On the day of his funeral, many of us were there to bid him farewell, and this weekend, by the will of the FCI, all races are marked by a minute of silence in his honor. For Piero, who passed away while escorting a cycling race, this was the right thing that could be done immediately to thank him, to be grateful, to show closeness to his family and the Pistoia Motorcycle Group he was part of.

But if after the minute of silence, we were to let silence fall, this would not be right. Apart from the prudence that should always characterize those driving a vehicle, Piero died because almost no one knows the transit rules for cycling races, and still too many people underestimate the repeated signals from the escort, proceeding recklessly until they themselves see the riders coming, occupying the entire roadway.

For us in cycling, the loss of Piero, who fell while embodying our dream of making cycling races completely safe, cannot be just the pain of losing a friend or a colleague, the intense pain of his loved ones, but also the unfortunate circumstance to reflect that we are not doing enough to protect cyclists and the accompanying personnel in competitions. It is not enough to invoke measures; we must operate, act, and even fight with determination so that these reasons are seriously understood until the appropriate solutions are produced.

In our case, we need the ability to transform grief into something alive: the commitment that this never happens again. The commitment to transform good intentions into real actions. More than what we have already done, and even positively.

We need an information campaign by the Presidency of the Council or the competent ministries, to inform how to behave when encountering a cycling race; we need this matter to be included in the quizzes for driving license exams; we need radio frequencies dedicated to race safety and therefore to communications between escort operators, ASA, police forces, and race management.

Exactly the essence of Piero's family's hope, as when his wife Roberta and daughters Valentina and Eleonora, with great composure in managing their pain, say: "At least let this death serve to make people understand what must be done to prevent this from happening again, so that others do not have to suffer". Words of hope from a family entirely dedicated to cycling: those who have raced, those who work as ASA, and Piero who did technical escort. Extraordinary!

Now it is up to us in the great cycling family to be a bit extraordinary. Each in their own task, more or less big, commit to being so!