Sante Gaiardoni dies, two gold medals in Rome 1960

Those were the years in which the track became legend and the Vigorelli velodrome in Milan became the Scala of speed. With the death tonight of Sante Gaiardoni, 84 years old, historic rival of Antonio Maspes, Italy loses the excellent interpreter of a specialty that attracted tens of thousands of fans to the legendary stadium in via Arona, when a few centimeters from the balustrade you could hear the heartbeats of the two champions. Veronese from Villafranca, Gaiardoni was born on 29 June 1939: he died in Motta Visconti (Milan) where he had moved after the death of his beloved wife Elsa Quarta, a singer, to have his only daughter, Susy, close by. Elsa’s disappearance in 2020 had profoundly devastated him and he never recovered from this state. The funeral will take place on Saturday at 3pm in Motta Visconti.

absolute protagonist

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Gaiardoni was the symbol of the 1960 Rome Olympics, the giant of the Italian track: of the four golds won, Gaiardoni won two, the speed and the kilometre, the most spectacular. In sprinting he also set the world record in the 200 meters thrown with 11″. In the Kilometer with a standing start another record: 1’07″27 to cover a thousand metres, at an average of 53.493 km/h. The other titles came from the quartet of the team pursuit (Vigna, Arienti, Testa, Vallotto) and from tandem with Beghetto-Bianchetto. And with the gold in the road team time trial by Trapè, Bailetti, Cogliati and Fornoni, Italy thus celebrated total supremacy. Maspes, from Milan, was seven years older, born in 1932 (he died in 2000): he and Gaiardoni were on the track what Coppi and Bartali were on the road. Inseparable and inseparable, idols of the fans, praised, admired. Gaiardoni more elegant, Maspes more cunning. They never met at the Olympics because Maspes , after the bronze in the tandem in Helsinki 1952, he immediately turned professional. Gaiardoni instead arrived in the top category in 1961 in the Philco team, where Vittorio Adorni also raced, wearing the 1960 rainbow speed jersey on his shoulders in the amateurs. The first duels were all for Maspes, who beat Gaiardoni at the 1961 Tricolori and then at the 1962 World Championship at Vigorelli.

world gold

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But in 1963 in France, in Rocourt, Gaiardoni took his revenge and won his only professional speed world championship: right in front of the Milanese champion, who won seven in his career but never had the joy of an Olympic gold. At the World Championships, he then added two silvers and two bronzes. His career ended in 1971. Dal Veronese had soon moved to Milan to race: very close to another Milanese Olympian, Marino Vigna, Gaiardoni had his bicycle shop, “Bici Gaiardoni”, in via Lorenteggio, a daily point of reference for a chat and a coffee with friends. And he had also attempted a political career, running for mayor of Milan with his own list in 2006.