Felice Gimondi, who was one of a handful of competitors to win all three of cycling’s major multiweek races, but who remained a frustrated rival to the sport’s most successful star, Eddy Merckx, died on Aug. 16 while vacationing in Sicily. He was 76.

His death was announced by Italy’s cycling federation, which said he had a heart attack while swimming near Taormina.

Gimondi was one of only seven riders to capture the Tour de France, the Vuelta a España and the Giro d’Italia, which he won three times. His 135 career wins also included the world road racing championship in 1973, one of the rare occasions he defeated the Belgian Merckx.

“Without Merckx, Gimondi probably would have been the greatest cyclist of his time,” Jean Durry, a French cycling historian, wrote in an expanded 1981 edition of his book “The True Story of the Giants of the Road” (1973).