A surname can come from far away. It can cross sixty years of cycling, two Giro d'Italia victories, thousands of kilometers and a black and white photograph, only to end up on the shoulders of a twenty-year-old girl who continues to pedal without looking back too much. Balmamion is one of those surnames that in cycling doesn't need to be introduced. Franco made it great by winning two consecutive Giro d'Italia titles, in 1962 and 1963, building his legend on endurance, consistency, and the ability to stay within the race until it became a second nature.

More than sixty years later, on those same roads that have continued to tell stories of champions, breakaways and destinies, pedals a twenty-year-old girl born in Cirié, in Piedmont, who proudly carries the weight of that surname and, above all, the responsibility. Her name is Anita Baima. She is a sprinter, races on road and track, wears the jersey of Isolmant-Premac-Vittoria and is one of the most beautiful stories of the Giro del Mediterraneo in Rosa. Because cycling, sometimes, has a surprising memory: it takes a surname from the past, entrusts it to a girl of the present and waits to see what she will do with it. Anita, for now, seems to have very clear ideas. "Certainly the dream in my drawer is to turn professional".

Said like that it seems like a simple phrase. But inside there is all the cycling needed to get there: ambition, patience, hard work and that desire to try that is measured not only in victories.

"HAVE FUN, ABOVE ALL HAVE FUN"
When Franco Balmamion is asked about Anita, the great champion born in 1940 smiles. He doesn't become a professor, doesn't dispense formulas, doesn't try to transfer the weight of his own story to his step-niece. He says something much more beautiful. "Have fun, above all have fun". It's the phrase of a man who has lived through a cycling world far removed from today's and who, perhaps precisely because of this, knows how to distinguish what changes from what remains. Anita remembers that recommendation well. "Since I was little he always told me to have fun. Now it's my job, being in the Fiamme Azzurre. Certainly I still have fun, but you have to take it seriously".

It's an answer that tells much more than it seems. Because inside there is the transition from childhood to ambition, from play to profession. The moment when the bicycle stops being just a companion of adventures and becomes a road to travel all the way. Yet that fun hasn't disappeared. It has become something different: the joy of being in the thick of it, of risking a sprint, of feeling the group accelerate, of trying to be there when the race decides who can dream a little stronger than the others.

A SPRINTER WHO ISN'T AFRAID OF THE MELEE
Anita knows who she is. "I'm a sprinter, I race both track and road. So far on the track I've achieved my best results, but I won't hide that I like both disciplines and I think they are complementary. Plus I'd like to establish myself on the road too". She doesn't seek complicated definitions. Her competitive identity is already precise: speed, track, road, one-day races. And when asked what kind of cyclist she is in road races, the answer comes once again without hesitation. "First of all I'm fast, in fact I'm not afraid to throw myself into group sprints, but I certainly prefer those with fewer riders. I hold up well on climbs, at least on those not too long. I certainly prefer one-day races, also because I don't have much experience in stage races". It's the portrait of a girl who doesn't want to seem like something she isn't yet. She knows where she can hurt and knows where she still needs to grow. Perhaps it's precisely this awareness that makes her interesting.

2026 HAS GIVEN HER BACK HER SPRINT
The season has already given her reasons to smile: four victories and two second places. The last victory came just days ago at the Trofeo Inalpi, while at Caorle, in the second stage of her first Giro d'Italia, she achieved an eleventh place that has the taste of confirmation. "Certainly a great season. I'm happy to have managed to find the right sprint again this year and I'd certainly like to continue like this to get some results in the races that matter". Finding the right sprint. It's an apparently technical expression that actually tells the substance of every athlete: the moment when the body starts responding as you want, when the leg starts trusting the mind again and the mind starts asking something more from the leg. Anita is asking for that something more right now.

CAMPANIA IS ALREADY PART OF HER STORY
The Campania roads, after all, have already given her something. Last year, in Caivano, she finished third in the final stage of the classic. This time joy came to Frattamaggiore. One kilometer and six hundred meters, in the heart of the evening, and the stopwatch stops at 2'06"90. Average speed of 46.047 kilometers per hour. Faster than everyone. And that leader's jersey on her shoulders had almost the taste of an appointment with destiny. Because when a leader's jersey ends up on the shoulders of a girl who carries the cycling blood of Franco Balmamion, it's hard not to think about how cycling can be circular.

THAT DAY IN CIRIÉ, IN FRONT OF A CAFÉ
Three years ago I was in Cirié with Franco Balmamion and Gianni Baima. We were sitting in front of a café talking about cycling, as happens when you have one of the great men in the history of the bicycle in front of you. The conversation naturally ended up on Anita. She had just become junior world champion on the track in Colombia, in the Australian pursuit, the elimination race in which she had beaten the British Sharp. A victory built with speed, but also with that ability to stay lucid when the race begins to take away oxygen and space. The following year would also bring European gold in the same specialty among Under 23s. And in both major appointments Anita had arrived after overcoming a fractured collarbone. It's a detail that says a lot about her. Because speed can be a talent, but to come back after an injury you need other qualities: patience, discipline, character. That part of cycling that doesn't enter the finish line frames and that often is what really builds an athlete. Franco observes her from afar. He doesn't seem to be in a hurry to give her a judgment. Perhaps because he knows this sport too well to confuse a victory with a destiny. He knows that cycling promises nothing. It can only offer a road. And Anita has decided to travel that road.

THE STRENGTH OF A SURNAME, THE NEED TO BUILD A NAME
This is, perhaps, the most beautiful part of her story. Anita has an enormous legacy behind her, but she doesn't want to live inside it. She doesn't try to be the continuation of Franco. She wants to be Anita Baima. The surname reminds her where she comes from. Her legs must tell her where she can go. That's why, when you ask her what she asks from cycling, she doesn't talk about records, fame or magazine covers. "The dream in my drawer is to turn professional". It's a concrete dream. It has the shape of a contract, of a team, of a season lived at the highest level. But before that it has the shape of a sprint. One of those that Anita doesn't fear. One of those where you enter all together and exit only when someone has found a centimeter more than the others.

CYCLING ISN'T INHERITED. IT'S CONQUERED.

Perhaps Franco Balmamion knows this better than anyone else. You can inherit a surname. You can inherit a photograph, a jersey, a family story. You can even inherit a certain familiarity with the bicycle. But a victory you have to go and get. Anita is doing it her own way: on the track and on the road, in sprints and on difficult days, with four victories and two second places, with the memory of a World Championship and a European Championship, with the desire to turn professional and with that leader's jersey conquered in Frattamaggiore when the Giro del Mediterraneo lit up its lights. Tomorrow there's Caivano. A race she knows. A road she likes. Another chance to throw herself into the melee. And maybe, while Anita launches her sprint, somewhere Franco will smile once more. Not to tell her how great she must be. Just to remind her what he told her when she was little: "Have fun". The rest, now, is up to Anita. The story of Balmamion has already written two Giro d'Italia victories. The story of Baima is just beginning.