Biography of Gino Bartali

Timeless hero of cycling

Biography of Gino Bartali

was interrupted by World War II when both that it was expressing itself in the best years of their condition. The two inter alia also competed on the same team, Legnano, then secede and defend the colors of major industries: the Legnano memo and the whites. Having split Italy in two, creating unquenchable as loyal factions between supporters of each other's supporters, the two wrote with their battles some of the most famous pages of the history of cycling. Coppi e Bartali: two rivals, but also two athletes solidarity among them. On their relationship there is a famous photograph, the one discussed and the famous passage of the bottle at the Tour de France of 1952: an image that has become the symbol of solidarity. While also the unfortunate Chapman disappeared prematurely, killed by malaria, Gino Bartali cycling career was one of the longest and most successful in the history of cycling filled; took place from 1935, when he graduated from champion of Italy, until 1954: twenty-seven years in the saddle and always with the same enthusiasm. Not surprisingly he was dubbed "the everlasting". Born on July 18, 1914 in Ponte a Ema (Firenze), married to Adriana, she had three children: Andrea, Louis and Blanche. Climbed on the bike for the first time in thirteen years, Gino Bartali began racing with his brother, who unfortunately died in an accident in 1936. Even so, it should be noted another astonishing resemblance to the usual Fausto Coppi, who lost his brother Xerxes in an accident. Starting from 1935 Bartali began putting together a winning streak, culminating in the following year on the podium of the tour of Italy. Then came all the other great victories that the crowned King of the slopes and the projected Italian imagination as a symbol of heroic. On Bartali and his exploits were written books, hundreds of articles and even songs, like that famous of Paolo Conte. Man of great heart and unforgettable directness, simple in the highest sense of the word, deeply loved for its purity (as when the funerals he commemorated the rival Coppi with extraordinary intensity), Bartali took off on May 5, 2000. On his farewell from the world, in the morgue of the Church of San Piero in Stage, fiorentina square Elia Dalla Costa, around his coffin passed throughout the day hundreds of people from each location to give him a last farewell. The most important victories of Gino Bartali: 2 Tour de France (1938, 1948); 3 rounds of Italy (1936, 1937, 1946), 4 Milan-Sanremo (1939, 1940, 1947, 1950); 3 rounds of Lombardy (1936, 1939, 1940); 2 rounds of Switzerland (1946, 1947); 4 shirts of Italy champion (1935, 1937, 1940, 1952); 5 Rounds of Tuscany (1939, 1940, 1948, 1950, 1953); 3 Rounds of Piedmont (1937, 1939, 1951); 2 Zurich Championships (1946, 1948); 2 Rounds of Emilia (1952, 1953); 2 Rounds of Campania (1940, 1945); then the Coppa Bernocchi (1935), the Tre Valli Varesine (1938), the tour de Romandie (1949); the tour of the Basque country (1935). Bartali won 12 stages of the Tour de France and worn 20 yellow jerseys. The Giro has won 17 stages and brought 50 times the pink jersey. Between 1931 and 1954 ran 988 races, winning 184, 45 for detachment, retreating 28 times.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.