Felice Gimondi

Felice Gimondi (29 September 1942 - 16 August 2019) was an Italian cyclist, born in Sedrina in the province of Bergamo, whose career coincided almost entirely with that of Eddy Merckx and who nonetheless built a palmarès that made him, after Jacques Anquetil, the second rider to win all three Grand Tours. He won the Tour de France in 1965, his first year as a professional: a last-minute replacement in the Salvarani team who had to ask his mother's permission to start, he took the yellow jersey on stage 3, lost it while waiting for his nominal captain Vittorio Adorni, and after Adorni dropped out fought the race out with Raymond Poulidor, sealing it in the final time trial.

He added the Giro d'Italia in 1967, 1969 and 1976, when he overturned Johan De Muynck's lead in the last time trial, the Vuelta a España in 1968 and the 1973 world championship, won after bridging to Merckx with Luis Ocaña and Freddy Maertens. Nicknamed "The Phoenix", he won four Monuments, Paris-Roubaix in 1966, Milan-San Remo in 1974 and the Giro di Lombardia in 1966 and 1973, and stood on a Grand Tour podium twelve times; he failed doping controls at the 1968 Giro and the 1975 Tour.

In 1998 Jean-Marie Leblanc invited him onto the Paris podium when Marco Pantani became the first Italian Tour winner since him; he later advised Pantani and briefly ran teams. Merckx stayed away from his funeral, saying he was too saddened by the loss of his friend.