HERE WE GO AGAIN... (THE LAST ARTICLE WRITTEN FOR US BY GIAN PAOLO ORMEZZANO)

TUTTOBICI | 31/01/2025 | 08:20
di Gian Paolo Ormezzano
Gian Paolo Ormezzano passed away on December 26th. A few days before, a week before Christmas, with his usual enthusiasm, he sent us his article for the January issue. This is the article. The last one. Goodbye GPO and "w us".
I think everyone reading here has heard about Edoardo Bove, a Fiorentina footballer who collapsed on the field, with serious heart problems, clinical recovery, and perhaps athletic comeback. His live TV drama was spectacular, even though he was immediately surrounded, hidden, and almost suffocated by teammates who erected a dramatic human wall around him, some quietly crying, some visibly desperate, some nonetheless trying to help. With an ambulance as a co-protagonist. Special wishes to Bove, of course, and if he returns to the field, all the support for him, but a question: are we sure we have given cycling, cyclists the same type of moved and supportive participation in similar moments, in terms of drama, intensity, fear, support, prayer, etc., as those experienced for Bove, with all of us ideally around him?
The fact is that - talking about Italy - cycling, as a competitive sport to football in terms of popularity and popular idolatry, has been suffering, and this has been going on for years, from a sense of inferiority. Cycling understood, let's be clear, as road (in-line, time trial, and stage races), track (where there are too many races with abstruse formulas) and challenging cross for special bikes. And that's it, the rest is nonsense. A very personal memory, particular, where interpretative nuances also counted and count.
Turin, Gianni Savio presents his professional team put together especially for the Giro d'Italia, after his usual, wise, and competent collection of honest but often forgotten pedaling athletes, of talented but tired athletes, and of champions still current but now dismissed from fame. Godfather Michel Platini then at Juventus. The team's key man was the Belgian Freddy Maertens, twice world champion in professional road cycling, beating Moser in a sprint once, Saronni once. Speeches etc., Platini, a huge personality even in the presentation, I would say in his self-concession, who as a presence overshadows Maertens, who, humbly, asks him how his football is going and avoids talking about himself. I, who somewhat officiated in help to the RAI colleague Giorgio Martino, felt truly uncomfortable. What were we doing there?
Now I feel uncomfortable if I have to explain, explain cycling in the face of the physical dramas of a Remco Evenepoel: almost a sense of shame in participating in them, as if accusing a sport of being inherently too dangerous. A cyclist crashes during a race against an unauthorized car, he suffers, meaning he pays with serious injuries, from the sudden opening of a truck door. This Evenepoel... In short, he seems to be someone who goes looking for trouble. More than recognition of all he has already won, even on a world and Olympic level and in the full Pogacar era, it seems to count what he might have won without accidents. How reckless, how unlucky...
A bicycle death live, that of twenty-five-year-old Fabio Casartelli, who fell on a Pyrenean descent during the 1995 Tour, gained relevance even if not especially for the fact that from then on the movement accelerated to make helmets mandatory (he, like almost everyone, did not always wear one), and that cyclist more than becoming a martyr had the honor of appearing as a pioneer, protagonist and victim of a human sacrifice for many, for everyone. Little is remembered of the vain resuscitation operation: yet those were three hours full of intensity. Think about it, let's think about it.
Every death weighs absolutely, but if one dies doing sports, the "thing" has a special weight. Saying that because of Bove's drama we rediscover ourselves in debt of emotion/feeling for Evenepoel - among other things with a surname difficult to pronounce smoothly, this also counts, crazy but it counts - seems strange, but it's not entirely wrong. The fact that cycling is a sport full (we were about to write "rich" instead of "full"...) of risks and that it has, how should I say?, gotten us used to its dramas should not count, but meanwhile we hope with these lines to have "collected" one more alarmed and thoughtful person. To the dangerousness of cycling, to motorism ruling the roads, a decline in youth registrations is attributed, with alarmed parents and frightened little children: another discussion, but not a "different" discussion.
Softly, I would say naturally, Rik Van Looy has died at 91, a great champion, the Coppi of in-line races and daily stage race finishes (even better than Merckx). I remember that L'Equipe dedicated an entire front page to trying to establish a hierarchy of greatness between the two, Fausto and the very, very Flemish Belgian. Van Looy was not a climber at all, the perfect title was: "Between Coppi and Van Looy, a mountain". But here I talk about Van Looy also if not especially to say that too many newspapers have dedicated too few lines to his passing. More should be dedicated to semi-unknown football players. And here we go again...

COMMENTI

...in compenso

31 gennaio 2025 10:21 canepari

molti hanno scritto di te. Tra GPO e la storia del giornalismo nessun confine.

