History tells us that twelve human beings have walked on the surface of the moon, but we like to think there was a thirteenth man who got there multiple times. Naturally, by bicycle.

And who knows, now that he has left this earth forever, perhaps it is there that Professor Giovanni Giaccone has set a new milestone, before beginning to pedal towards paradise.

The professor passed away at 89 years old, defeated in just a few months by a relentless tumor: in his diary, the last entry is dated February 27th, the day he completed the last of his 2,302,605 kilometers on a bike. That is, six times the distance from earth to the moon, or equivalent to traveling more than 56 times around the Equator, or having completed the Giro d'Italia 650 times. The last three kilometers he traveled were to go from his home to the hospital for tests, where that tumor was discovered that took him away...

INCREDIBLE RECORDS. The Professor's cycling records are truly incredible, as Matteo Borgetto reports in the pages of La Stampa
He pedaled more than 40,000 km per year for forty years, from 1983 to 2022. And for another 22 years (not consecutive) he covered more than 50,000 km, with a record of 59,180 km in the calendar year 2007 (average of 162 km per day) and a monthly record of 6,047 km in May 2005 (average 195 km per day). Furthermore: for 18 complete years between 1990 and 2012 he rode every single day. From 1989 to February 2006 he spent 6,086 consecutive days on a bicycle.

EVEN ON VACATION. Everyone in Cuneo saw him on his bike, heading to tackle one of his favorite climbs on his Colnago Eps: Colle di Tenda, della Maddalena, della Lombarda, dell'Agnello and Sant'Anna di Vinadio, Europe's highest sanctuary. Always by bike even on vacation with his wife throughout Italy ("We visited all the regional capitals, from North to South") and abroad: Switzerland, Austria, Canary Islands, France, Ireland, Scotland and Iceland (2,000 km).

PROFESSOR. A mathematics professor, working in various schools in Cuneo, including evening classes to help many working students, when in 1993 and 1994 he was called to reach Terni and Gorizia as a commissioner for Maturità exams, he went by bicycle, sending his suitcase to the hotel. By bicycle even in winter, he never tired. "Of course I get tired, but only when I'm standing still" was the quip he would give to those who asked him. Only two stops: in 2006 for surgery and in 2023 for an accident with a fractured femur that kept him off the bike for over five months.

PASSION. His passion was born in childhood, when his father promised him and his twin brother Luciano a bicycle as a gift for obtaining their "avviamento" diploma. His father unfortunately passed away, but his mother wanted to honor the promise and, despite great sacrifices, the bikes arrived for the two brothers in 1951: with Luciano, Professor Giaccone participated in numerous races, preferring randonneeing events, Paris-Brest-Paris, Bergamo-Rome-Bergamo and so on, always concluding the effort with a good beer.

Giovanni Giaccone leaves behind his wife Anna, his son Luca (librarian at the Civic Library of Cuneo, national curator of the Slow Food Guide to Italian Beers and international judge in beer competitions) and his family: the funeral will be held tomorrow, Friday, June 12th, at 10 a.m., at the crematorium in Magliano Alpi.

His family will now keep that diary full of numbers and updates, with the story—numbers yes, if you know how to read them—of those trips to the moon, around the world, along the most loved or unknown roads, of that life entirely lived pedaling.