Concrete, Coppi and community: The salvation of Turin's outdoor velodrome

To fully appreciate Motovelodromo Fausto Coppi, you have to imagine beeping tills, clattering trolleys, and unexpected items in bagging areas. This was the fate that might have befallen one of Italian cycling’s most iconic venues. Discarded and disused for the best part of 20 years, this sweeping outdoor velodrome in Turin was very nearly bulldozed to make way for a huge supermarket. A hundred years of history and humanity, almost exchanged for the drudgery of the weekly shop.

How full of life it now seems. Step under the old archway that marks the entrance to the grounds, and you have a terrace, which, on the eve of the Giro d’Italia, is full of locals enjoying an alfresco lunch. Kids emerge on bikes, adults with padel rackets in hand, some with hair wet from a dip in the pool. The sun is in the sky and there is a buzz about the place.

To get onto the velodrome, you have two options. The main pedestrian entrance is atmospheric enough, forcing you down a set of stairs and then up another, hiding what’s ahead before peeling it into view, to capture that feeling of stepping out into a great sporting arena. The other way in runs directly from the main road of the Corso Casale, down under the tribunes, and up onto the track itself. This was how the racing motorbikes and cars – hence the name of the place – would come in, and it’s how many a professional cyclist would emerge at the end of races like Milano-Torino, which would be finished with a lap of the track as Paris-Roubaix is to this day.

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To the left, the Basilica stands on the hilltop above the old tribunes, which will soon be renovated and add another modern sporting facility to this renewal project

Once in the middle, you have a 25-metre swimming pool that even comes with a chiringuito, eight courts for padel – Europe’s hottest sport at the moment – and, at the far end, pits of white sand with full-size volleyball nets, just across from the pump track. Indoors, there’s a cafe and even a ‘bike cave’ with seven smart trainers and screens. It is a modern sporting multiplex.

It’s all encircled by the velodrome's track, 400 metres of concrete, eight metres wide, with high and viciously steep bankings at either end. The stands above the western end offer a striking view of Superga and its hilltop Basilica, very much an emblem of this unassuming city nestled in the shadow of the Alps.

As for the track itself, you could stare at it all day.

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The velodrome was said to measure 393 metres but the owners claim it's now 400

“Here, all the other sports are helping the velodrome itself to survive,” says Nicoletta Savio, who’s the events manager for the Motovelodromo, and takes great pride in showing us every corner of the complex.

Nicoletta’s father is one Gianni Savio, legendary pro team manager, and her husband is Fabio Felline, a pro rider with Lidl-Trek who was born and bred in Turin. The pair live 100 metres from the Motovelodromo, and Felline himself is involved to the extent that he runs a team for Giovanissimi – kids of 6-12 years of age.

“This is an important place for the future of Turin,” Felline says as he stops by for a coffee. “If you think how many problems we have in real life, in society… if from such an early moment in life you can start to feel the culture of sport and of cycling, then you can imagine how it can be better."

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Fausto Coppi, Juventus, and disrepair

The Motovelodromo is very much focused on the future – and there are big plans still in the works – but it has also salvaged something of the past.

Designed by the renowned architect Vittorio Ballatore di Rosana, it was opened and inaugurated two years after the First World War, in 1920. Bikes, cars, and motorbikes performed celebratory laps of the track in front of tribunes that were packed with some 7,000 punters. It was used for track racing, as well as motor racing, and, as is the case today, for a remarkable array of sports in the inner field – over the years, it has played host to the likes of football, rugby, baseball, and even American football, plus matches between representatives of the city’s two main football clubs, Torino and Juventus.

© Motovelodromo Torino Fausto Coppi

The very earliest days of the Motovelodromo

In terms of cycling, Italy’s golden age came either side of the Second World War, and the Motovelodromo was a fixture on the circuit. It regularly hosted the finales of Milano-Torino – cycling’s oldest Classic – the Giro del Piemonte, and even stages of the Giro d’Italia. It is now closely associated with arguably Italy's finest cyclist, situated 400 metres along from the statue erected in honour of Il Campionissimo along the banks of the River Po.

But Turin and the Motovelodromo did not hold happy memories for Fausto Coppi. He never won Milano-Torino or the Giro del Piemonte, and he broke his collarbone on the track at the end of the 1951 edition of the former, ruining his hopes for the Giro. But that was nothing compared to the tragedy that unfolded just months later when his brother Serse crashed on the approach to the velodrome in the Giro del Piemonte, his front wheel having become wedged in the tram track, his head having smacked against the asphalt. Serse proceeded to the velodrome but soon complained of headaches, later went into a coma, and then died.

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Serse Coppi (left) was a loyal gregario to his brother Fausto (right) throughout their careers, but Serse enjoyed his own moment of glory at the 1949 Paris-Roubaix

The Motovelodromo’s decline began in the 1980s. Despite a sold-out gig by Roxy Music, by the middle of the decade the venue had been run down to such an extent that it was essentially declared unusable. In the 1990s it was rebadged as the Motovelodromo Fausto Coppi, but it was stuttering on, with no fresh investment, and by the new millennium was on its last legs. The final sprint in the velodrome came at the end of the 2002 Milano-Torino, won by Michele Bartoli.

