Roberto Ceruti

Roberto Ceruti started cycling in the débutants category with C.C. Cremonese 1891, riding a second-hand bicycle, but still enjoyed 30 victories. In 1974 he won the Milano-Bologna, the Ponsacco Cup, and the Port Circuit. At Cassano Jonio in 1975 Ceruti became the amateur Italian road race champion and was third at the World Road Race Championships at Mettet, behind the Dutchman Andre Gevers and Swede Sven-Åke Nilsson.

In 1976, Ceruti was on the Italian national team at the Giro d’Italia for amateurs, and finished runner-up, and also won the Guglielmo Tell Grand Prix in Switzerland that year. He was a great Italian hopeful for the individual road race at the Montréal Olympics but, on a rainy day, he was dropped by the leading group and finished 26th.

Ceruti turned professional with GBC Itla in 1977, and in his début season won the Giro of Romagna. Other wins included the tough Pieve di Cadore stage at the Giro d’Italia in 1979, the 1980 Giro of Umbria, and the 1984 Grand Prix of Camaiore. He participated at four World Road Race Championships (1980, 1982-84), finishing the race only once, in 1982, when Giuseppe Saronni was champion. Ceruti also competed in eight Giro d’Italias, two Vuelta de Españas, five Milano-San Remos, and three Tours of Lombardy. He stopped racing competitively in 1987.