- Cycling, Felice Gimondi died. He got sick while bathing in the sea
Share
17 August 2019The certificates of condolence for the death of Felice Gimondi multiply. A great Italian cycling world that died yesterday due to illness while bathing in the waters of Giardini Naxos, in Sicily. Even President Mattarella remembers him today for "the many successes that have given prestige to Italy in sport and its style of great value in sports and human behavior".Gimondi would have turned 77 on September 26th. He was in the Recanati area when he felt ill. Useless attempts to revive him. He was the only one to resist the voracious vein of the 'Cannibale' Merckx, second in absolute to complete the Triple Crown in the Great Tours, champion of the World in 1973 in Barcelona, master of the paved of Roubaix and of the dangers of the Sanremo. The 'rival' Motta: 'Blow hard'.
Death due to natural causes, no autopsy
The Messina Public Prosecutor will not have an autopsy. The magistrates, after the report of the medical examiner who carried out the external examination of the body that ascertained the natural cause of death, would be about to sign the authorization for the restitution to the family of the body, which is located in the hospital morgue ' Sirina 'of Taormina.
Mattarella: "He gave prestige to Italy"
The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, expresses his condolences for the death of Felice Gimondi, recalling the many successes that have given prestige to Italy in sport and its style of great value in sporting and human behavior. This is what we read in a Quirinale release.
The news goes around the world
The news soon crossed Italy and also spread abroad, given the popularity of the Bergamo champion, who in the 60s and 70s inflamed the cycling public and not only for his victories in the same era in which Eddy Merckx was racing. His signature in all three major tours, at the World Championship and in the most important classics of the calendar.
Merckx: "I lose the rival of a lifetime and a friend"
Eddy Merckx remembers his rival-friend Felice Gimondi with words of poetic homage and at the same time of technical evaluation of the champion he was. "First of all I lose a friend and then the opponent of a lifetime". "We have competed for years on the streets against each other - the Belgian champion still remembers - but we have become friends at the end of our career. I had heard it two weeks ago as it happened every now and then. What can I say, I am destroyed".
"Among the greatest of all time, a slice of my life goes away"
"Felice was first and foremost a great man, a great champion, unfortunately they took him away - Merckx continues with his broken voice - It is a great loss for cycling. All the struggles we have come to mind done together ... A man like Gimondi is not born every day, with him a slice of my life goes away. He was among the greatest ever ".
"We are all more alone, orphans of a champion who has written the history of cycling and filled the country with his pride with pride. Sport mourns Gimondi, the timeless protagonist. Ciao Felice, proud of your friendship and example that leaves us with a legacy "the memory of the number one Italian sport, Giovanni Malagò .
"Happy travel Felice Gimondi. With you a piece of my childhood goes away, memories of games between friends. You have been a great champion whose deeds will remain in our hearts" the words of the undersecretary with delegation to sport Giancarlo Giorgetti . "An enormous sadness. There is regret, disappointment, a cry in my heart. I followed his entire career as a manager, I have always admired and appreciated him," Renato Di Rocco, president of Federciclismo, told the Italpress.
"He was a real racer, a tough guy who never gave up, we were adversaries but we always respected each other. For many years we were together on the Uci council, we often traveled together from Italy to Geneva, telling each other everything" the words moved to Italpress by Francesco Moser , who sent him his yellow muscat every year.
Sadness also in the words of Moreno Argentin , reached abroad by the sad news. "Our movement loses a great figure. I am so sorry, it was team manager but also a person who was very close to me in certain moments" the memory of the former Italian cyclist Italpress.
The current coach Davide Cassani speaks of a "single idol". "I fell in love with cycling, cheering for Felice Gimondi, my father was a fan of his, I only had him as an idol, when he stopped I didn't support anybody". "It is a serious lack that leaves us amazed, we did not expect this news," said former world champion Gianni Bugno . "I remember a great champion who never talked or tried to show himself to the public, he was always shy, he is a champion who made the history of Italian cycling".