lit a candle 3h agoJust saw a clip of that Sassari time trial on an old sports rerun last night, no idea he was even ill. 59 is nothing.
Their story
Gianluca Pierobon was an Italian professional road cyclist and cyclocross rider who won a Giro d'Italia time-trial stage in 1991 and finished third overall at the Tour de Suisse in 1994. He died overnight on 5 November 2026 at the age of 59 after a long illness. The Italian Cycling…
Gianluca Pierobon was an Italian professional road cyclist and cyclocross rider who won a Giro d'Italia time-trial stage in 1991 and finished third overall at the Tour de Suisse in 1994. He died overnight on 5 November 2026 at the age of 59 after a long illness. The Italian Cycling Federation and the trade press announced his death the same morning.
He was born on 2 March 1967 in Gallarate, in the province of Varese. As a junior he won the Italian national road title and the Trofeo Buffoni in 1985. Among the amateurs he rode for G.S. Biancorossi-Terziroli-Gemini under coach Aldo Sassi, then for G.S. Passerini Gomme, where he won a stage of the Giro della Valle d'Aosta. He turned professional in 1989 with Franco Cribiori's Atala team and made his debut at Milan-Sanremo.
His first major win came in 1991 with ZG Mobili: stage 2b of the Giro d'Italia, a seven-kilometre individual time trial in Sassari, ahead of Marino Lejarreta and Franco Chioccioli. In 1994, riding for Amore e Vita, he took a stage of the Vuelta a Aragon and the Tour de Suisse prologue at Yverdon-les-Bains, beating Tony Rominger by four seconds, and finished third overall behind Pascal Richard and Vladimir Pulnikov. The next year, with Refin, he won stage 5 of Tirreno-Adriatico into Soriano nel Cimino after a two-up sprint with Stefano Colage, and a stage of the Ruta Ciclista Mexico.
A strong passista and time-trial specialist, he also raced cyclocross for Italy, placing fifteenth at the 1992 world championships in Leeds. In 1997 with Batik-Del Monte he rode his only Tour de France and finished 133rd in Paris. He closed his professional career in 1998 with Kross. Across the decade he also contested the Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a Espana and the classics, including a nineteenth place at Milan-Sanremo in 1990.
Federation president Cordiano Dagnoni, who had raced with him, called him a fine rider and a fine person. Davide Goetz of Adispro remembered an exceptional amateur who became Italian champion as a youth and a professional capable of winning a Giro time trial, and recalled preparing for dental-technician exams together in Milan. Italian cycling coverage framed Pierobon as a Varese rider of the 1990s whose best days came against the clock and in breakaways.
His palmares and the Federation's farewell keep a clear record of a ten-year professional life built on endurance and the stopwatch. The morning obituaries from Federciclismo, Tuttobici and Bicisport placed him among the Italian passisti who could still win Grand Tour stages in the early 1990s.
Biography adapted from Federciclismo, Tuttobici, Bicisport, English and Italian Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wikipedia ↗
In their own words
“Ho corso con lui per qualche anno ed ho un ricordo di un bravissimo ragazzo, oltre che un ottimo corridore.”
Cordiano Dagnoni, Federciclismo president, on Pierobon's death
“Gianluca e stato un dilettante eccezionale e un buon professionista, capace di vincere una crono al Giro.”
Davide Goetz, Adispro president, quoted by Tuttobici (accent stripped for plain text)
Photos
1Gianluca Pierobon in 1995
by People Forever
Same, I thought it was a repeat announcement at first.