Yesterday was a somewhat milestone day for Naples and cycling, a sport to which this city of passions remains devoted. Indeed, after a long and industrious effort, the protocol agreement between the Italian Army and the Cycling Federation of Campania led by Umberto Perna was signed for the use of the glorious velodrome of the Military Stadium 'General Antonio Albricci', located in a quintessentially working-class Naples like that of Vasto.

Thanks to the availability of the military authorities and the committed efforts of Umberto Perna and Gennaro Nasti, head of the cycling committee of the Naples province, the pedals will thus return to spinning on that grueling cement track – after a quarter century of neglect or thereabouts – a very long one, 600 meters and more, recently subjected to a tasteful makeover, where memory marries without recourse to divorce the epic of a more authentic era, both for Naples and for cycling.

«It will be more of a cycling track than a modern velodrome specifically, open two days a week, Thursday and Saturday, where boys and girls from Campania cycling schools aged 5 to 15, with the technical collaboration of Internaples run by Carlo Milano, will be able to learn to ride bicycles on the track, and to develop their talent in a protected environment, without the risk that today too often faces cyclists on roads open to traffic» emphasizes Professor Umberto Perna. With the whispered hope that Naples will once again see talents flourish at the Arenaccia like Olympic champion in tandem from Tokyo 1964 Angelo Damiano and the late Crescenzo D'Amore, silver medalist in the junior kilometer from a standstill at the 1996 World Championships…

And in parallel, however, there come to mind the sprint and solitude of Fausto Coppi, at the Giro della Campania in '54 and '55, when the enthusiastic crowd on the track, overflowing, could not manage to reach him and touch him, as one would a saint beyond the profane, such was the multitude. And where, incidentally, the plaque in honor of Coppi remains clearly visible, which was affixed in May 2023, on the initiative of the Municipality of Naples, on the occasion of the arrival of the Giro d'Italia. Marino Basso and Willy Planckaert come back to light – do you still have references to them? The Arenaccia returns – children of the sun even though that Wednesday, June 12, 1968, it rained as a mocking god commanded – Eddy Merckx and his first Giro d'Italia victory, not yet 22 years old. At the Arenaccia, which from yesterday revives this and so many other adventures, that Wednesday Naples illustrated a story without end from the beginning, that of Eddy Merckx, champion of champions in Italy. Because in Naples one was never a foreigner, not even imperfectly, not even Roland Van de Rijse, the Belgian cyclist who arrived last that day. First in the sprint that afternoon, in any case, was Guido Reybrouck, a faithful lieutenant of Eddy Merckx.

And Eddy promised Naples, at the Arenaccia, without hesitation that he wanted to return again. And thanks to the institutional agreement finally in force from the blessed March 26 of this year, certainly with the approval of an official reason all the more.