Cesare Bernardi the Poulidor of Enduro

Raymond Poulidor was a great cyclist of the seventies, who became famous with the nickname of ‘eternal second’ for having finished second in the Tour de France seven times, without ever winning it.

The sporting world is full of eternal seconds like Stirling Moss, one of the best Formula 1 drivers ever, who in the course of four years from 1955 to 1958, won 16 races but always finished second in the World Championship.

“In 78 I finished second in the Italian Cadet Championship, the following year I was second in the Italian Junior and in 80 I was second behind Capelli. In 1981 still second, this time behind Medardo.

I was shaking when I was included in Vaso’s team at the Six Days of Elba, in ’81. Want to see we finish second ?! I repeated to myself. Instead it was wonderful, sharing such a prestigious victory.

Last year in the six historical rounds of Elba, we met with Findanno and Signorelli to reconstitute the team that won the Vase, but Marinoni did not come and we had to resort to a stunt double to take the commemorative photo …

I have two episodes of my short career in my heart:

The first was the victory on the first day of the Six Days of Brioude in front of Kreutz.

The second refers to my first race as a senior at the Italian test in Sanremo in 1980. Frigerio did not want to negotiate an engagement and, to convince me, he established substantial prizes for arrivals in the individual competition days, probably not trusting in my skills as a winner. Feci primo di classe nella prima giornata e secondo nella seconda, aggiudicandomi anche l’assoluta. I cost him a lot!

After the Six Days of ’81 I gave up racing, but my passion for motorcycles has never subsided and for some time, when work allows me, I have been dedicating myself to Group 5.

So I will be at the start of the 12 Hours together with Giampiero Findanno.

I learned that Bogio will come to Il Ciocco, I will bring back with me the shirts I had printed for the four of the Vase and this time we will not need doubles “