Un gigante GPO

31 gennaio 2025 13:34 Pippopeppo35

Grazie di tutto, anche per questo tuo ultimo articolo

Per poter commentare i post devi esser registrato.
Se sei giá nostro utente esegui il login altrimenti registrati.

TBRADIO

00:00

DIBATTITO

LELLO FERRARA E QUELLE AUTO PARCHEGGIATE IN CICLABILE A TRENTO: «HA SENSO PARLARE DI SICUREZZA IN ITALIA?»

"Ora io dico, parliamo di sicurezza in Italia: quello è il logo della pista ciclabile, però va bene così… Allora io dico, è giusto poi parlare di sicurezza e parlare di ciclabili nel nostro Paese? Come fa adesso uno che...

I VOTI DEL DIRETTORE

I VOTI DI STAGI. LEKNESSUND NEL NOME DEL RE, VAN AERT SI VESTE DI VERDE

Andreas LEKNESSUND. 10 e lode. Si fa tutta la tappa in fuga, partendo fin da subito con Van Aert e Vader. Corre con il lutto al braccio, Andreas come tutta la Uno X, che oggi fa il suo personalissimo “triplete”,...

PROFESSIONISTI

VUELTA. PRIMA FUGA E GRANDE FESTA UNO-X: VINCE LEKNESSUND SU JOHANNESSEN! 3° VAN AERT

Al Giro d'Italia ci era andato vicinissimo con tre secondi posti di tappa, alla Vuelta a España 2026 è andato a segno alla prima vera occasione: in cima ad Aramón Valdelinares, dopo una tappa da 149, 8 km, esulta Andreas...

DONNE

GIRO DI TOSCANA. TAPPA E MAGLIA PER MARTINA ALZINI

La tradizionale tappa del Giro di Toscana femminile con partenza da Serravalle Pistoiese e conclusione nel centro di Quarrata, sulle strade dell’indimenticabile Franco Ballerini con il traguardo volante con abbuoni a Casalguidi di fronte al murale dedicato al “Ballero”, è...

PROFESSIONISTI

TPC EN NOUVELLE-AQUITAINE: FRETIN FESTEGGIA IL BIS NELL’ULTIMA TAPPA, CLASSIFICA GENERALE A DECOMBLE

La 40ᵃ edizione della TPC en Nouvelle-Aquitaine si è chiusa esattamente come si era aperta, ovvero con una vittoria di Milan Fretin. Proprio come nella frazione inaugurale, infatti, il velocista belga della Cofidis si è nuovamente lasciato tutti alle...

NEWS

A CHIURO IL GRAPPOLO D'ORO SI APRE CON IL CONVEGNO SUL CICLOTURISMO

Chiuro – Si è tenuta giovedì sera, presso l’Auditorium di Chiuro, la serata inaugurale della manifestazione Il Grappolo d’Oro, evento giunto alla sua 43ª edizione e dedicato alla valorizzazione del territorio, della cultura e delle eccellenze locali. Quest’anno l’apertura è...

NEWS

VERSO I MONDIALI. VOECKLER:«SEIXAS SARÀ CAPITANO, AVRÀ LA FRANCIA TUTTA PER LUI»

Paul Seixas sarà leader della Francia nella prova iridata degli Elite che si disputerà domenica 27 settembre a Montréal, in Canada. Il talentuoso atleta nativo di Lione ha ricevuto pubblicamente i gradi di capitano della squadra “Bleu” dal Commissario Tecnico...

VELO'. SE VOLETE RIVEDERE LA PUNTATA DI QUESTA SETTIMANA...

La puntata di Velò andata in onda giovedì sera su Rete8 è stata particolarmente interessante: si è parlato di Vuelta España, di classiche estive per prof e dilettanti, realtà giovanili e di tanto altro ancora con Luciano Rabottini, Riccardo Magrini, Emanuele Bombini e Umbertone di Giusewppe. Come...

NEWS

JACQUELIN, ALL’ORIZZONTE SI PROFILA UN’ALTRA STAGIONE NEL CICLISMO

Sembra esser destinata a proseguire la liaison tra Emilien Jacquelin e il ciclismo su strada. Alfiere dallo scorso maggio della Decathlon CGA CGM dopo essersi messo al collo due medaglie alle Olimpiadi di Milano Cortina 2026, il trentunenne di...

NEWS

L'ULTIMA VUELTA DI LUTSENKO. «A FINE STAGIONE SMETTO»

«Questa sarà la mia ultima Vuelta, a fine stagione mi fermerò». Così, con poche parole, Alexey Lutsenko ha confermato che chiuderà la sua lunga carriera agonistica. Il kazako, classe 1992, appenderà la bicicletta al chiodo dopo quattordici stagioni passate a...