2014 Giro d'Italia stage 19

LOCAL HERO
Fourteen Tours of Italy, not so much as a stage win. At first glance Marostica's Gianni Faresin doesn't appear to have set the world alight, but statistics can be deceiving. Faresin was, in point of fact, one of the best in the business between 1988 and 2004, but his business wasn't winning. Every good team needs a high quality road captain, a man capable of reading the race and marshalling those around him in the heat of the battle. That was the role he fulfilled for champions like Maurizio Fondriest and Gianni Bugno, and that's why he's such a revered figure.

He won the Tour of Lombardy in 1995, but he doesn't view it as his greatest victory. That came when his team mate Pavel Tonkov won the 1996 Giro, and that's the measure of the man.

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