Hello to everybody. I am back after a long while, unfortunately with really bad news. Yesterday evening, a few minutes before 7 pm, former World SBK rider Baldassarre Monti, aka Sarre in the continental circus, was hit by a car that turned illegaly to the left, while riding his scooter in the village of Sorbolo Levante, near the border between the provinces of Parma and Reggio Emilia. Monti crashed on the car's windows and was then ejected on the road for a few dozen meters. He died because of his injuries a few minutes after the ambulance arrival. Monti was 47 years old, his best racing years were the early '90s, when, after winning the 1988 Italian sport production title, he landed rides on Ducati, Yamaha and Honda in the WSBK championship alongside champions as Raymond Roche and Stéphane Mertens. His racing career was first seriously hampered by a really bad accident at the 1993 Osterreichring SBK round , then definitely ended by an even worst second crash at the 1999 IOM TT, where he claimed that he went to race 'just for the money'. Monti was born in 1961 in the village of Casalmaggiore (province of Cremona, a few miles away from where the great Bergamonti was born) on the north shore of the Po river. He remained single and lived with his parents in Sorbolo (province of Parma) on the opposite site of the river from where he was born. Me, as an 'om ad Po' (man from the Po river) and motorcycling longtime fan, I mourn the loss of one of the last top bikers from these lowlands that saw its road stormed by the likes of Bruno Bertacchini, Umberto Masetti, the Leoni cousins, Bruno Spaggiari and Bergamonti. So Long, Sarre. R.I.P.
