion Piepaolo Bianchi who, unable to take part in the entire event, chose this stage to be present anyway.
All the stages were characterised by tracks immersed in the green hills and mountains of Tuscany. The competitors had the opportunity to visit unique cities and towns in the world rich in art, history and culture and even when there were adverse weather conditions, like the water bomb in Poggibonsi or the hailstorm in Casentino and on Monte Amiata, the motorcycle caravan continued regardless of the bad weather, nonetheless reaching its destination with a smile on its face.
The welcome reserved for the entire caravan, made up of over 260 people including competitors and staff, in the many refreshment points scattered along the route, where the various sports associations, pro-loco and local administrations competed to offer the best of their culinary products.
In this impossible ranking, we cannot fail to mention the reception at the Piaggio museum with a long table laden with every delicacy, or the breakfast with porchetta and the demijohn of wine in Montalcino, to continue with bruschetta made with the prized Allerona oil on the occasion of the trespassing in Umbria and of the products of Monte Amiata in the various villages of the mountain that dominates the Maremma.
The event was not adversely affected by major accidents, only in a couple of cases some precautionary tests were necessary, which were then resolved in the best possible way.
Out of 200 entries, 189 of which verified, 144 crossed the finish line in Pisa.
