Vittorio Adorni
 Adorni at the 1966 Giro d'Italia | ||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Vittorio Adorni | |||||||||||||||
| Born |
14 November 1937 San Lazzaro di Parma, Italy | |||||||||||||||
| Team information | ||||||||||||||||
| Current team | Retired | |||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Road | |||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | |||||||||||||||
| Professional team(s) | ||||||||||||||||
| 1961 | Vov | |||||||||||||||
| 1962 | Philco | |||||||||||||||
| 1963 | Cynar | |||||||||||||||
| 1964–1966 | Salvarani | |||||||||||||||
| 1967 | Salamini-Luxor | |||||||||||||||
| 1968 | Faema | |||||||||||||||
| 1969–1970 | Scic | |||||||||||||||
| Major wins | ||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Vittorio Adorni (born San Lazzaro di Parma, Italy, 14 November 1937)[1] is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist .
Early life and amateur career
Vittorio Adorni was a talented amateur and showed early talent at riding alone. He began racing in 1955[2] and won the national amateur pursuit championship in 1959[3] Skill at riding fast alone won him the world professional road championship nine years later.
Adorni won the Trofeo de Gasperiin 1960 and turned professional during 1961[1] after winning the Coppa San Geo.[3]
Professional career
Adorni won two races in his first full year as a professional in 1961, riding for Philco and winning stages of the Giro d'Italia and the Tour of Sardinia.[3] Adorni was more a domestique than a leader[4] but he nevertheless won the 1965 Giro and the 1968 world road race championship. The championship was on the car race circuit at Imola, Italy. He broke clear with 93 km still to ride. He finished 10 minutes ahead of the field, helped in the peloton by his Italian team-mates and also by Merckx, his normal team-mate, who did not take up the chase.
The Cycling Hall of Fame, an American organisation, says:
"In 1968, Adorni taught Eddy Merckx of Belgium how to properly eat and rest during a Grand Tour. Merckx used this knowledge to not only win his first grand tour, the Giro d'Italia, but also the mountains and points jerseys as well, the first time ever this was done in a grand tour. Adorni finished second to Merckx in that race."[5]
Retirement
Adorni rode as a professional from 1961[1] to 1970. He retired to work in insurance[2] and then became directeur sportif of the Salvarani team until 1973. He became president of the Italian riders' association and a commentator for the television company, RAI.[6] In 2001 he joined the management committee of the governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale.[4][6] The French magazine Vélo said: When he was nominated, no small number of observers asked 'Why him? Isn't he just Hein Verbruggen's puppet?'[7]
The former Italian champion was chosen for his personality [était simplement victime de sa personnalité]. As a rider, he was respected by everyone. He was a gentleman. When Hein Verbruggen dug in, Adorni was a patient mediator, a natural negotiator. Thanks to him, the crisis with the organisers of the three grands tours didn't turn into a huge fiasco and he was able to maintain contacts.[8] The world body was responsible for the Pro Tour; Vittorio Adorni became its conscience.[6]
Adorni has worked in skiing, in public relations for the winter Olympics at Innsbruck in 1976. He also worked in public relations at the summer Games in Montréal in 1976.[2] From 1996 until 2004 he was President of Panathlon International.[9]
Major results
- 1958
National Track Championship, Individual Pursuit- 1962
- Giro d'Italia
- Winner stage 15, 5th overall
- 1963
- Giro d'Italia
- Winner stages 1 and 16, 2nd overall
- 1964
- Giro d'Italia
- Winner stages 1 and 14, 4th overall
- 1965
- Giro d'Italia
1st overall- Winner stages 6, 13 and 19
- Tour de Romandie
- 1966
- Tour of Belgium
- Giro d'Italia
- Winner stage 13, 7th overall
- 1967
- Tour de Romandie
- Giro d'Italia
- Winner stage 20, 4th overall
- 1968
- World Road Race
- 1969
- National Road Champion
- Tour de Suisse (and 2 stage wins)
- Giro d'Italia
- Winner stage 22, 12th overall
Grand Tours overall classification results timeline
| Grand Tour | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giro |
28 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 10 |
 Tour |
- | WD | - | 10 | WD | - | - | - | - | - |
 Vuelta |
- | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5 | - | - |
WD = Withdrew DSQ = Disqualified
References
- 1 2 3 L'Eqquipe, Profile of Vittorio Adorni. Lequipe.fr. Retrieved on 24 July 2015.
- 1 2 3 Vittorio ADORNI. uci.ch
- 1 2 3 Coureurs Italiens – Vittorio Adorni. velo-club.net
- 1 2 Hein Verbruggen reste président de l'UCI et intronise Vittorio Adorni au CCP. canoe.com. 11 October 2001
- ↑ Vittorio Adorni . Cycling Hall of Fame.com.
- 1 2 3 Vélo, France, February 2005
- ↑ Verbruggen, the head of the UCI, was a controversial figure who introduced measures such as the Pro Tour, a season-long competition similar to Formula One in car-racing, but whose ideas and style brought opposition.
- ↑ The Tours of France, Spain and Italy refused to be part of the Pro Tour.
- ↑ Archived 23 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
External links
Media related to Vittorio Adorni at Wikimedia Commons
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