Giro d’Italia, Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali duel

The inaugural edition consisted of eight stages and a total of 2448 kilometers in which Luigi Ganna finished first among a field of 127 riders. Only 49 riders finished the race which ended after 17 gruelling days. The first time the event was held outside Italy was when San Marino hosted the race in 1965. The Principality of Monaco hosted the race the very next season.

Similar to the Tour de France which awards its winner the prestigious yellow jersey, the winner of the Giro gets a Maglia rosa (pink jersey) – pink representing the color of the newspaper La Gazella dello Sport. This tradition started from the year 1931 onwards. The ‘King of the Mountains’ adorns a green jersey while the points leader wears a mauve jersey. (The best climber in a road race is given the title of ‘King of the Mountains’)

The best riders in history lost several years of their prime racing careers due to the two World Wars. Very few of them survived the Wars and appeared on the start line of the post War races. Though the German occupied territories hosted some wars during World War II, it was not possible to travel to those places safely, so many riders who mattered, did not participate. It was almost a given those days that big riders participated mostly in home races only. For example, Giradengo and Binda mastered over the Tour of Lombardy and Milan-San Remo but hardly took part even in Tour de France competitions. Only after the war did racers take the northern classics seriously.

The Rivalries

A Giro would not be fun if there were no rivalries among the various riders. There have been a host of great rivalries on the Italian race circuits over the years, the first of them being between Constante Giradengo and Afredo Binda, the former being Italy’s first superstar. There was no love lost between Giradengo and the good looking Binda. Binda, the five time Giro winner refused to even talk to Giradengo for a while. In 1927, Binda established a clear advantage when he won by a large margin to claim his first world-championship title.

But the rivalry between Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi, is arguably the greatest in cycling history. The contrasting natures of both the riders spiced up the affair even more as Italy took sides between the religious Gino and the self-professed atheist, Fausto.

Gino Bartali
Born in 1914, Gino was typical hard working Tuscan. His religious ways counter pointed his ruthless attitude on the race tracks. In the morning of his career when two popular Italian racers tried to box him in near the finish of a race, he rammed through them right in the middle ending the event in a bloody crash. That was the last time anyone tried to box Gino. When he was 20 he won the climber’s jersey (in 1935). He was a great climber and won the mountains jersey a record seven times. He was also the first rider to win the Tour de France overall title and the mountains jersey in the same year (1938). He repeated the feat in 1948, when he won seven stages. Gino retired in 1954 at the age of 40 and died on 5th of May, 2000.

Fausto Coppi
Fausto Coppi (also known as the Campionssimo, or the Champion of Champions) was born in 1919 and won a total of seven tours. He was known for his flamboyance and the way he publicized his affair with his mistress. Personal life apart, he, along with Gino infused life into war torn Italy, which was searching for heroes in sport to revitalize the national spirit. He won races by large margins and conquered the Tour de France twice- in 1949 and in 1952. One of the momentous races by Fausto is the 1946 Milan-San Remo race. Over a span of 181 miles, he aggressed early and won 14 minutes clear of the man who came second, and more importantly, 18 minutes clear of Gino. In 1951, overcoming the emotional setback of his brother Serse’s death, he finished a creditable tenth in the Tour de France. Having been malnutritioned in his youth, his brittle bones gave way a lot of times causing innumerous fractures. While on a hunting safari to Africa, he was infected by malaria which was fatally misdiagnosed by the Italian doctors. Fausto Coppi died in 1960, at the age of 40.

Their Rivalry

Gino was the undisputed leader of Italian cycling until Fausto came along. World War II interrupted the riders in the peak of their careers, but Gino still won the Giro in 1946, and Fausto did it four more times after the war. (In fact in between Fausto’s victories in 1940 and then in 1946, he spent some years languishing as a prisoner of war on North Africa.) The tussle between the two was the stuff that legends are made of and there were numerous one-day classics between the two, not to mention the epic battles in the Giro and the Tour de France, which endeared both of them to the Italian public. Though Gino was the first one to identify Fausto’s talent and draft him into his cycling team, Fausto soon asserted his superiority leaving Gino frustrated. But Gino soon recognized Coppi's natural gifts. He wrote, "On a bike Fausto was like a god. When he got off he was a mortal, but when he pedalled he was supernatural. His suppleness, his form, this plastic in motion constituted a complete spectacle. It's easy to understand the enthusiasm of so many to see him in action.” Fausto was considered better talented than Gino. Gino spared no idea to keep track of Fausto and to discover his Achilles heel. One such time he found out that Fausto had a weak vein which troubled him between the 160th and 180th kilometers of a race. Asking a friend to keep tabs on him, Gino attacked when his friend gave signal that the weak vein was troubling Fausto, and won easily. There were also times when personal rivalry got the better of both of them and they put their quest for besting the other, over the cause of the race. This attitude got them suspended from racing for Italy for a period of three months. Eventually Fausto was rid of Gino’s troublesome intrusion into his privacy when the latter retired.

The 2006 Giro

The 2006 Giro –the 89th edition - would be held in the Mazda Palace. The 3553 kilometers would take the riders from Belgium to Italy. The gruelling nature of the race track has invited criticisms from various quarters but this is how it will stand and this race should be something to watch out for.

The Giro d’Italia, started as a means to popularize a newspaper, has come a long way. From surviving two great wars, to producing champions and irresistible battles and cold wars between racers, this race, along with the other two great races, will continue to be the premier annual event to look forward to in the cycling calendar.