Gianni Savio, the 'Prince' of Italian DS, has died. He discovered Egan Bernal and relaunched Michele Scarponi

Rome, 31 December 2024 - The year of Italian cycling (and not only) ends with terrible news: John Savio he died late in the evening of Monday December 30 after a long illness.  

Savio's Career

Born in Turin il April 16, 1948, The 'Principle' has engraved his name in the history of this sport thanks to his great intuition in hunting for young budding talents, especially those coming from the South AmericaThe adventure of Savio in cycling it starts in 1985, the year in which he officially acquired the position of sports director. By a hair's breadth, therefore, the anniversary of the 40 years of activity has faded. Before that, however, there was a parenthesis in football which, in a friendly, had curiously led him to also mark Paolo Rossi. The many lives of Savio also have repercussions on cycling, in which he has held various roles, including team manager, desk and talent scouting. The beginning, in 1986, it is at Santini-Cierre, before detecting, in 1992, the ZG Mobili-Selle Italia di Dino Zandegù: it is the ancestor of the current one Drone Hopper-Androni Giocattoli, which in turn has undergone numerous changes of sponsors and names. Starting from 1996, the Colombian team has often distinguished itself at the Giro d'Italia, where he collected 15 stage victories e 3 hits in the ranking reserved for climbers. In this period of time, and even beyond, Savio has launched several famous names in cycling that counts. It starts from Andrea Tafi, the only Italian to have won Tour of Flanders e Paris-Roubaix, and we arrive, among others, at Carlos Alberto Contreras, Jose Rujano, Ivan Parra, Jose Serpa, Michele Scarponi, Jackson Rodríguez, Franco Pellizzotti, Fausto Masnada, Ivan Ramiro Rose e Mattia Cattaneo. The icing on the cake, which deserves a chapter of its own, however, goes by the name of Egan Bernal, In which 2016 he entered the professional world thanks to the Androni, where he would remain until the 2017 before the transition to the then TeamSky (today Ineos Grenadiers). With this uniform the Colombian would have won the Tour de France 2019 and Giro d'Italia 2021 before the decline of recent years following a serious accident in training: in all his successes the gratitude of Bernal towards'Italy and in particular towards Savio has never been lacking, as was also evident from the touching speech of thanks on the podium of the Great Boucle. The relationship between Piedmontese and the South America in fact it has always been solid also thanks to the many relationships established over the years at a political level and good for procuring sponsors, the true lifeblood of cycling. Not only that: Savio he was technical commissioner before the Colombia (memorable the success of Santiago Botero in the time trial of the 2002 FIBA WC) and then of the Venezuela, a position he held until the last hours of a life full of passion.

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