Felice Gimondi

Felice Gimondi ( born September 29, 1942 in Sedrina, Province of Bergamo ) is an Italian former racing cyclist. He won one of only five cyclists all three major stage races, Tour de France, Giro d' Italia and Vuelta a España.

Career

After he had won as an amateur, the Tour de l' Avenir, the 22 -year-old Felice Gimondi could sensational win the Tour de France in his first year as a pro in 1965. After his victory, it took 33 years and up with Marco Pantani again Italians won the Tour. Two years later, Gimondi won the first of three overall victories at the Giro d' Italia (1967, 1969 and 1976).

With the victory at the Tour of Spain in 1968, he had won the three most important country tours in the world within three years - a performance that reached out to him only the Frenchman Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, Belgian Eddy Merckx and Spaniard Alberto Contador.

Gimondi won numerous classics, as Paris -Roubaix (1966 ), the Tour of Lombardy (1966, 1973) and Milan-San Remo (1974). In 1973 he took the title at the Road World Championships in Barcelona ( Spain), after he had become in 1971! Second and third in 1970.

At the Tour de France 1975 Gimondi received a ten-minute time penalty after a positive doping test.