Fallen Angel by William Fotheringham Read Free Book Online

‘a man of few words, shy, meek-mannered’. It had, said Giardini, only taken the few minutes in which he matched the best in the Giro del Piemonte ‘to make us understand that Coppi had the makings of a champion’.

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    Gino Bartali and his ‘greens’ in the Legnano team had been Coppi’s heroes in his amateur days. Bartali would spur him onwards and upwards for the rest of his cycling career. Their lives would be entwined for more than twenty years: initially as leader and gregario (team worker), then friends and legendary rivals, finally, ephemerally, team manager and team captain. They had raced together on 9 April 1939 in the Giro della Toscana; Coppi broke a wheel after 140 kilometres so there had been no confrontation. They had first come head to head in the Giro del Piemonte on 4 June. The youngster, wearing a bright yellow jersey, made an experimental attack on one of the hills and went into a solo lead, only for his chain to come off. He had to stop, and put it back on the wrong gear; even so he eventually finished third behind Bartali. That evening he went to the Legnano team’s hotel with Cavanna to sign his first professional contract for the 1940 season.
    Bartali told the journalist Rino Negri that, given everything Cavanna had said about the youngster, it was probably better to have him in his own team than riding against him. After all, Coppi was already being described as ‘the most elegant pedaller in Italy’ and had ambitions that went beyond merely enabling his team leader to win. At their first team meeting, before the opening one-day Classic of the year, Milan–San Remo, Coppi raised his voice, questioning the older man’s choice of tactics. But as that year’s Giro d’Italia drew near, there was nothing to suggest that the slim youth from Piemonte might be about to usurp his leader’s place. Bartali had won Milan–San Remo and the Giro della Toscana in fine style. Coppi’s preparation had been held up by a training accident. He had been well placed, but nothing more, finishing eighth in Milan–San Remo and twelfth in the Giro del Piemonte; his selection for the Giro in his first professional season showed that Pavesi felt he had made rapid progress in spite of his lack of wins.
    The three-week Giro hinged on a single split second, during the second stage between Turin and Genoa, when Bartali hit a dog, crashed and dislocated his elbow. He was advised by his doctors to quit the race, as they estimated he would need three weeks off to recover. He refused to go home, although he rapidly lost fifteen minutes after failing to stay with the leaders as a consequence of the injury. Coppi, meanwhile, suffered more than his fair share of problems – two crashes, a broken handlebar – but had ridden consistently enough to lie in second place by the start of stage eleven, from Florence to Modena, where the riders had to cross the Apennines over the Abetone Pass.
    It was on the slopes of the Abetone, in snow, cold rain, thunder and lightning, that the pattern for the rest of the race was set. Coppi had been told by Pavesi to ride his own race and escaped alone; Bartali had briefly stopped becausehe had a mechanical problem, with a crank coming loose. Once Coppi had flown, the older man had no choice but to remain with the other team leaders as they spent their energy chasing his teammate; if they caught Coppi, it would be his turn to attack.
    Bartali later claimed he was at least as strong as Coppi on the day, but what is not in doubt is that this was the moment Coppi emerged from obscurity. Orio Vergani wrote in Corriere della Sera : ‘He seemed to be whistling as he went … on the road lashed by the frozen, cutting rain. People at the roadsides huddled under umbrellas, trying to read the number stamped on his frame, looked for his name in the paper that corresponded to the number … Coppi, an unknown … Fausto, an