Alcide Cerato left us last night, in that hour when night is still dark and dawn is ready to illuminate the world with its light. Alcide Cerato was for the cycling world a charismatic figure and a point of reference throughout his life (he was born on February 11, 1939): an excellent amateur rider, then a decent professional with the glorious Molteni jersey, then a visionary entrepreneur who literally reinvented and rewrote the way of thinking about funerals and funeral art, with his flagship company, San Siro, which over the years became a model not only in Italy. Meanwhile, he was a sports executive with his Nuova Baggio San Siro, an authentic breeding ground for talent: from Moreno Argentin to Pierangelo Bincoletto, from Maurizio Bidinost to Roberto Bressan, up to Stefano Allocchio. But above all, he was a capable and ambitious executive, vigorous and determined, with a winning character, at times rather uncompromising, in true Cerato style. He was, first and foremost, a generous man, who opened his home to all those who shared his passion for the bicycle, his great love, of which he had a profound knowledge.

A friend departs, for me a second father, who welcomed me several decades ago with his proverbial generosity into his great and wonderful family: for me this will forever remain a gift. He left us on a deep summer night, ready to become dawn: that hour which he loved to encounter first, walking early in the morning through the meadows of San Pantaleo among his donkeys and his sheep, his horses and his chickens. An earthly paradise in which he found that eternity that tastes so good.

To Antonella, his lifelong companion. To his siblings, Milena, Raffaella and Riccardo. To his sons Massimo and Andrea who are admirably carrying forward his great dream. To his daughters-in-law Monica and Alessandra, as well as to his beloved grandchildren Caroline and Alexander, the most heartfelt embrace from the editorial staff of tuttoBICI, tuttobiciweb and tuttobicitech.