The 119th edition of the Giro di Lombardia is underway, the last Monumento classic, dominated in the last four seasons by Tadej Pogacar. But the king of the “Dead Leaves Race” is Fausto Coppi, with five triumphs: since 1954
Pogacar and Coppi, the Slovenian champion and the Champion. No one has ever won five Monument classics in a row, and today in Bergamo Pogacar can do it in the Giro di Lombardia which, of all the races, is identified most with Fausto. Ghisallo, where in 1949 with Bartali and Magni he carried the torch to the small church dedicated to the Madonna protectress of cyclists, was his climb. Coppi won the Lombardia in 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1949, and then in 1954, when Aldo Moser, twenty years old, got a puncture a few kilometers from the arrival of Vigorelli and arrived in tears. The same ones that Coppi himself paid in 1956, when the Frenchman Darrigade denied him his sixth triumph in the sprint at Vigorelli. Today, with his fifth in a row, Pogacar could erase Coppi’s first record.
the Milan-Sanremo of rebirth
—
There are two dates that frame the career of Fausto Coppi and the rebirth of cycling in Italy after the Second World War. Both in 1946, because yes, and perhaps it’s not such well-known news, in that year the Sanremo and the Giro d’Italia were raced again in our country, and the Giro di Lombardia was actually held on 21 October 1945. The Tour de France only resumed in 1947. Well: 19 March 1946, Tuesday, the 37th edition of the Milan-Sanremo. La Gazzetta dello Sport headlines: “Proud of you. You’re just a bicycle race, but… you tell us that there is the will to live.” And on that sunny day, with the runners parading between cities and towns made of rubble and pontoon bridges to cross the rivers, Fausto Coppi goes up the Turchino, at the top he has a 150 meter lead, and here begins the 147 kilometer escape to the finish line in Corso Cavallotti. “While waiting for the second, we broadcast dance music,” Nicolò Carosio says on the radio. The second is the Frenchman Lucien Teisseire, at 14′. For the victory, Coppi had asked Zambrini, the Bianchi manager, for a truck: he will have it.
the first success was against Lombardy
—
The other date is Sunday 27 October 1946. The first Tour of Lombardy in republican Italy. From Milan to Milan, from the shooting range in today’s Piazzale Accursio to Vigorelli: 231 kilometres, 129 starters. Coppi had won the Sanremo, Bartali the Giro d’Italia, and now they are both here, in the 40th edition of Lombardia. The decisive action on the Ghisallo, which Coppi climbed in record time: 27’03”, was joined by Casola and Michele Motta, and then separated them on the Ghisolfa overpass. At 27 he won his first Lombardy, the Vigorelli crowd shouted “Fausto, Fausto”. Luigi Casola, the champion from Varese who would then go to live in Mexico City and host Francesco Moser for his Hour record in 1984, he is second at 40”. Bruno Roghi, editor of the Gazzetta, begins his piece like this: “At the opening of the season, the race of the almond trees in bloom won in Sanremo… at the end of the season, the race of the dead leaves in Milan.”
the second triumph
—
Lombardy 1947, it’s October 26th, from Milan to Milan, finish line at the Arena, 222 km, 129 start. Coppi’s second triumph was born with a solitary escape of 70 kilometres. Fausto catches up and overtakes Magni before arriving in Bellagio, and is alone in the attack on the Ghisallo climb. Coppi punctures 5 km from the summit, loses a minute but there is no story for his rivals. He passes to the top with 2’15” on Bartali and 3’15” on Magni. In the tricolor jersey, covered in mud, Coppi triumphs at the Arena: “I felt really good”.
the feat and the third triumph
—
In 1948 one of Coppi’s greatest actions for the trio of the Giro di Lombardia: from Milan to Vigorelli, 222 km, 127 starters. This time the kilometers of solitary escape are 84. The action begins after the refueling of Asso, in Onno Coppi already has a 30″ advantage, devours the 8.8 km of the Ghisallo climb in 25’20”, almost two minutes less than his 1946 record, at the summit he has 2’41” over Ortelli and Bobet. Praised by a delirious public, Coppi enters the Vigorelli and precedes Adolfo Leoni of 4’45”. The new director of the Gazzetta, Emilio De Martino, writes: “Few thought that Coppi’s victory would be so overwhelming.”
all in
—
In 1949 Coppi is Italian sport. What a year! Conquers Milan-Sanremo, Giro d’Italia, Tour de France (first to achieve the pink-yellow double in the same season), tricolor jersey, and now poker at the Giro di Lombardia. It’s October 23rd, from Milan to Vigorelli, 222 km, 192 starters. This time he remains alone on the descent from Ghisallo to Barni, where Pierre Molineris, who was in the lead with him, falls. There are 65 kilometers to go until Vigorelli, with thousands of people leaving their homes, attracted by the live broadcast on the radio, crowding along the roadside and accompanying him to the apotheosis in Vigorelli. Here the stands vibrate with cheering. Record average, 38.002 km/h, four victories at Lombardia like Alfredo Binda, but Coppi’s are consecutive. To the Gazzetta, Fausto confesses: “The race didn’t seem harder than last year.”
the fifth
—
Then Coppi came third in 1950 (first with Renzo Soldani) and in 1951 (first with the Frenchman Louison Bobet), in 1952 he had a puncture after less than 50 kilometres, in 1953 he was absent, and in 1954 he achieved a top five. It’s October 31st, from Milan to Vigorelli, 222 km, 127 starters. A special year for the Champion, because at the 1953 Lugano World Championship the White Lady, Giulia Occhini, was revealed. Private life prevails, Coppi finds it hard to think about racing, but still shows up at the start of Lombardia. A strange development, it’s raining, Chiarlone is leading the Ghisallo with 22″ on Aldo Moser and 31″ on the Campionissimo. Nobody makes the difference, there are various reunions towards Milan, and then on the track at Vigorelli Coppi wins thanks to a large gear, the 52×14, which develops 7.93 meters per pedal stroke. Fiorenzo Magni is second, Aldo Moser (the pioneer of the Palù di Giovo dynasty, Francesco’s older brother) is seventh. Coppi would race the Giro di Lombardia twice again: 11th in 1955, 24″ behind the winner Cleto Maule, and 2nd in 1956, beaten in the sprint by Darrigade, his former teammate at Bianchi, when he was convinced he had won. Now, after 71 years, his record is about to fall.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED