The former national team coach saw Adorni’s 1968 World Cup win live at Imola: “He was a master for Gimondi and Merckx, even on TV he was a champion”
Also Vittorio Adorni. No, it’s not possible. After Arnaldo Pambianco and Ercole Baldini another great man has left us. He didn’t win a lot but important races. A Giro d’Italia in 1965, leaving Italo Zilioli more than 11′ behind, the young neo-professional and teammate Felice Gimondi third. But above all he won a world championship, in 1968, at Imola.
ELEGANCE
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Vittorio was elegance personified, in pedaling and in speaking. On a bicycle he resembled Jacques Anquetil, on television he had the finesse of an Enzo Tortora. Yes, because he was not only a great champion but also a television man. He was a regular guest of Sergio Zavoli at the stage trial and, in 1968, hosted the “Ciao mamma” broadcast on Rai with Liana Orfei. Vittorio was the first cycling technical commentator on television because he had an uncommon property of language. He looked like a prince: for elegance, behavior, style, savoir faire. He has also held important roles such as the vice presidency in the International Cycling Union. Champion, executive, television man but also teacher; First by Felice Gimondi, in 1965 then by Eddy Merckx in 1968.
IMOLA
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I have always had Vittorio in my heart because I have known him for 54 years. In that famous 1968, in Imola, I was there too. I was 7 years old and my dad took me to see that race which immediately seemed fantastic to me. It was precisely that day that I fell in love with cycling and decided that when I grew up I would be a runner. Vittorio was, as I said, the first technical commentator on cycling. His commentary with the great Adriano De Zan is legendary. I remember that I did my first World Cup as a technical commentator together with him and Adriano, in Lugano, in 1996. Vittorio Adorni, a champion, a gentleman, a gentleman, a great man. It was Vittorio, with his Imola World Championship, who gave me a head full of dreams and from tomorrow, when I go out for my usual rides, I will think of Vittorio. I started with him and I will continue with him until the end.
December 24, 2022 (change December 24, 2022 | 19:54)
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