On 3 December 1917 for the aftereffects of pneumonia died Carlo Oriani.
was the protagonist of the first edition of the Tour of Italy, fifth overall, giving a hard time at various Ganna , Galletti, Azzini and Cuniolo , the strongest riders of the moment. He ran as an amateur builder to work alternating workouts and bike rides. then won the Giro in 1913 while the year before he triumphed in the Giro di Lombardia. But the greatest glory is due, perhaps, that act of heroism, wrapped a bit 'in the legend and the uncertain boundaries, which hastened the end, forcing it to be worn with a troop hospital in Caserta, where he died. Partito soldato, durante la ritirata di Caporetto , si buttò nel fiume per salvare un commilitone. Travolto dall'avanzata degli austriaci, per non cadere prigioniero attraversò a nuoto il Tagliamento. Altri testi nominano invece il Piave. In ogni caso, l'acqua, il freddo e soprattutto la mancanza di antibiotici, fecero il resto. Provarono a salvarlo, portandolo al sole del sud, ma niente da fare. Si spense prima dei trent'anni. La moglie riuscì, appena in tempo, a raggiungerlo prima che spirasse. La penicillina sarebbe stata scoperta nel 1929 e probabilmente, fosse nato dopo quell'anno, si sarebbe salvato.
L'episodio di Caporetto sembra non avere riscontri documentali. Solo le testimonianze Oral, bounced from mouth to mouth, come to this day have had the strength to give consistency and ink a page of history otherwise white. The facts, recounted in detail, could have gone like this: The Austrians had broken through to Kobarid. Or run away, then, or were taken prisoner. El Pucia was a runner and had an available bersagliere bike with solid tires without tubes. When he realized that there was much to be done, the target Carlo Oriani jumped on his bicycle and began pedaling, running, this time by the enemy.
arrived he found the river bridge, behind the Austrian press. "El Pucia - Ezio Meroni writes in "A star for the sport," a book dedicated to sports in Cinisello Balsamo-l 'has ciappe his bicycle, he sullevada de cuminciâ earth and has to' cross el Piave to pee. When the water gh'è repass to shoulder, has sbattù Puss luntan pussìbil bicycle, that is to fund andada like a stone ".
Oriani was born in Cinisello Balsamo actually to Balsamo because until 1928 the two municipalities were still disconnected. From its shares to call him "El Pucia" because of the hunger that he always carried with him healthy, so there never seemed entirely inappropriate clean the pot with a crumb di pane.
La Gazzetta descrive, e non solo, decanta le gesta del giovane Oriani che nella tappa del 21 maggio "contende, solo, la vittoria a Ganna imponendo il suo nome fra i grandi campioni della strada". Solo Oriani riesce, nella frazione, a raggiungere il varesino, "dopo un inseguimento accanito, ma non può strappargli la vittoria. Ganna è superbo: sente che è venuto il suo momento e morirà piuttosto che cedere. Ma ciò non ostante Oriani compie una corsa degna di ammirazione e di entusiasmo". La descrizione dell'arrivo del primo Giro d'Italia all'Arena esalta la figura del vincitore, Ganna, ma non trascura gli altri protagonisti. Descrivendo la "passerella finale", the rosy writes: "meanwhile the deafening applause of thousands of people never ceases, and when the car driver in Ganna before and after with other goods, Galetti, Rossignol, Azzi and Canepari lap of honor for the cheers resound more enthusiastic than ever, especially the passage of Oriani, who, with plumed hat bersagliere, makes the bike ride. "
The arrival of the Tour in 1913 at Milan Trotter was a triumph over one hundred thousand spectators, and there were even the runner balsamese ultras. On the eve of the great competitive events, his fans, the warmest, liked to say: "That crack the cow, but that 'el Pucia shore." Which, translated, would say, "well the cow will die, but to win the Pucia. For those years, still immersed in the culture of the courts, fields and animals to grow, a sentence was very strong, ultras from the bicycle.
Oriani, like other fellow citizens, he left for Sesto San Giovanni Balsamo industries where they were offered a sip economic security. The bike was synonymous with progress, surely the modern way to get away from the typical slowness of movement of the peasants. The distances between one country and another was almost canceled. With a few more pedal could move up to Milan or Monza.
Oriani, while still cycling to work. And in the chronicles of the time Sesto became the runner, eliminating the source balsamese, perhaps less significant for the journalists of the time. La Gazzetta dello Sport 21 May 1909 he wrote: "When last winter with a referendum among the kings of the road we wanted to know who among them in 1909 could have been their serious competitor, the name of Carlo Oriani was made by all our samples ... which today have to really come to terms with this great son of the small industrial and Sesto San Giovanni. " The future was there, the nascent industry, in factories. In the movement of large cities. And the bicycle was the symbol of the dynamism of this modernity. In 1909, he played the first tour of Italy in the same year was published in France, the Manifesto of Futurism.
Oriani did not have time to see any change in the act. Let us first because of the war. His body returned to his native Sixth and Balsamo, even among a thousand hardships. The funeral was made in Sesto San Giovanni crowded as state funerals. The sharpshooter
cyclist Oriani now rests in Sesto San Giovanni in the old cemetery, which houses some of the protagonists of the civic life of cities, mayors and councilors of the war, the parish priests and the fallen of World Wars. There is also "El Pucia. Through her picture smiles at us with her nice big face that still betrays a big appetite.
