Vittorio Strumolo represents a primary reference point in the small history – nonetheless history – as an organizer of multiple sporting events with great public appeal in the years of the post-war period until approximately the mid-1970s.

Dr. Vittorio Strumolo, a true "anti-character" by definition and choice, born in 1908, with a slight and somewhat rounded physique, was a highly appreciated consultant in the financial and fiscal field for important companies of international relevance in his work that could be defined as "normal" as a chartered accountant with a degree from the Catholic University. A profession practiced in his professional office in Milan, on via Marsala, in the Porta Nuova area, not far from his residence on via Pola.

Then, on the same day, depending on his commitments, he became an entrepreneur in the sports sector, a promoter as they say in English, at the helm of S.I.S. (Italian Sports Enterprises Company) with headquarters also in Milan, at number 2 of the central via Cesare Cantù, just steps from the Milan Cathedral, always presided over by the capable secretary, Mrs. Mariuccia, who managed his always busy schedule and filtered, in the first instance, the multiple and varied proposals that were directed to the "doctor".

And the field of action of S.I.S. in those years spanned multiple disciplines with the management of cycling events within the framework of the then very active Vigorelli Velodrome, now named after Antonio Maspes, a champion of the "magic track" with a surrounding of significant caliber and protagonists, at an international level, of different specialties – both track cyclists and renowned road racers – who gave life to events with sold-out stands, and a constant activity, almost daily, that could be defined as foundational, which produced protagonists in considerable profusion. And the "Vigo", with its varied humanity that worked there with passion and specific skills, was a pole of attraction for riders and the "parish expertise" as the great journalist who lived nearby, Mario Fossati, defined the regular frequenters of the facility, connoisseurs with refined taste.

The S.I.S. relied on cycling expertise from race directors such as the great and always elegant Gaetano "Tano" Belloni, remembered in history as "the eternal second" and then his successor in the role, the Milanese Nino Recalcati, organizer in those years between 1950 and the beginning of the 1990s approximately, also of the well-known fee-based circuits in various parts of Italy (see attached link).

In the winter season the activity moved inside the Sports Palace in Piazza Sei Febbraio, in the district of the old Trade Fair, and where, inside what is defined today as the Palace of Sparks, a wooden track was assembled with a length of a few decimeters less than 200 meters, a true "bowl" as it is called in jargon, a very short track.

And, on this subject, thanks to research by our friend Prof. Sergio Introzzi, an F.C.I. technical expert, the presentation sheet specifies that "total length measured at the chord of 200 meters with the two straights of 70 meters each. The maximum gradient, at the center of the two curves, reached 53% with the minimum at 13%. It was assembled and set up in two days using one hundred panels of Siberian wood".

It was here that in 1961 Vittorio Strumolo's S.I.S., in close collaboration with Ignis of the famous Milanese entrepreneur, originally from the Isola district, with facilities in the Varese area, the dynamic Commendator Giovanni Borghi who saw in sport the best way to promote and establish his brands, proposed – with considerable public success who came to see the best offered by the cast of world specialists, defined "fakirs" by the press – the carousel of the Six Days of Milan after the first two editions, always held in the same fairground building, in 1927 and 1928.

The stands were simple wooden boards for about two thousand seats. Except for the first row, arranged along the track railing, spectators in the rows above had to constantly "struggle" with the view and move their heads, right and left, every lap of the track, to follow the races in order to overcome the visual obstruction caused by the numerous vertical columns that supported the roof of the structure. Inside the track, with the riders' quarters with the cabins of the various pairs arranged immediately at the track edge where in turn, depending on the type of race, the track cyclists found moments of rest on the cot and where the "little one" (this is how the logistics assistant of the pairs was defined, part cook, part masseur, part mechanic, a "little one" jack-of-all-trades who could be fifty years old, and even more…) would close the curtain to guarantee a minimum of "privacy" when deemed necessary. A sort of show within the show with the public able to see their favorites at less than ten meters for those quick enough to occupy the first rows of the stands.

