Cycling's Greatest Rivalry

The greatest rivalry in cycling didn’t happen in the TdF but in the Giro around the Second World War. The rivalry between two great Italian riders, Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi was so heated that it surpassed social and political lines. There was no middle ground and Italians in those days were either “bartaliani” and “coppiani”.

According to Wikipedia, Bartali, who was from southern Italian city of Florence, “was powerfully built, with a broad nose and a boxer’s face”. Italians from the south were then considered lazy and unsophisticated. As a member of the Christian Democratic Party, he was deeply religious, that media called him as “Gino the Pious”. Because of who he was, he was the favorite of 3 Popes. In fact, Pope John XXIII asked Bartali to teach him how to ride a bike. Coppi, was the opposite, was worldly, innovative in training and diet and was the hero of the north. He had sharp, cosmopolitan features and an aquiline nose. He openly said that he used performance enhancing drugs (only when necessary, wink! wink!) and had an affair with a married woman. Of course, the Vatican didn’t like Coppi and didn’t bless one edition of the Giro simply because he was there!

It would be hard to understand the rivalry today. But put it in the perspective of a country craving for a hero after the devastation brought about by war and later the Cold War and you’ll understand.

Though the politicians would never admit it, Bartali’s greatest act was not a prestigious win on bike race but extrication of Italy from the brink of civil war. During the 1948 Tour de France, there was an attempted assassination of the head of the Italian Communist party, Palmiro Togliatti. If you recall, the Communist movement after WW II had already infiltrated every aspect of Italian life - factories, media, etc. They blamed the assassination on the government and were ready to foment a revolution if the government could not find the killer(s). To calm down the communists, the president of the Parliament called Bartali and ask him to win the TdF. Bartali, with the life of his nation resting on his shoulders, responded by winning 3 stages in a row and won the TdF by 14 minutes!

The win brought so much national pride that feuding parties congratulated each other. With timing so divine, Togliatti woke up from his coma on the Final day of the TdF, asked how the race was going and when he learned that Bartali had won, he recommended calm. (Bartali was a favorite of the communist because of his roots.) There were so much celebrations around the country that a looming crisis was averted.

Bartali would go on to win 3 Giros and 2 TdFs. When he died at age 85, the European Commission called him “a symbol of the most noble sportsmanship” and the Italian Olympic Committee called for 2 days of mourning. But his influence would go until toay. At dinner tables, the debate of who is better, Bartali or Coppi, still rages on. “The rivalry of Coppi-Bartali is a religion,” said Giovanni Facco, 73, a lifelong fan whose shop is plastered with yellowed Coppi clippings. “Your heart is either with one or the other”, he said. - To be continued next week (THE FREEMAN)