Imerio Massignan

Imerio Massignan

To person
Date of birth	January 2, 1937
nation	Italy
discipline	Street
Team (s)
1959–1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969–1970	Legnano Carpano Ignis Bianchi Salamini Pepsi-Cola GBC
Most important successes
a stage Tour de France 1961 Mountain classification Tour de France 1960 , 1961

Imerio Massignan (born January 2, 1937 in Altavilla Vicentina ) is a former Italian cyclist .

Athletic career

Imerio Massignan was a professional athlete from 1959 to 1970 and during these years made a name for himself as an excellent climber. In his first year as a professional he was second in the mountain classification of the Giro d'Italia and fifth in the overall classification. In total, he started ten times in the Giro, which he finished five times in the top ten: in 1960 he finished fourth, 1962 second, 1963 seventh and 1965 ninth. In 1960 he was second again in the mountain classification and in 1961 third.

Massignan competed three times in the Tour de France : in 1960 and 1961 he won the dotted jersey of the mountain classification. In 1960 he was also tenth, in 1961 fourth in the overall standings and won the 16th stage. In 1962 he was seventh overall and second in the mountains, behind Federico Bahamontes . In the same year he took second place in the Lombardy Tour . At the UCI Road World Championships in 1960 at the Sachsenring , he finished fourth, and the following year, at the World Championships in Bern , he was fourteenth. In his entire professional career, he has four wins.

In 1963 Imerio Massignan fell ill with nephritis , which meant that he had to take a long break in 1964 and his performance began to decline from 1966 after he was able to finish the Giro in 1965 as ninth overall.

literature

In 2012 the book Imerio was published. Romanzo di dannate fatiche by Marco Ballestracci, who uses Massignan's example to tell in a novel-like manner how bitter poverty and lack of prospects in the 1950s and 1960s prompted young Italians to become professional cyclists.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 48/1970 . Deutscher Sportverlag Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1970, p. 16 .
2. ↑ Luciano Boccaccini, Giovanni Tarello: Annuario Storico Del Ciclismo Italiano . Publialfa Edizion, Milan 1994, p. 241 (Italian).

Web links

• Imerio Massignan in the Radsportseiten.net database