Giro d'Italia Hall of Fame welcomes Roberto Visentini
Roberto Visentini has officially entered the Giro d’Italia Hall of Fame, a recognition that comes exactly 40 years after his triumph in the Corsa Rosa. The Gardonese champion, born in 1957, was celebrated at an event held in Milan in which he was presented with the Trofeo Senza Fine, the symbol that, since 2000, has been raised at the conclusion of the Giro by the winner of the general classification. Visentini, in that edition, won the stage in Potenza and took the pink jersey in Foppolo, carrying it all the way to the finish in Merano.
Stepping behind Visentini were Giuseppe Saronni at 1’02” and Francesco Moser at 2’14” in the standings. The champion celebrated Friday in Milan snatched the symbol of supremacy right from Saronni in the stage starting in Erba and finishing in Foppolo, the 16th of the 1986 Giro, won by Spaniard Pedro Muñoz. That edition of the Giro is remembered for the sprinting exploits of Guido Bontempi, who was able to take no fewer than five stage wins, winning in Baia Domizia, Pesaro, Castiglione del Lago, Piacenza and Bassano del Grappa.
With the’entry into the Hall of Fame, Visentini thus became one of the riders retroactively awarded the prestigious Trofeo Senza Fine, following Eddy Merckx (2012), Felice Gimondi (2013), Stephen Roche (2014), Francesco Moser (2015), Ercole Baldini (2016), Bernard Hinault (2017), Miguel Indurain (2018), Vittorio Adorni (2019), Gianni Motta (2022), Franco Balmamion, Giuseppe Saronni (both 2023), and Gianni Bugno (2024). The’former rider expressed all his satisfaction to the official channels of RCS Sport.
“Entering the Giro d’Italia Hall of Fame is a great emotion, the result of a career full of sacrifices that have led me to achieve excellent goals, including the icing on the cake of my career, the 1986 Giro d’Italia – he said -. That year I had arrived at the Corsa Rosa in perfect condition, and I managed to put behind me champions of the caliber of Moser, Saronni and Lemond. The Endless Trophy is a wonderful heirloom and to be able to keep a copy is a great honor for me”.
Roberto Visentini has taken part in twelve editions of the Giro d’Italia, from his debut in 1978 at only twenty’years old to his last participation, as a veteran, in 1990. During his career he won five stages and collected a total of nineteen podiums, spending twenty-seven days in the Maglia Rosa. He managed to wear it at least once in five different editions (1980, 1981, 1985, 1986 and 1987), and in 1986 he crowned his greatest dream by winning the Giro on his very birthday, June 2.
