But it wasn’t over: the 30-year-old from Piedmont, the fastest to the finish line on the long route, was scratched from the classification due to rule infringement. While starting with number 2227, the electronic timing system clearly indicated that he taken off from a more favorable grid, as eventually admitted by Gallo. The victory eventually went to the runner-up to the line, Enrico Zen, with Belgian Frederic Glorieux in second and Paolo Castelnovo (Team MP Filtri) on the lowest step of the podium.

Organizer Giuseppe Manenti was neat in commenting such unpleasant episode: “We work for a whole year to set up an event in which the riders’ safety and the race regularity must come first. We have just applied the rules.” Enrico Zen was not impressed with the win by default. “Winning means coming in first, and today it wasn’t like that,” said the rider from Bassano del Grappa, a former carpenter, now office employee.

Without such episode, the whole 21st Granfondo Gimondi Bianchi would have been dominated by two teams: Team Morotti (three victories, with Glauco Maggi and Alice Donadoni on the 89,4 km short route, and with Luca Cantini in the 128,8 km medium route) and Team Isolmant (that even with the Gallo’s scratch still secured two wins among women, with Manuela Sonzogni in the medium route and with Simona Parente, who claimed her second straight success on the longest distance).