Sunday, May 20, 2018

Bruno Garonzi

Bruno Garonzi, born August 18, 1926, Santa Lucia, Veneto, Italy - died January 11th, 1950, Paris, France, age twenty-three. He raced in the 1949 Tour de France. He was the first of three riders to die the following year. That's pretty much all I knew about him, his Wikipedia entry is skeletal, some cycling websites simply list him as "retired". After much digging through archives on the Delcampe auction site I finally found a few pages from a pamphlet "Bruno Garonzi, Hommage A Un Espoir Disparu" (Tribute to a Missing Hopeful).
Here's an excerpt: ".In spite of everything, we still hoped. It was hoped that this blind death would not take, at 22 years, this nice little guy, this wonderful heart. But alas, Bruno leaves us after atrocious suffering, overcome by an incurable disease."
"Since the 11th of November, we have been following the progress of the illness, until the very delicate operation which took place last week. All his relatives, his friends, knew that a fatal outcome was to be feared. On his clinic bed he was still talking about cycling and the sport he loved so much."
"They passed without improvement, and to Maurice who did not leave him, to Fred Olivieri he murmured: "This time we are well beaten! ""
"Bruno left us just as he was finding the reward for all his efforts. A great hope of the road, such a nice champion, a friend...a friend we will not see the silhouette on our roads in France."
"Goodbye Bruno! Farewell !
(The Répulique du Sud-Ouest)
I thought this was worth sharing. And now you, too, might remember Bruno Garonzi.

Bruno Garonzi (left) covering an attack by Marcel Dussault, 1st stage, Paris-Reims, 1949TdF.





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