The 'Forlì train' has stopped forever.
With Ercole Baldini, who died at the age of 89, one of the greatest Italian cyclists of all time passes away.
He was the only one to win an Olympic gold medal, a world championship and a major stage race, the Giro d'Italia.
To these successes are added a world title on the track and an hour record, in 1956, when he was still an amateur, a record stolen from a monument like Jacques Anquetil, from Vigorelli.
Ercole's strength, complete runner, was above all in races against the clock, hence the nicknames on locomotion ability attributed to him by the press of the time: 'Rapido', 'Diretto', 'Direttissimo'.
Definitely "the train of Forlì" as celebrated in a song According to Casadei, his countryman from Romagna,
after the feat at the Milan velodrome.
But at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 Baldini, who arrived there after making 11 stopovers by plane, triumphed by sprinting up a small incline and his victory was such a surprise that when he reached the finish line there was no Mameli anthem to transmit and was then intoned, with great emotion, by the Italian immigrants in Australia present at the race.
And also at the World Championships in Reims, two years later, he arrived intentionally, after a 250 kilometer breakaway on the Champagne hills, picking up and then gradually shaking off the various Bobets, Nencinis, Voortings.
Fausto Coppi also participated in that world championship, now at the end of his career and of which Baldini seemed to be the heir.
It was the champion who told Baldini to leave on the run,
contradicting Nencini when he saw him coming upon him and in the end it was written that the victory was also thanks to the strategy of the most expert in the team.
But then it turned out that Coppi, in reality, wanted to blow up Baldini, who however surprised even him, who evidently lived a certain rivalry, shared with Giulia Occhini, the White Lady, according to the chronicles of the time, jealous of the engagements of the Forlì.
As a couple, Coppi and Baldini had won a Baracchi trophy the year before: in the 108 km time trial, Baldini punctured 30 km from the finish and Coppi, in difficulty, decided to continue, insulted by the public.
Baldini's return then allowed the pair to win.
The 1958 Giro d'Italia was Coppi's last and Baldini's triumph.
First in the two time trials, first also uphill against 'l'
angel of the mountain', Charly Gaul, arrived in Milan in pink ahead of the Belgian Brankaert and the Luxembourgian, after a feat on the Bosco Chiesanuova climb and a victory in the Alpine stage Levico-Trento.
Baldini was born on 26 January 1933 in Villanova, a town in the Romagna hinterland where a house-museum was later built where he spent the last years of his life.
Fourth of six brothers, he left school at 17 to pursue his passion for cycling, noticed by some observers while he used it to go to school.
His last years were marred by a family affair, with the increasingly elderly and fragile champion and his assets the subject of a judicial dispute between his children and his new partner, after his wife's death in 2010.
he arrived in Milan in pink ahead of the Belgian Brankaert and the Luxembourgian, after a feat on the Bosco Chiesanuova climb and a victory in the Levico-Trento alpine stage.
Baldini was born on 26 January 1933 in Villanova, a town in the Romagna hinterland where a house-museum was later built where he spent the last years of his life.
Fourth of six brothers, he left school at 17 to pursue his passion for cycling, noticed by some observers while he used it to go to school.
His last years were marred by a family affair, with the increasingly elderly and fragile champion and his assets the subject of a judicial dispute between his children and his new partner, after his wife's death in 2010.
he arrived in Milan in pink ahead of the Belgian Brankaert and the Luxembourgian, after a feat on the Bosco Chiesanuova climb and a victory in the Levico-Trento alpine stage.
Baldini was born on 26 January 1933 in Villanova, a town in the Romagna hinterland where a house-museum was later built where he spent the last years of his life.
Fourth of six brothers, he left school at 17 to pursue his passion for cycling, noticed by some observers while he used it to go to school.
His last years were marred by a family affair, with the increasingly elderly and fragile champion and his assets the subject of a judicial dispute between his children and his new partner, after his wife's death in 2010.
feat on the Bosco Chiesanuova climb and a victory in the Levico-Trento alpine stage.
Baldini was born on 26 January 1933 in Villanova, a town in the Romagna hinterland where a house-museum was later built where he spent the last years of his life.
Fourth of six brothers, he left school at 17 to pursue his passion for cycling, noticed by some observers while he used it to go to school.
His last years were marred by a family affair, with the increasingly elderly and fragile champion and his assets the subject of a judicial dispute between his children and his new partner, after his wife's death in 2010.
feat on the Bosco Chiesanuova climb and a victory in the Levico-Trento alpine stage.
Baldini was born on 26 January 1933 in Villanova, a town in the Romagna hinterland where a house-museum was later built where he spent the last years of his life.
Fourth of six brothers, he left school at 17 to pursue his passion for cycling, noticed by some observers while he used it to go to school.
His last years were marred by a family affair, with the increasingly elderly and fragile champion and his assets the subject of a judicial dispute between his children and his new partner, after his wife's death in 2010.
Fourth of six brothers, he left school at 17 to pursue his passion for cycling, noted by some observers as he used it to go to school.
His last years were marred by a family affair, with the increasingly elderly and fragile champion and his assets the subject of a judicial dispute between his children and his new partner, after his wife's death in 2010.
Fourth of six brothers, he left school at 17 to pursue his passion for cycling, noted by some observers as he used it to go to school.
His last years were marred by a family affair, with the increasingly elderly and fragile champion and his assets the subject of a judicial dispute between his children and his new partner, after his wife's death in 2010.
