Cycling: a century ago Fausto Coppi was born, “a man alone in command”

A century ago, Fausto Coppi, one of the greatest and most popular Italian cyclists of all time, was born. Son of Domenico and Angiolina Boveri, landowners and farmers, the fourth of five brothers, after elementary school he worked alongside his father and brother in the fields. The first “training” came with the work in Novi Ligure. Garzone, he made deliveries by bicycle and returned to Castellania to his parents, every Sunday. The first bike was a gift from uncle Fausto: 520 lire to buy a Maino and ride a quality bicycle for the first time. In Novi he was noticed by Biagio Cavanna, the famous blind masseur of Costante Girardengo and Learco Guerra, who was the first to intuit the incredible potential of a champion. Coppi's greatness was all in those long, thin legs, in those agile, moving muscles. Furthermore, the boy could rely on an extraordinary respiratory capacity: seven liters under normal conditions and a circulatory system almost insensitive to effort. The chest looked similar to that of a bird, and so the name 'Heron' became a logical consequence. For Brera, Coppi had to be “an invention of nature to complement the modest mechanical genius of the bicycle”. The first two-wheeler that allowed him to win a race was a Prina custom-made in Asti, paid for 600 lire and bought with his butcher's money, a new job he took on after finishing his experience as a butcher. His first success as an amateur came wearing the colors of the Dopolavoro Aziendale Montecatini team from Spinetta Marengo, racing on the Castelletto d'Orba circuit.  The first victory was followed by many triumphs: five Giro d'Italia (1940, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953), Giro record holder with Binda and Merckx, two Tour de France victories (1949 and 1952), the first cyclist to win the two competitions in the same year, as well as to do so systematically. Among his victories in road races, five Tours of Lombardy stand out (1946, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1954), a record, three Milan-San Remo (1946, 1948 and 1949), and the Paris-Roubaix and the Flèche Wallonne in 1950. In 1953 he was world champion on the road, while on the track he won gold in Paris in 1947 and in Ordrup in 1949. The hour record he set in 1942, covering a distance of 45,798 kilometres, lasted until 1956. But it's not just his victories that make Coppi a legend. They are the exploits, the rivalry with Bartali, the private life too immoderate for the standards of the time, the anecdotes linked to the Stelvio, the Col du Galibier and the Cuneo-Pinerolo. The contrast with 'Ginettaccio' is a story in itself. The two were too different and seemed perfect to personify the two faces of Italy. Coppi was secular, scientific and of libertine ideas, Bartali was hot-blooded, peasant and traditionalist. The two, more out of necessity than out of real adherence to a political program, immediately became a metaphor for the dichotomy between the DC, which saw Bartali as its rider, and the socialist movements which had Coppi as their point of reference. The rivalry began when they raced together and Bartali was captain of the team in which the young Coppi raced. It materialized with the victory of Airone at the Falzarego Pass and exploded during the 1948 World Championships when in Valkenburg aan de Geul the two cyclists on the national team decided to monitor, target and mark each other to prevent one of them from emerging as the best.