It's July 14, 1965, Bastille Day. At the Parc des Princes in Paris, an Italian completes his victory lap in the yellow jersey. He is 22 years, 9 months, and 16 days old, lives in Sedrina in Val Brembana and races for Salvarani: he is Felice Gimondi, rightly nicknamed the ideal champion.

The 1965 Tour de France is his and all of Italy's, brave in rolling up its sleeves during the fabulous '60s. Felice's beautiful victory created enthusiasm for Bergamo and its Valleys similar to when Giovanni Roncalli was elected Pope. The Tour de France 2025 is about to start, exactly 60 years after Felice Gimondi's stunning success in the world's most important stage race.

Gimondi established a record that cannot be underestimated. In 1964 he won the Tour de l'Avenir, and the following year the "real" Tour. In less than 12 months, Felice won both the baby Tour and the Tour de France, something spine-chilling. Not even Tadej Pogacar managed this who won the Tour de l'Avenir in 2018 and the Grande Boucle in 2020, moreover at the end of the season due to Covid.

The 1965 Tour de France ended with Raymond Poulidor 2nd in the standings at 2'40" from Felice, Gianni Motta 3rd at 9'18". This to tell you how great Italian cycling was in the Sixties. And to think that both Motta and Gimondi weren't even supposed to participate in the 1965 Tour de France. Gianni Motta was riding like a motorcycle in spring, and champions sometimes find witches under their wheels. Gianni instead ended up under the wheels! It happened at the Tour of Romandy (Switzerland) that Gianni, wearing Molteni, would have won hands down. While pedaling at the beginning of the stage in the back of the group, he was hit by a "Press" vehicle. The car ran over his leg, damaging a vein, that cursed one, which forced him to suffer for years. For Gianni, goodbye Giro d'Italia. However, the Molteni staff, namely team manager Giorgio Albani and mechanic Ernesto Colnago, decided to field Gianni in the Tour de France: he had only 1000 kilometers of training in his legs post-leg surgery. Motta raced in the Tour in a mixed Molteni-Ignis team.

Felice Gimondi was a promising neo-professional who was called up at the last minute by Salvarani to compete in the Tour replacing captain Vittorio Adorni, the triumphant winner of the 1965 Giro d'Italia.

The '65 Tour started from Cologne (Germany) on June 22nd and entered France with Belgian Bernard Van De Kerckhove in the yellow jersey. Already in the third stage, 240 kilometers ending in Rouen, Jacques Anquetil's stronghold, Gimondi scratched. He won the stage and wore the yellow jersey. He was a Gimondi capable of piloting the race with the impetus of a champion yet rationally. In fact, at the end of the seventh stage where Edward Sels triumphed in La Rochelle, the young man from Bergamo left the yellow jersey to Van De Kerckhove.

Felice reclaimed it in the Pyrenees, in Bagneres de Bigorre (ninth stage, 1st Julio Jimenez). Stage number 18, a time trial of 27 kilometers from Aix Les Bains to Mont Revard, was dominated by Felice who increased his lead in the general classification. The man from Val Brembana needed the cherry on top. Gimondi put the icing on the cake in the final time trial from Versailles to the Parc des Princes velodrome in Paris, 38 kilometers.

In the time trial, Felice was 1st, with Gianni Motta second, who had significantly improved in condition in the final stages. In that 4,177-kilometer Tour, stage wins also went to Venetian Adriano Durante and Giuseppe Fezzardi. "Peppe" Fezzardi's stage win came in Gap, in the heart of the Alps, where winning is never trivial. Gimondi first in 3 stages plus the final classification, Gianni Motta on the podium and two other Italians winning stages. Unfortunately, this is an impossible result for "Blue Pedal" in these times.

There were many Italians at the Parc des Princes applauding Gimondi and the Italians. The Parisian venue hosted the penultimate conclusion of the Tour de France. After the 1967 Tour epilogue, the Parc des Princes remained empty for 3 years. In 1970 it was demolished and rebuilt: now the cycling track no longer exists, it's a football stadium where Paris Saint Germain plays. Felice is no longer with us since August 16, 2019, now he watches the Tour from up there. Felice, make the Italians win.