Sergio Bianchetto

Sergio Bianchetto (1963)

Sergio Bianchetto at the 1963 World Track Championships

Sergio Bianchetto (left) congratulates the Belgian Patrick Sercu (right) on winning the World Championship title at the 1963 Rail World Championships

Sergio Bianchetto (born February 16, 1939 in Torre di Ponte Brenta ) is a former Italian cyclist . The track specialist won the gold medal in the tandem competition at the Olympic Games in 1960 and 1964 , and the silver medal in the sprint competition in 1964 . He was also multiple world champion in both disciplines. Bianchetto was an amateur until 1964 before taking up a professional career from 1965 to 1970.

In 1958 Bianchetto celebrated its first successes; at the Grand Prix de Paris he was third in the amateur sprint and with Sante Gaiardoni Italian amateur champion in tandem. By changing his tandem partner from Gaiardoni to Giuseppe Beghetto , Bianchetto was able to improve even further, so that the team was nominated for the 1960 Olympic Games and also won the tandem competition. In 1961 he was able to improve his result from 1958 at the Grand Prix de Paris with the silver medal in the sprint, he won against his tandem partner Beghetto - as in 1962 - the final race of the track sprint world championship for amateurs. With Beghetto he was also the Italian tandem master in both years. In 1963 Sergio Bianchetto was Italian champion in the sprint, the 1000 meter time trial and the tandem, but at the World Cup he was only able to achieve the silver medal in the sprint. In 1966 he became the Italian professional sprint champion, which was his last professional success.

In 1964 Bianchetto took part in his second Olympic Games; with his new partner Angelo Damiano he defended the Olympic victory. He was also in the final of the sprint competition, but had to admit defeat Giovanni Pettenella . After the second Olympic victory, he decided to become a professional; as a professional, he mainly focused on six-day races .

The following year he met Pettenella in the semifinals of the sprint of the Italian track cycling championships, against whom he had already lost the final at the 1964 Olympics. Both drivers tried the typical standing attempt , except that in this race no one wanted to break off the standing attempt and for more and more minutes they balanced only a few meters next to each other on the non-propulsion track wheels while the RAI broadcast the race live on the radio. Even after an hour, both cyclists were balancing on their bikes. The attempt to stand did not end until after 63 minutes, when Bianchetto, shaken by cramps and completely exhausted, suffered a circulatory collapse and fell off the bike. Pettenella, on the other hand, remained on his bike until the jury announced Bianechetto's task.

From 1971 to 1972 he was an Italian selection coach, and in 1983 he took over the office again. In the 1980s, Bianchetto was technical director of the Italian national track cycling team for a few years. Between 1973 and 1982 he worked on a regional level as a coach, mainly for his club Ciclisti Padua, from which Giovanni Pettenella and Giuseppe Beghetto also emerged .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ " Pettenella e Bianchetto: quei 63 'da record sulla pista di Masnago ( Memento of the original from February 10, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ". 
2. ↑ Storia di Sergio Bianchetto
3. ^ German Cycling Association of the GDR (ed.): The cyclist . No. 6/1984 . Berlin, S. 2 .

Web links

• Sergio Bianchetto in the Radsportseiten.net database
• Sergio Bianchetto in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )