Valli Bergamasche, Enduro motorcycle race in Bergamo Province, Italy
Valli Bergamasche, also called La Valli, is a two-day enduro motorcycle race held almost every July on routes through the valleys around Bergamo, in Lombardy. It was first run on 4 July 1948, starting in front of the Caffè Savoia in Bergamo, and only 4 of the 38 entrants finished the 257 km route to Ponte Nossa via the Taleggio valley and the Vivione pass. Later editions crossed the Brembana and Seriana valleys, Iseo, Gardone Val Trompia and the Crocedomini pass.
The race was devised by Mino Baracchi to mark the founding of the Moto Club Bergamo, and the first edition started at 10 a.m. on 4 July 1948 outside the Caffè Savoia in Bergamo. Of 38 entrants only 4 finished the 257 km route through the Taleggio valley and over the Vivione pass to Ponte Nossa. From 1950 it counted for the Italian regularity championship, and in 1964 the FIM added it to its international trophy, later the European championship.
The race name comes from two earlier events held in the same valleys: the Circuito motociclistico di regolarità Città di Bergamo and the Circuito delle Valli Bergamasche. Since 1986 a non-competitive Valli Bergamasche Revival has been held at intervals for vintage motorcycles and former riders over 40. In the 1950s and 1960s, alongside individual trophies, the Reggiani trophy went to national teams and the Serafini trophy to manufacturers.
The race runs over two days, almost always in July, through the valleys around Bergamo, with the start in Bergamo itself and finishes that have included San Pellegrino Terme, Ponte Nossa and Moio de' Calvi. Routes have crossed the Passo del Vivione, the Passo di Crocedomini, Selvino, the Cà San Marco refuge and Monte Poieto. The 2019 edition was the most recent, and the non-competitive Valli Bergamasche Revival, open to pre-1986 bikes and former riders over 40, is held only occasionally.
The 1973 edition, the 25th, was run in pouring rain on ground so bad that only 24 of 273 starters finished; in the 50cc class Gualtiero Brissoni was the only one of 32 riders to reach the finish. The race's only fatality came in 1979, when Swedish rider Lennart Andersson crashed and died despite Franco Gualdi stopping his own race to help him.
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