When Felice Gimondi outclassed Eddy Merckx in the Giro di Lombardia

Eight months after becoming the youngest post-war winner of the Tour de France, Felice Gimondi triumphed over the cobbles of northern France. His victory in the Roubaix velodrome – by almost four minutes after riding the final 40km solo – underlined the young Italian’s status as the successor to the legendary “Campionissimo” Fausto Coppi.

Gimondi went on to pick up seven more wins in 1966 before capping a fine season with victory in his home monument, the Giro di Lombardia, where he got the better of the irascible French duo Jacques Anquetil and Raymond Poulidor in a hotly disputed six-up sprint in the Sinigaglia velodrome. Ad Also making the winning move that day was a 21-year-old Belgian who had burst onto the scene earlier that season with a triumph in his debut Milan-Sanremo.

Eddy Merckx was not meant to be Peugeot’s main man for the so-called “Race of the Falling Leaves” but defending champion Tom Simpson was on a bad day and gave his young team-mate permission to spread his wings. Il LombardiaIl Lombardia 2022 – Who’s riding? When’s it on TV? Pogacar favourite but why no Remco?20 HOURS AGO Gimondi, crucially, had Salvarani comrade Vittorio Adorni in support and that made all the difference.

No one knew it at the time, but Gimondi – who had just become the first rider to win over the cobbles of northern France and the falling leaves of Lombardy in the same year – would soon be eclipsed by the very man he cast in the shade by Lake Como. Like his countryman Fiorenzo Magni – often known as the “Third Man” of Italy’s golden era behind the more illustrious Coppi and Gino Bartali – Gimondi ultimately suffered from having to compete at the same time as the man widely considered to be the best cyclist ever born.