This is Vin Denson, and he’s just won the 9th stage of the 1966 Giro d’Italia. He was the first British cyclist ever to win a stage in the Italian grand tour.
Vin rode the race for the Ford France team of five-time Tour de France winner Jacques Anquetil. “It was the best. It was like a footballer playing for Manchester United. We had the best equipment, stayed in the best hotels, we were paid well, and Jacques was always a gentleman with us,” he says.
“We had other good riders, so in that Giro we had the Spanish climber Julio Jimenez in the pink jersey, but there were still days when the DS, Raphael Geminiani, said we could go for stage wins of our own. That was great, but we weren’t popular with the Italian fans.
“There was this one time, riding through Napoli and I was leading the peloton. We went through some narrow streets with all these Romeo and Julliet balconies above us. The people on them were pelting me with rotten tomatoes and other rubbish. When we got to the hotel after the stage, it looked like I’d fallen into a rubbish dump.
“Anyway, the stage I won was lumpy, not mountainous – a bit like Yorkshire, where I’d trained a lot. I was a good time triallist, so I attacked early and eventually ended up on my own and won. I felt good that day, and I told the press that it was because I’d eaten two plates of good ravioli the night before.
“It was a funny race for Ford France though. I think there was an argument between the French wing of Ford and the Italian over who was paying us. We were getting a lot of publicity for Ford, but in Italy.
“Anyway, the upshot was we were told one day that when Gianni Motta from the Molteni team attacked on a particular stage, we hadn’t to chase him. And that’s what happened. Motta attacked, we didn’t chase, and he got the pink jersey and won the 1966 Giro. Like I say, it was a funny race for us.”
