Fausto Coppi, the champion of champions also in Varese

On 2 January, fifty years ago, one of the greatest athletes in world sport, Fausto Coppi, died in Tortona Hospital, at the age of only 40. His death was sudden, shocking, but also senseless, as the doctors made the wrong diagnosis; they said he had a bad bout of flu that should be treated with antibiotics, they failed to realise that it was malaria, which the “Heron” had contracted a few weeks before, in Africa. His death was also preventable, given that the Frenchman, Geminiani, Coppi’s roommate in Alto Volta, declared that he had contracted malaria, for which he was duly treated, and from which he recovered. And today, half a century later, his death continues to be remembered, discussed, evoked and celebrated like no other, at least here in Italy.

And this is how it should be, given the sporting and personal stature of Coppi, a former delicatessen deliveryman, who was born to country folk in Castellania, near Alessandria, who grew disproportionately in terms of his class, strength and intelligence. He first raced alongside Gino Bartali, in the Legnano team, then against him in the Bianchi team, which made a sporting legend of him (them) in Italy. It is no accident that even today, the photograph (shown here – © 2000 OMEGA FOTOCRONACHE) of the two great rivals is the most famous image in Italian sport, just as certain phrases expressed by the reporters of the day have also become famous: from the “lone man in the lead”, said by Mario Ferretti on the radio, on the day of the legendary Cuneo-Pinerolo stage, to the “Great Heron has folded his wings”, with which Orio Vergani gave the news of Coppi’s death in the newspaper Corriere della Sera. The Champion of Champions also divided the crowds with his private life, because of his famous story with the “White Lady”, Giulia Occhini, which, as we recount in a separate article, was revealed in Varese, before it spread throughout the world.

 

COPPI AND VARESE: THE REVELATION IN 1939 – The cyclist from Piedmont collected an endless series of successes during his career, which was split by the war and by the subsequent detention in a British camp in Africa. Among his victories, Coppi also included the favourite race of the Varese people, the Three Valleys, which he won three times, in 1941, 1948 and 1955. However, before that, there was an episode, which is unknown to many, in which he was the protagonist at the foot of “Sacro Monte”; in 1939 (the year in which Varese should have hosted the World Championships, which were cancelled because of the war), Coppi took part in the Three Valleys for independent cyclists, a sort of younger sibling to the professional race, and, of course, he won, breaking away on the “Grantola” road, reaching the hippodrome almost 7 minutes before anyone else. For him, a prize of the past, a micrometer gauge, which he was promised the day before the race by Lorenzo Bronzi, the owner of the bicycle shop “Ganna”, who was struck by the thin lad browsing, wide-eyed, among the frames, wheels and handlebars.

 

THE LEGENDARY THREE VALLEYS – When he won his first Three Valleys race, in 1941, Fausto Coppi was already well-known among the general public; he had won the Giro d’Italia the previous year, although many had interpreted that success as the result of the freedom granted by the “Legnano” team captain, Gino Bartali. Bartali came third, with another giant of the day, Olimpio Bizzi, who had already won the race on two previous occasions, coming second.

However, it was the Three Valleys in 1948 that went into the history books; this was probably the most important Three Valleys race ever (possibly equalled twenty years later by the one in which Merckx, wearing the World Champion’s jersey, was victorious), for two reasons: firstly, thanks to the extraordinary organisation and to an incredible crowd, the race served as a showcase for the 1951 World Championships; secondly, for the way in which the race unfolded and the finishing order: first Coppi (on the right in the photo), second Bartali (on the left) in a final sprint decided by a few centimetres, the apotheosis in cycling.

And even the third Three Valleys race won by the Champion of Champions was historical in its own way; the race in 1955 was the only one decided against the clock, on a course of 100 kilometres, to award the tri-coloured jersey. After a moderate beginning, Coppi broke away, finishing 2’45” before Aldo Moser, from Trento, who came second.

 

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FEVER – Among the numerous successes, there was also a noticeable “gap”, the World Championships in 1951. Coppi was summoned (as he had to be) by the coach Alfredo Binda, but did not race in Varese because of fever, the causes of which were not entirely clear. Many think the rivalry with Bartali and Magni and the choice of the support riders were the real reasons for Coppi’s withdrawal. One journalist who knew him well, Gianni Brera (author also of “Coppi and the Devil”), thought differently; in the Gazzetta dello Sport, he wrote, “He was sitting on the bed, leaning against the headboard, his eyes appeared red, from crying. He spoke in bursts, nervously, blinking, wiping his face with his hand. We felt really sorry for the Champion of Champions. ‘These were the only Championships I could have participated in on home soil,’ he said with a hoarse voice, and fell silent.” “My eyes are good, and I can read the thermometer (this is Dr Lincei speaking, ed.). I rule out any ‘false’ behaviour on the part of Coppi; he is ill, and anyone can see that.” As we know, the World Championships were won by Ferdi Kübler; Coppi got his revenge two years later, in nearby Lugano, the only occasion on which he wore the World Champion’s jersey (in the photo, an autographed card), on road, to add to the two pursuits on track. Other masterpieces of an unbeatable career, cut short by a sudden, shocking, and senseless death, that could have been prevented, on that 2 January, fifty years ago.