Subsequent efforts to make use of the space included an ice skating rink and second-hand clothing markets, amid lengthy deliberations over what should come next. The local municipality appeared keen to wash their hands of it, repeatedly putting it up for sale, and even entertaining the supermarket idea. In the other corner, fighting the good fight, were the so-called Pezzi di Motovelodromo, a group of passionate local volunteers, who, much like Les Amis de Paris-Roubaix, sought to protect and preserve the heritage of the place.

Part of that effort was to ensure it did not become a supermarket. In that respect, they successfully lobbied the Italian government, which afforded it protected heritage status. And so when it went back up for auction In 2019, all prospective projects had to maintain the velodrome. It was won by a company owned by Fabrizio Ristagno, an engineering entrepreneur from Turin, who promised to turn it into a modern sporting complex. A few months later, the pandemic hit, and the whole thing was put on ice. But when things finally got going again, in 2021, the progress was rapid.

“A final contract was signed in the morning of 3 July, and building work started in the afternoon,” says Savio. “By October, there were already people playing padel, then soon beach volleyball."

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The velodrome was awash with locals playing sports throughout the afternoon, from the indoor padel scene to a friendly game of beach volleyball under the Piedmont sun

As for the track itself, restoration works were completed by April 2022, the concrete having been smoothed over, fresh paint added, and new racing lines drawn that would effectively increase the distance from 393 metres to a round 400.

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A community hub

Today, the velodrome is a veritable hive of activity. Suitably impressed, we note to Savio that if we moved to Turin, the first thing we’d be doing would be signing the membership forms.

“Ah, but we do not have members here,” she counters. “We are open to all the people of Turin."

Benadetta Lanza, who looks after the social impact projects, adds: "We are focused on inclusivity, in every sense of the word."

This is, it turns out, a central characteristic of the modern Motovelodromo; it is a community hub.

There is a heartening list of initiatives for people with disabilities – including tandem riding on the track – there are partnerships with social charities, and above all, there is a huge spread put on for the children of Turin. When we visit, the cones are out, with a group of youngsters getting to grips with bike handling. Some 8,500 schoolchildren will pass through each year, with everything from PE lessons to summer camps and scholarships.

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Local riders are able to come and ride the track

There is, in fact, another outdoor velodrome in Turin, the Velodromo Francone way out of town past the airport, and while there you might find regular racing – including the start of stage 2 of this year's Giro – the Motovelodromo has grassroots at its heart.

“After my career in engineering, I wanted to change my life, make myself happy but also make other people happy. I wanted to give back,” Ristagno, the boss of the whole operation, explains.

“This was the right project. I’m from Torino, this place was abandoned, and I wanted to give back to the cultural patrimony, give back to cycling, and to local businesses. This is not only about profit, but about giving back to the community. This is a good project because you can make money but you can also give back, and remove barriers – physical, mental, economic, social, cultural… This is our way.”

The previous evening, the Motovelodromo hosted a special one-off team presentation for Lidl-Trek ahead of the Giro d’Italia. Four hundred children were there, but there could have been 1,000. Lidl-Trek gained a few new fans, and Turin gained a few budding cyclists, with Lidl agreeing to fund a scholarship for 20 kids to join Felline’s Giovanissimi squad.

“When I asked my teammates about the feeling, they said it was amazing," Felline says. "Normally when the teams make these presentations, it’s always the same - ciao, how are you, some pictures, but for the human part, nothing special. Here, they could feel the real passion – it gives more emotion."

For Ristagno, as for Felline, inspiring the next generation is “the most important thing”. That’s why, he points out, the children were given a briefing in cycling history, not just via dry facts and figures but rather characters and anecdotes.

“You have to feed the imagination," he argues. "You want to start an interest in the past so that they can love the new champions. It’s both, no?”

No fireworks, but more to come

Turin, Felline says, is an “underestimated” city.

“People come and they say ‘ah, I never knew there was a city like this here’. This is the mentality of the people of Turin. If Milan has something beautiful, they make fireworks, to let the world know. In Turin, we just say ‘yes, we have it’.”

That’s certainly the case for the Motovelodromo. It is becoming better and better known to the people of Turin but Savio says the project has received relatively little acclaim outside of the city.

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The Superga Basilica overlooks the track, where the remnants of the old tribunes will soon be renewed with more sporting projects

Not that it matters too much – fireworks are for the Milanese, after all. Besides, the project has been such a success that Ristagno shows us a document outlining the next phase, which includes a physiotherapy area, a spa, a new cycling bar, changing rooms for the pool, a terrace for events, and even a golf simulator.

Who knows, maybe even we’ll see some professional bike racing on its steep bankings before too long. And maybe, within the 65-year period of the lease, Italian cycling will have produced a new icon to sit alongside Coppi, Gino Bartali, and Marco Pantani.

In any case, walking away from the Motovelodromo, the future looks bright, while the past lives on. And where aisles and tills might have been erected, we still have those 400 metres of beautiful, beautiful concrete.

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