The late Vittorio Adorni, who died on Christmas Eve, turned professional with Learco Guerra’s Vov team in 1961. He raced with and mentored Felice Gimondi at Salvarani, and then did the same with Eddy Merckx at Faema. In his subsequent broadcasting career, Adorni was part of a RAI commentary booth that brought Francesco Moser, Giuseppe Saronni and Marco Pantani career into the living rooms of millions of Italians.
His was, in the words of La Gazzetta dello Sport, “a life among the giants,” but then Adorni was himself a titan, on and off the bike. He won the Giro d’Italia in 1965, but his greatest day came three years later in Imola, when he claimed a remarkable solo victory at the World Championships.
The Merckx era had already begun, but Adorni’s victory was more redolent of its sepia-tinted heroic age. As his compatriot Ercole Baldini had done a decade earlier, Adorni infiltrated a dangerous early break, and he proceeded to solo clear with 90km remaining, claiming the rainbow jersey from Herman Van Springel by a record margin of 9:50.
That afternoon, future Italian national coach Davide Cassani was a seven-year-old straining to force a way through the crowds on the circuit for a view of the lone man in the blue jersey. “Vittorio was elegance personified, on the bike and in his speech,” Cassani wrote this week.
The feat immortalised by another sadly departed giant, the journalist Gianni Mura, in the pages of the following day’s La Gazzetta dello Sport. In cycling’s answer to Jimmy Breslin’s gravedigger column, his piece was centred on the nervous wait of Adorni’s wife Vitaliana at the finish line in Imola’s autodromo.
By 1968, of course, Adorni felt like a part of the family for many Italians. His ability to analyse races smartly and cogently had already made him a fixture on RAI’s new Processo alla Tappa programme during the Giro, while that year he would make his first foray into the light entertainment schedule as co-host of the ‘Ciao Mamma’ variety show with actress Liana Orfei.
Born in San Lazzaro Parmense in 1937, Adorni turned professional in 1961 with Vov, making his Giro debut that same season. A year later, he would place fifth overall after winning the tough stage to Aprica in the final week, and he would be a fixture at the business end of the corsa rosa for the remainder of his career, winning eleven stages and spending 19 days in the pink jersey.
In 1963, Adorni won two more…
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