On the threshold of his 90th birthday, Gino Zanussi recently received the pink jersey sent by the winner of the 2024 Giro d'Italia, Tadej Pogacar. In fact, the Slovenian champion - through his former junior coach Lucio Caldo - wanted to pay homage to his oldest Italian "historic" fan.

The popular Gino has been following Tadej since he was in the junior category, and since then has maintained an affectionate relationship that has granted him, among the very few, direct phone contacts during which they exchange comments about a race won, but also discuss doubts about certain applied strategies or offer encouragement during the difficult moments that every rider can encounter. The delivery of the autographed jersey took place at the "Cavour" trattoria in the center of Sacile. With his friends Caldo, Piva, and the Gasparotto brothers, who share the same passion and idol, Gino posed for a commemorative photo.

Due to Gino's great passion, expertise, and historical memory of cycling, Ernesto Colnago also wanted to meet him: the two are only three years apart, with Colnago having just celebrated his 93rd birthday, but both can recite the history of cycling from the 20th century to today from memory. The meeting, made possible by their mutual friendship with Luciano Gasparotto, took place in Colnago's Milan home.

Now the new 2025 competitive season will begin, and everyone is already predicting tremendous results for Pogacar. Gino can certainly be happy with his passion that has kept him "in training" from the times of Coppi up to now with the phenomenon Pogacar.