Remembering Fausto Coppi at the 2024 Tour de France

The Tour de France is visiting Italy for its Grand Départ 2024, and it’s an opportunity to remember past Italian cycling champions.

One of those is Fausto Coppi (1919-1960).

Stage 3 of the Tour de France 2024 is the first flat stage, and a chance for the sprinters. It takes the peloton across the flatlands of the Pianura Padana, from Piacenza to Turin, and it passes through Tortona. There’s a little climb, called the Cote de Tortone.

This is intended as a tip of the hat to Fausto Coppi. He was born in a village called Castellania, near Alessandria, where his parents’ house is now a museum. He lived in Tortona.

Fausto Coppi’s Early Career

Coppi was given money for his first proper bike by his uncle, also called Fausto Coppi.

The first time he won a race, aged 15, the prize was 20 lire and a salami sandwich; the next time, it was an alarm clock.

He won the Giro five times altogether, and the first of those victories came in 1940.

World War II

During World War II, Coppi served in North Africa. He was captured by the British Army in 1943, and kept in a Prisoner of War camp.

Career Post-War

Coppi dominated cycling after the war, continuing his wins in the Giro d’Italia.

1949 was the first time he was allowed to enter the Tour de France. He won it that year, and again in 1952.

Frenchman Raphael Geminiani raced on Coppi’s Bianchi team in 1952. He says that Coppi was light as air, and when cycling he looked as though he wasn’t touching the ground. When he climbed, there was very little body movement – it seemed as though everything was easy for him.

Coppi was affable and kind. He was a winner, but in an almost apologetic way.

Coppi’s great rival was Gino Bartali. Bartali was conservative and religious, and popular in the rural south of Italy. Coppi was more worldly, and innovative in diet and training, and a hero in the industrial north.

Personal Life and Scandal

There was a scandal around Fausto Coppi and Giulia Occhini (la dama bianca).

When they met in 1948, they were both married. They lived together in Tortona, but it became a scandal and the Pope got involved. They were put on trial for adultery in 1955, and given suspended prison sentences.

Coppi’s cycling career declined from then on.

He caught malaria in Burkina Faso in December 1959, and died in January 1960.