Motta, Adorni, Anquetil and Gimondi at the 1966 Giro: friendship and rivalry, established champions and rising youngsters, behind a plate the tensions of a Giro marked by twists and turns and the talent of a boy who discovered he had talent by going to work on a women’s Atala
It is the sixteenth stage of the Giro d’Italia, June 3, 1966, a Friday. The runners started from Brescia for 143 kilometers of road to Bezzecca, in Trentino. The photo was taken a few minutes after departure: Jacques Anquetil, wearing his chef’s hat, offers a plate of spaghetti to some of his colleagues in the group. The first to take the plunge was Vittorio Adorni, winner of the Giro the previous year, who lost the pink jersey just the day before. The one who took it away from him was the boy on the left in the photo, Gianni Motta, 23 years old. The other young man, the one on the right, also extends an arm because he’s hungry: it’s Felice Gimondi, a Tour winner the year before, on his debut. Adorni is his captain and also his roommate. It is curious that a Frenchman served the Italian dish par excellence to three Italian riders at the Giro. Someone who doesn’t normally follow the Mediterranean diet. Anquetil, who won 5 Tours, 2 times the Giro and 1 Vuelta, is in fact known by his colleagues for having told a journalist that “to prepare for a race there is nothing better than a good pheasant, some champagne and a woman”.
