Next Tuesday, April 23rd will be a beautiful evening of sports at the “Traetta” theater in Bitonto. The city of oil and relief, in fact, in an event organized by the “Polisportiva amici di Marco” and the “Dynamik Bike”, will host Francesco Moser, an institution of the two wheels and who with 273 victories on the road as a professional is at all Today he is the Italian cyclist with the greatest number of successes.
The anniversary is very special because 40 years have passed since January 19, 1984, which for cycling enthusiasts is never just any date. It was the day in which the former cyclist from Trentino, in the Olympic velodrome in Mexico City, set the world record for the hour on the track, being the first in history to break down the “wall” of 50 kilometers (50.808) and surpassing by almost 1,500 meters the previous record of the Belgian “cannibal” Eddy Merckx (49.432).
The 72-year-old Italian champion, little more than 30 years old at the time, thanks to a futuristic bicycle with lenticular wheels and ox-horn handlebars, with that time brought cycling into a new era and, not satisfied, after four days he improved the record bringing it up to 51.151 km, a limit that stood for almost a decade, that is to 17 July 1993, the day on which the British Graeme Obree covered 51.596 km in Hamar in Norway.
Francesco Moser, nicknamed “The Sheriff”, will talk about that beautiful sports page but also the many others that involved him in his exceptional career which lasted 15 years and was marked by success in the 1984 Giro d’Italia, in the Milan-Sanremo, three times at Paris-Roubaix, one at the Flèche Wallone, two laps of Lombardy and much more. According to the Trentino champion, 1984 was a year of change for the world of cycling in general.
«We have moved from traditional cycling – he has stated several times, because in those days we moved forward with tradition – to the advent of technology. And now it’s much better than before.” It is a pity, however, that in 2000 the International Cycling Union (UCI) canceled those hour records precisely because they were obtained with a futuristic bicycle but, at the same time, considered those performances as the best human performances on the Hour.
«Those – Moser recalls – were important days for my career. I had trained as best I could. I was ready to make that record, and it went well. But Merckx is the rider who has won more than anyone. He still is today. And it will be difficult to beat him.” Andrea De Luca, commentator for Rai Sport, will be present at Tuesday’s event; Beppe Conti, cycling historian; Tommaso Depalma, representative of the “Bike economy of the Puglia Region”, Francesco Paolo Ricci, mayor of Bitonto; Gaetano Giampalmo, president of “Polisportiva Amici di Marco”, Roberto Calvo, president of “ASD Dynamik Bike” and many others.
Tags: years set hour record track
