The Molteni Foundation goes into action: a concrete gesture for Angelo

Helping to rewrite the destiny of the less fortunate: this is the goal with which, in October 2018, the Ambrogio Molteni Foundationwas officially unveiled inside the London Olympic Velodrome. The beginning of a path filled with emotion and profound meaning: the return of a historic and unforgettable brand in the cycling world, forever identified with the myth of Eddy Merckx and many other champions, was linked to a whole new mission. No longer seeking success, of which Molteni was an extraordinary interpreter in two unforgettable decades, but redemption: that of former professionals of the two wheels fallen into difficulty, or of young people whose present and future on two wheels has been interrupted by fate.

A little more than a year later, the Molteni Foundation performs its first concrete act: during the evening of the TuttoBici Oscars on Friday, November 22, 2019, in Milan, Mario and Pierangela Molteni - Ambrogio's two children and promoters of the initiative - have in fact announced the name of the first beneficiary of the Foundation's work.

The name of Angelo Serlini will sound familiar to the most passionate connoisseurs of the Italian youth scene: from Brescia, class of 1998, as a rookie, Angelo won the Lombardy regional championship on the track in Montichiari. His passion for cycling did not stop in the velodromes: Angelo pedaled on and off-road, on a mountain bike, where on November 17, 2012, he met the fate that changed his life.

A terrible accident, two weeks of coma clinging to life by a thread, then the awakening and the diagnosis that condemned him to a permanent vegetative state. And instead: in 2013, Angelo began a costly and challenging journey at the rehabilitation center of Bosisio Parini, and against all odds, he returned to speak, to feed himself, even to remember. 

Angelo returns home with his wheelchair but continues to fight; he returns to school, graduates, gets busy, smiles. The brain damage suffered does not allow him to return to everyday life, but one thing has helped Angelo reverse all predictions: his incurable passion for cycling and the dream to return to cycling one day. This desire to win allows Angelo to continue fighting against any adversity: a desire that the Molteni Foundation has decided to support and stimulate.

"The bicycle is good for the spirit, it helps people believe and hope for a better tomorrow,” said Mario Molteni. “This is the lesson that Angelo gives us, a young person that is clinging to the dream of the bicycle and has made progress that the same medicine had excluded. It is a message of inspiration that we all need, and we are proud that Angelo is the recipient of the first concrete gesture of the foundation named after our father."

Those who wish to support with a donation the mission of the Ambrogio Molteni Foundation can do so online on the official website www.fondazionemolteni.org, or by bank transfer:

Fondazione Ambrogio Molteni
Intesa San Paolo Bank - Fil. 55000 
IBAN: IT44O0306909606100000168367
BIC: BCITITMM