40 years have passed since the "Hour Record" of cycling champion Francesco Moser.
It was January 19, 1984, "the year of transition from tradition to technology", as well as overcoming the 50 km barrier in sixty minutes.
Moser was in Mexico City and, he says, he was ready to beat the performance of another great cyclist, the Belgian Eddy Merckx, who in 1972 had covered 49.432 kilometers in one hour.
A record that the Trentino cyclist, thirty-two years old at the time, managed to beat on that occasion and also a few days later, on 23 January, when in one hour he managed to travel 51,151 kilometres, with an absolutely innovative bicycle, the famous lenticular wheels invented by Professor Dal Monte.
A successful undertaking, explains Moser, also because a group of Italians had arrived in Mexico City a few days earlier to cheer for him.
"They had traveled all the way to Mexico to be able to see the record. They had only seen the first one on television, in Italy", the cycling champion, who tomorrow on his farm, Maso Villa Warth, in Gardolo di Half, organize a lunch with friends and family to remember those moments.
"Clearly those were important days for my career. I had trained in the best way possible. I was ready to set that record, and it went well. But Merckx is the rider who has won more than anyone else. He still is today. And it will be difficult to beat him," says Moser.
"Even today, however, there are five, six cyclists who are head and shoulders above the others. I'm thinking of Van der Poel, Vingegaard, Pogacar, Evenepoel. And in Italy we have Ganna, who is number one for the time trial and for the track ".
According to the Trentino champion, 1984 was a year of change for the world of cycling in general.
"We went from traditional cycling, because in those days we moved forward with tradition, to the advent of technology. And now it's much better than before", says Moser, who still clocks up kilometers on his bicycle as a pastime.
"I cycle at my home, in Trentino, but also around Italy and the world. Throughout Italy, from Sicily to the Alps, there are some beautiful routes, starting from the coastal ones. With a group of friends Then, I've been to Oman three, four times: there are beautiful roads there, and in winter there is a suitable temperature for cycling."
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