What is a fagianata

The word

A fagianata (say fah-jah-NAH-tah) is an attack without a surge. The rider gains a few meters while barely letting it show, pedaling as if nothing were happening; then the pedal stroke gets stronger, and five or ten meters become twenty, thirty. By the time the bunch notices, the rider is gone: seconds taken without drawing attention and without wasting energy.

It’s the Italian word Riccardo Magrini brought into his commentary on Eurosport, and by now it’s tied to his name. This is how he explains it: “when a rider goes clear without making a real surge.” The image is that of the pheasant (fagiano in Italian, so a fagianata is a pheasant’s move), which before taking flight slips away on foot, “di pedina,” without being noticed.

Magrini doesn’t claim to have invented it: his expressions, he says, come from the bar, from the way ordinary people talk. But since he started using them on air they have become a small dictionary: a column of his on OA Sport is called “La Fagianata,” and on November 14, 2024, in Lucca, an evening with him and Luca Gregorio went by the same name.

Il Magro’s vocabulary

• Veglione del tritello: the move that blows the race apart and scatters the bunch.
• Sparpaglio: what’s left of the bunch after the tritello.
• Miciola: when a rider cracks and starts zigzagging like a lapwing.
• Badalagente: an expression from Lucca for how many people are lining the road.

The rider

Riccardo Magrini, “il Magro” (“Skinny”), was born in Montecatini Terme on December 26, 1954. He was a professional from 1977 to 1986, a team rider: Fiorella-Mocassini, Inoxpran, Magniflex-Olmo, Santini-Selle Italia, Metauro Mobili-Pinarello and Vini Ricordi-Pinarello-Sidermec.

His year was 1983. On May 21 he won stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia, from Terracina to Montefiascone, ahead of Marino Lejarreta and Moreno Argentin. On July 8 he won stage 7 of the Tour de France, from Nantes to the Île d’Oléron, with a finisseur’s move in the final kilometer, ahead of Eric Vanderaerden and Gilbert Glaus. The year before, he had won the Giro della Provincia di Reggio Calabria.

In the team car

Once off the bike, he made his debut as a directeur sportif in 1987 with Magniflex-Centroscarpa. In 2002 he was one of the directeurs sportifs at Marco Pantani’s Mercatone Uno, and in 2004 at Mario Cipollini’s Domina Vacanze.

At the microphone

He has been commentating on cycling for Eurosport since 2005. For nine years Salvo Aiello was at his side; since 2018 he has been paired with Luca Gregorio, with whom he has written two books: Fagianate, scatti e scie. Dizionario sentimentale del ciclismo (Rizzoli, 2019) and Vicini alle nuvole. I grandi scalatori del ciclismo moderno (Hoepli, 2023).

Why our name

We like the idea of getting to things that way: quietly, a little ahead of everyone else, with just the right amount of breath. And “fagianata” already had “IA” inside it, the Italian initials for AI: all we had to do was switch it on. La fagIAnata has no connection with Riccardo Magrini or Eurosport: we borrowed his word because it describes the cycling we want to write about.