The night has taken from us Primo Franchini, a master of team management, but above all a talent scout and pioneer: he will remain in history as the first to bring professional cyclists from what was then the Soviet Union into the professional peloton. He passed away quietly, but in his case it's not just a banal and customary turn of phrase: that's how he was, reserved and reluctant to seek the spotlight, he kept to himself even when he could have flaunted successes and achievements. And he remained in the background even in the final phase of his life, rarely appearing at gatherings and celebrations of former colleagues.

Born in Sala Bolognese, always deeply attached to his Calderara di Reno, where he also started commercial activities, Franchini would have turned 85 on April 30th. Brief was his career as a rider (four seasons as a professional, with three Giro d'Italia participations and a steadfast friendship with Vito Taccone), he built himself a solid reputation as a directeur sportif over more than thirty years of career: his early days with Magniflex, where he guided Marino Basso and Alfio Vandi, then a decade with Alfa Lum (in the photo Primo is with Maurizio Fondriest, one of his "boys", who won the world championship in Ronse in 1988 with Alfa Lum, ed.), with five stage wins at the Giro and eight at the Vuelta, but above all the signing of Russian athletes of the caliber of Konyshev, Ugrumov and Abdujaparov. And then the first Mercatone Uno with veteran Baffi and the first Bartoli, the Brescialat, the Refin of young Piepoli and Mazzanti in the Nineties, before moving down to the amateur ranks, an environment where he was at ease, because he combined technical abilities with an enviable instinct.

Old-school technician, highly skilled at balancing carrot and stick, Franchini set an example for excellent successors: among those who passed under him were Pietro Algeri, Beppe Martinelli and his nephew Orlando Maini. Very reserved, but with a great heart, he knew how to open up to those who were able to earn his trust: then he became the ideal traveling companion, always with the tone of a good advisor rather than the master he actually proved to be. This is how he managed to be loved by many, riders, colleagues, mechanics, masseurs, journalists, enthusiasts, the small great world of cycling that today loses a person never sufficiently remembered, but in many respects unforgettable.

Our deepest condolences go out to his family from the cycling world and from the tuttoBICI editorial staff.