And from 1 p.m. to 2 a.m. the next morning there were always races with the afternoon session and then, with a brief interval to "change the air" and quick cleaning, followed the evening session, highly spectacular.

And the organizer, in this case Dr. Strumolo, with his inseparable, voluminous leather bag, occupied a small table, in a somewhat reserved position, to coordinate with his collaborators the running of the track and the restaurant area, always sold out and frequented by well-known figures from various backgrounds, and the stage for entertainment interludes with artists of great renown who were often booed from the stands simply because they interrupted the pedaling whirl of the riders on the track with track cyclists and road racers of the highest caliber. And all this until 1973, in the month of February, before the resumption on the road with the Trofeo Laigueglia.

Two years of stoppage followed and then, in 1976, the Milan Six Days was held in the new Sports Palace facility in the San Siro area, modern, 250-meter track, stands with comfortable seats and no columns to obstruct the view. The organization was taken over by the Italian Cycling Federation directly but the great snowfall of 1985 in Milan revealed the Achilles' heel of the futuristic covered facility which collapsed and crumbled, leading after years of abandonment to the demolition of the structure using explosives. A sad story.

Let's return to Strumolo however to summarize, with brief notes, his extraordinary story with sport also beyond cycling. He was the Technical Director of the Italian national cross-country skiing team for specific passion and, under his guidance, the Trentino from Val di Fiemme Franco Nones was the first Italian to assert himself in the 30 km cross-country race at the Grenoble Olympics in 1968, thus interrupting the hegemony until then exercised in the discipline by Northern European champions. A small digression still and in some way cycling-related: it was Strumolo who contacted Dr. Giordano Cremonese, an entrepreneur in the clothing sector, founder of Manifattura Valcismon of Fonzaso, in the Belluno area, to study and create innovative garments for the specialty, subsequently acquiring considerable notoriety also in the cycling field with the Sportful and Castelli brands.

Boxing, then very much in vogue, had in Strumolo an international-level promoter, always in combined action with Ignis, both at the Vigorelli and at the San Siro stadium with front-page events. In this sector he relied, in the function of match maker, on Romolo Mombelli, journalist for La Notte.

We then mention, the tours in Italy of the extraordinary American basketball jugglers, the Harlem Globetrotters, and those glittering with sequins, spangles and acrobatic evolutions on skates of Holiday on Ice. Events often accompanied by the phrase "sold out" (the Anglicism "sold out" had not yet entered the language).

But his multi-sport value did not end there as Vittorio Strumolo is the father of Maria Antonietta Rita – called Mietta – born in Milan in 1949, a skilled swimmer in freestyle over short distances, who won gold for the Italian colors at the Mediterranean Games in Tunis in 1967 and participated with distinction in the major swimming appointments at world level.

We conclude however with other cycling notes relating to the silent and often withdrawn subject who did not like the spotlight and, to words, preferred the eloquence of numbers and facts.

He was among the promoters of sports associations at the national level with the National Association of Italian Blue Athletes, a great friend of Fiorenzo Magni and among the founders of the first Cycling League, which later led to the U.C.I.P. (Italian Professional Cycling Union, and then L.C.P.) with Vincenzo Torriani, organizers and entrepreneurs "patrons" of the major teams, Giovanni Borghi, the Ignis man first and foremost, in open opposition to the U.V.I. of the time – the current F.C.I. – to which they demanded greater autonomy for professionalism (editor's note: "history often repeats itself"…): He was a capable and reliable cultivator of important relationships at various levels of sport, a true man of action with an educated, gentle but firm and results-oriented manner both in professional work and in sports work, based on concreteness and specific competencies and also often anticipatory intuitions and sometimes with risks and uncertainties that later proved to be fully successful. Dr. Vittorio Strumolo, however, managed to achieve this with excellent consistency.