• Felice Gimondi is dead, cycling giant. Eddy Merckx: "I lose the rival of a lifetime and a friend"
  • The enterprises of Felice Gimondi: to chase after Eddy Merckx made Italian cycling great
  • Cycling, Felice Gimondi died. He got sick while bathing in the sea

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by Tiziana Di Giovannandrea 19 August 2019From the morning at 7.00 am, in Paladina near the church adjacent to the parish church, a funeral home was opened with the body of Felice Gimondi there was a continuous coming and going of sportsmen, friends, acquaintances but also of people who had not had any contact but who had always admired and esteemed the great cycling champion climber for his genuineness, generosity and spontaneity.

Who wearing the commemorative jerseys, who arrived riding their own bicycle, who showing on their mobile photographs of the idol of the Italian cycling winner of the triple crown of the three great tournaments of Europe: Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Spanish Vuelta , all showing an immense and great affection for Felice Gimondi, the rival of another great cycling rider, Eddy Merckx.

For the will of the family the funeral home will be closed at 20.00 and not at 23.00 as previously announced.

The body of Felice Gimondi arrived in the town outside Bergamo, where he lived together with his wife Tiziana Bersano, on the night between Monday and Tuesday at one o'clock. His wife and daughters Norma and Federica followed the coffin from Sicily to Lombardy. The hearse departed from the morgue of the Taormina Hospital where the idol of the two-wheeler had been brought immediately after the fatal illness on Friday 16 August while he was bathing on the beach of Giardini Naxos.

To welcome the remains of Gimondi the brothers Giuseppe (the eldest), Alessio (the younger) and the nephew forty-eight year old Massimo, the last of the Gimondi dynasty runner. Claudio Corti (winner of two Italian championships), Mirco Gualdi and Gianluca Valoti are among the former professional cyclists who reach the church of Paladina. Many authorities also went to pay tribute to the great champion. Giorgio Gori, mayor of Bergamo, wants to dedicate a monument to remember Felice Gimondi explaining on Facebook: "I am convinced that honoring Gimondi, for Bergamo, wants to say more than celebrate its sporting grandeur. Felice Gimondi represented the best synthesis of our values earth, those in which we still want to meet again today and that we want our children to do and pass on to them ".
Also present was a moved Giancarlo Giorgetti, undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council with responsibility for sport, for which Gimondi was the first champion of his life.

The funeral will be broadcast live on RaiSport starting at 10.40 am. The ceremony will be followed by a multi-voice commentary, with testimonies from friends and opponents, first and foremost the rival and friend Eddy Merckx.