Fausto Coppi’s
adventure with Bianchi started in 1940,
with his first victory at the Giro d’Italia.
His second big deed occurred in 1942,
when he got the world hour record title.
In 1947, Coppi became World Champion in
the pursuit race and also gained his second Giro d’Italia.
Coppi won his first Tour de France in 1949,
when everybody guessed he was already out of the game,
after the crash during the Saint Malò stage
that loaded him with a huge delay. Instead, he managed
to gain one hour over the little Frenchman Marinelli,
who was wearing the yellow jersey of the race leader,
and to catch up with Bartali, who finished second with
a delay of 11’.
He was the first rider ever to get the Giro and the Tour in the same year,
an impossible deed in the physiologists’ opinion. Always in 1949,
he gained the World Champion title in the pursuit race for the second time.
In 1952, the
Tour organizers tried to enliven the Grand Boucle race
by introducing some special prizes. And again, Coppi
took the win of the Tour and the Giro in the same season.
In 1953, he won the on-road World Championship
and his 5th Giro: these 5 successes, unique and incomparable for manner and
style, inspired popular tales, as well as the literary and movie worlds.
Fausto Coppi didn’t want to win a lot; he rather wanted to win “in
a good way”.
He was one of the few riders, in all the cycling history, who succeeded in
achieving his aim. |