He touched sixty in the final stretch of that magnificent ride that earned him the 2002 Tour of Flanders and the coronation by His Majesty Eddy Merckx: "Go Tafone, the Flanders is yours!".

Andrea Tafi remembers it well, and he will turn sixty next May 7th, but he leaves it behind his shoulders, as he has always done. "I have always looked ahead, at what there was to do rather than at what I had done, even though I won't deny it, almost twenty-five years later, that success has remained in my heart, as has the Roubaix victory. Two victories that are worth a career: two gems that shine with their own light".

You are still the only Italian ever to have won both the Tour of Flanders and the Paris-Roubaix (among women, only Elisa Longo Borghini, ed.).

"These are small great satisfactions, which I am proud of and in Belgium, which have better memory of us, they remember it very well. It's no coincidence that at those latitudes I am a star. That they recognize me on the street. That they stop me for selfies and autographs".

You are truly a celebrity.

"They invited me again this year to race the gran fondo with some friends and to follow the race. Cycling in Belgium is truly a religion, something unique. They love sports, football very much, but cycling is still the sport that unites a population. Having won the Flanders for them is a matter of pride: in their eyes you are truly something special, something mythological".

All triumphs bearing the Mapei brand...

"And it couldn't be otherwise. That was a crazy team, which wrote memorable pages of cycling. I am proud to have been part of that team, which I have always called family, because it was guided by a great family: the Squinzis. Giorgio Squinzi and Adriana Spazzoli were not only the reference points of one of the model companies in the world, but they transmitted to all of us the values of a family and a company that represented them, to the team. They helped us be better athletes, but they helped us be better people. If today we are what we are, much of the credit is theirs, who truly accompanied us in our growth. They didn't just want good athletes, but also good people".

Even today, after so much time, you speak with vivid emotion about that experience.

"You had to be there to understand and you know it... The man has always been at the center of everything: that was true and is still true today for the company and that was true for the cycling team. The main strength of Giorgio Squinzi, who was the CEO of Mapei, and his wife Adriana Spazzoli, who was responsible for marketing and communications for the entire Group, was that of transmitting positive values. They invested to win, but not only. They gave the opportunity to many young people to approach cycling, creating a Mapei "espoir" and also helping many amateur teams that then produced many riders. Mapei was thirty years ahead. Today all World Tour teams have created development squads, Mapei did it in unsuspected times".

Back to the Flanders: what a victory...

"Unexpected, but also unpredictable and, at a certain point, also compromised. The beginning was not exactly the best. After 80 kilometers a flat tire, right on the pavement. At the Sanremo we hadn't gone very well, so our team car was in the back, so I thought: it's over. I had to wait a while before assistance arrived with the spare wheel. My chase was neither simple nor short. I really had to give it my all, but as often happened to me, when I had the feeling of having lost everything I would galvanize myself. I get back to the group at full speed, catch my breath for a moment, and then I take off again, leading away a breakaway. I feel I have very good legs, which I didn't even feel so good in the morning. I go and it's a pleasure and the confirmation comes to me from Rolf Soerensen, a Dane based in Italy and with whom I often trained. He looks at me and says: "Andrea, we've taken away the breakaway, when there are climbs let's not overdo it, let's proceed regularly, then on the flat we'll unleash hell". I continue and at the next climb I proceed at my own pace. At a certain point, with no small effort, Rolf pulls up next to me again and says: "Andrea, steady...". And I say: "But I'm going steady...". It's at that moment I understand that I'm going very strong and I could have dared".

Indeed, he goes away with Hincapie, Nardello, Museeuw and Van Petegem.

"A well-assorted group of tough guys. I understand that Museeuw and Van Petegem have also talked to each other and have therefore agreed. If Nardello attacks, Museeuw covers, if I attack Van Petegem intervenes. I have to free myself from that marking, and at the first opportunity I force my hand: go all out, even if it means flying through the air. I gain two hundred meters, a few seconds, but I don't let up. I hold them there. The final stretch, towards Ninove where the finish line was, is a long false flat downhill. I fly by at over sixty kilometers per hour. I arrive alone with 21" on Museeuw and Van Petegem. I remember that Aldo Sassi, who passed away too soon in 2010, the then team manager of the squad and founder with Squinzi of the Mapei Sport Research Center which just last Saturday celebrated 30 years of activity, for joy jumps with a leap over a fence to reach me and tears his pants. A second of embarrassment, then a big who cares... I've never seen him happier...".

What did Dr. Squinzi give you for that victory...

"He gave me gifts every year, despite having a regularly signed contract. The scheme was always the same: he would call me to his Milan office and then ask me: Andrea, are you okay? Yes doctor, I have a multi-year signed contract. Good, let's break the contract and renegotiate it. He did everything, he increased my contract and we moved forward, until the next year: never found anyone like that...".

In your time there was also the World Cup, which rewarded the strongest in one-day races.

"It would be fantastic if it were brought back. The five Monuments, the Strade Bianche, plus five more races. If I were at the UCI I would bring it back immediately".

But you really don't live on memories...

"I don't feed on memories, but on emotions".

from Avvenire of April 5, 2026