COPPI AND BARTALI

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Fausto Angelo Coppi was born in Castellania, in the province of Alessandria, on the 15th September 1919. His family was of humble origins. He lived in Novi Ligure, in Rimembranza street first then in Villa Carla, along Serravalle road. He was only a teenager when he began to work as a boy in a delicatessen shop.

He loved going with a bicycle which his uncle gave him.

In 1937 he competed in his first race. The path was not easy even though it ran from town to town. But he was forced to give up because of a flat tire. Then war broke out. He was soldier in Tortona. He was taken prisoner by English soldiers in Africa. He has been transferred in a concentration camp in Blida, Algeri.

He came back save from this experience and he started his cycling training again.

On the 22nd of November 1945 he got married with Bruna Ciampolini. They had a daughter, Marina, the first of their sons (Faustino was born from a relationship with the White Lady).

Thanks to his talent he had been engaged by Legnano team along with his challenge and friend Gino Bartali whom cycling career was interrupted by the second world war.

Both friends “wrote” beautiful pages of Italian cycling’s history with their races.

Fausto Coppi ran for following teams: Bianchi, Carpano, Tricofilina and S. Pellegrino in 1959.

Coppi and Bartali were honest athletes. Emblematic scene is the famous “passing the bottle” during the Tour de France in 1952.

During his first year as professional athlete, Firenze - Modena race, Coppi wan the race in spite of Gino Bartali, as rumors were saying. He obtained the “Pink Jersey” in Milan.

He won 110 races. He used to get lonely to the finish accompanied by the Mario Ferretti speaker’s sentence: “One man to the finish” “he’s wearing a blue and white jersey and his name is Fausto Coppi”.

He won twice the Tour de France, in 1949 and in 1952, five times the Giro d’Italia (1940, 1947, 1949, 1952 e 1953). He was one of the few cyclers who could win Tour twice in the same year (Marco Pantani did in 1998).

Fausto Coppi died of malaria on the 2nd of January 1960. He was 41 years old.