Renato Longo is a former cyclo-cross

Cyclo-cross

Cyclo-cross is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter , and consists of many laps of a short course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and...

 racer from Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. Longo won the World Cyclo-cross Championships

World Cyclo-cross Championships

The first recognised UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships took place in Paris in 1950 and was won by Jean Robic, of France. Between 1950 and 1966 the championship was open to both amateurs and professionals. From 1967 to 1993 two separate championships were organised - one for amateurs and one for...

 five times in 1959, 1962, 1964, 1965 and 1967 and was the Italian Cyclo-cross champion 12 times.

Career

Longo was a professional from 1960 to 1972 and for most of his career he rode with the Salvarani team of Felice Gimondi

Felice Gimondi

Felice Gimondi is an Italian former professional racing cyclist.With his 1968 victory at the Vuelta a España, only three years after becoming a professional cyclist, Gimondi, nicknamed "The Phoenix", was the second cyclist to win all three Grand Tours of road cycling: Tour de France , Giro...

. Longo's first wins in the World championships in 1959 and 1962 were obtained after a battle with German Rolf Wolfshohl

Rolf Wolfshohl

Rolf Wolfshohl is a former professional road bicycle racing and cyclo-cross racing cyclist from Germany. Wolfshohl is best known in cyclo-cross for winning the world championship three times, and in road racing for winning the 1965 Vuelta a España.-Biography:Wolfshohl started competing in cycling...

 who won the title ahead of Longo in 1960, 1961 and 1963. In 1964, Wolfshohl focused on road racing and Longo became the master of cyclo-cross until Eric De Vlaeminck

Eric De Vlaeminck

Erik De Vlaeminck is a former Belgian cyclist. He is the brother of Roger De Vlaeminck.The spelling "Eric" rather than "Erik" is the French version of his name. He prefers Erik....

arrived - although Longo beat de Vlaeminck for his last world title in 1967.
In total he won more than 230 cyclo-cross races in his professional career.