SUMMER LEFT IN DECEMBER

TUTTOBICI | 31/01/2025 | 08:16
di Gian Paolo Porreca

Winter took away, for the child Paolo, the summer of his years. It left in December, even before the solstice and Christmas, with the passing of Rik Van Looy at 90 years old, the great Belgian cyclist, the summer of his years.


It left, from that pink vacation house in Carano, where the child Paolo - dressed like a mature adult - had returned just the other day, to tidy up time and barely mitigate the chill of its walls: house "Della Rosa".


Summer left, not just that of 2024, but the very concept of summer, and his hands discreetly and cautiously leafed through the dry paper of Lo Sport Illustrato collections from the early '60s, escaped from the cold tidying of young housemaids. What could that mountain of newspapers mean to them, or even to their children, their grandchildren. Who was Zilverberg?

It left, and Paolo's child memory barely remembers - now that he could be a grandfather of those ten years - his first bicycle, during the time Van Looy was alive.

He would leave Salgari's books, Sandokan and Tremal-naik, to climb on it, early in the morning, in the countryside, the endless summers of Carano, his first bicycle. Paolo the child would escape from his grandmother Rosa's rough hands who was still rubbing his face with fresh water, she who said he washed like cats, and off he went. The Tourmalet, the Izoard, the Aubisque, the Stelvio were there, on the hundred meters of a worn path between grass and terrain, from the family house to the Di Meo settlers' house, further up. Across a rickety wooden bridge, crossing an old rural road.

His first bicycle was there, a Bianchi 18, with racing handlebars and a water bottle, made of tin like a sheriff's star, and even a gear shift, incredible, which an ingenious artisan from Sessa Aurunca, in the workshop near the Annunziata, had managed to adapt to such a small bike.

And on that little bicycle, at 10 years old, he would call himself Pasqualino Fornara, still in tears for the dramatic defeat in the 1956 Giro, in the Bondone storm, his Fornara, the melodrama... And he would tell races in his own way, like a reporter: yes, last Coppi, or at most second to last. And among the worst, always a Belgian, Van Aerde, and a Swiss, Vaucher, you explain to him why. And his first bicycle, a bike with an adult's gear shift, was Paolo's child pride, every time they would go from the countryside to Carano on Saturday afternoon for an ice cream, on the Corso.

And the village boys, the street kids, would follow him to look at it, to admire it perhaps too closely. And he was a bit afraid they might want to take it, and he would cling to his father, the times his father was there, who hadn't remained in Naples, at the University.

And he just had to turn back, to admonish them severely, and they would vanish just from that stern look. And child Paolo, reassured, would then sprint, redeem again: behind the curve of the Station road, he would imagine the flying finish line. "Go, Paolo, see that you're no longer the sniveling kid crying for that Fornara, you've become a big and strong boy, you know, just like the Belgian Van Looy".

His father's voice, his rare smile, the name heard for the first time in his heart of Rik Van Looy in the summer of 1960, blessed by his father as the emblem of the absolute champion: without stain and without fear, a Cid Campeador.

Van Looy's face, in those years of Lo Sport Illustrato, his feats and that missed Giro d'Italia, child Paolo would still caress. But slowly, almost like communion wafers, slowly so as not to hurt the undefeated champion of FAEMA, not to cause them damage, not to wake them. Yes, child Paolo, even now in January 2025 when he is of a completely different age, is still big and strong like Van Looy. Only that Rik, even after his end on December 17, 2024, will remain immortal.


Copyright © TBW
COMMENTI
Hai dimenticato i tuoi dati, clicca qui.
Se non sei registrato clicca qui.
TBRADIO

00:00
00:00
Danny van Poppel ha messo la sua firma con una splendida volata sull'ultima tappa del Tour of Holland, disputata con partenza e arrivo ad Arnhem. Dopo che gli organizzatori hanno deciso di accorciare la tappa di sette chilometri rimuovendo l'unico tratto...


Ottima prestazione di Alessia Vigilia nella cronometro delle Nazioni per donne elite che oggi è si è svolta a Les Herbiers in Francia sulla distanza di 26, 7 chilometri. La bolzanina della FDJ SUEZ ha tenuta testa fino all'ultimo metro...


A Ruddervoorde (Belgio) Sara Casasola sfiora la vittoria nella prima manche del Superprestige di Ciclocross per donne elite. La friulana della Crelan Corendon, seconda anche ieri a Essen, chiude la prova alle spalle della campionessa belga e compagna di squadra...


Podio tutto italiano all'Alperosequer Schneisingen di Ciclocross per juniores che stamattina si è disputato in Svizzera. Ha vinto il figlio d'arte e campione italiano Patrik Pezzo Rosola (Fas Airport Services Guerciotti Premac) al terzo successo dopo Illnau e Tarvisio, che...


L'ultimo traguardo della stagione juniores 2025 porta la firma di Brandon Fedrizzi. Il trentino della Petrucci Assali Stefen Makro si aggiudica la gara di Camignone, nel Bresciano, chiudendo con cinque affermazioni la sua prima annata con gli juniores. Fedrizzi si...


Si chiude nel segno di Paul Magnier e Paul Double il Tour of Guangxi 2025. Lo sprinter transalpino della Soudal Quick-Step, vincitore già di 4 tappe questa settimana, ha servito la cinquina conquistando anche la frazione conclusiva della breve...


Si conclude con il trionfo di Lorenzo Cataldo il Giro di Serbia Open (2.2). Il toscano del Gragnano Sport Club conquista la classifica generale dopo aver sfiorato la vittoria nella terza e ultima tappa, da Jagodina a Kruševac, dove ha...


Adam Hansen, presidente del CPA -Cyclistes Professionnels Associé, l’associazione mondiale dei corridori, ha pubblicato su X una riflessione in cui affronta temi cruciali del futuro del ciclismo professionistico. Un vero e proprio “dietro le quinte” della vita dei corridori, lontano...


La Calabria potrebbe riabbracciare il Giro d’Italia. A distanza di quattro anni dalla volata vincente di Démare a Scalea e della successiva ripartenza da Diamante, in Regione starebbero lavorando per ospitare tre tappe dell’edizione 2026 della “corsa rosa”.  Le tre...


E' successo nella notte, ma non è affatto un sogno: la Nazionale italiana di paraciclismo stupisce ancora ai Mondiali su pista di Rio de Janeiro, trascinata da una straordinaria Claudia Cretti, che nella tarda serata di ieri ha completato...


TBRADIO

-

00:00
00:00





DIGITAL EDITION
Prima Pagina Edizioni s.r.l. - Via Inama 7 - 20133 Milano - P.I. 11980460155




Editoriale Rapporti & Relazioni Gatti & Misfatti I Dubbi Scripta Manent Fisco così per Sport L'Ora del Pasto Le Storie del Figio ZEROSBATTI Capitani Coraggiosi La Vuelta 2024