There are small great stories that only cycling is capable of giving us. Like the one that unites Fermo Camellini and Celestino Camilla, two Italian cyclists who emigrated to France, two professionals who were later naturalized as French citizens but never lost their bond with Italy.

The story begins in 1935 when Camellini - born in 1914, a native of Scandiano but who emigrated with his family to Beaulieu-sur-Mer - was already a professional cyclist training in the hinterland of Nice. On more than one occasion, climbing Mont Baron, he meets Celestino Camilla, born in 1917, a native of Niella Tanaro but who had emigrated to France where he pedaled to deliver bread and carved out space for training as best he could.

The two young men quickly became friends, Camellini - who wore the pink jersey, won stages at the Tour and in 1948, as an Italian, was the first foreigner to win the Flèche Wallonne - urges Camilla to persist with cycling, the young man listens to him and will reach professionalism by winning - as an Italian - in 1942 two stages of the Vuelta España.

The friendship between the two lasted... more than a lifetime: Camilla died in 1991, Camellini in 2010 but their story never ended, indeed in recent days it has found new vigor precisely in Niella Tanaro, Celestino Camilla's native town.

Here, on the occasion of the traditional Bread Festival, Alex Camellini, Fermo's grandson, and Christiane Garente, Celestino's granddaughter, met. The two exchanged memories and emotions: «Our grandfathers, to return home with their prize money while crossing the border, were forced to hide it by tying the money to the tube with the tape that covered the handlebars» they told Unione Monregalese. And as if by magic old photographs also appeared and a special meeting, the one with the Gagino family, whose ancestor Joseph had raced in Paris, also on two wheels.

An afternoon of celebration that united three families in the memory of those grandfathers who did not hesitate to make great sacrifices to pursue their dreams on a bicycle and whose bicycle united them forever with a special friendship.