{"id":52671,"date":"2018-09-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/fondazione-pirelli\/coppi-and-bartali-of-men-and-demigods\/"},"modified":"2022-04-21T15:01:29","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T14:01:29","slug":"coppi-and-bartali-of-men-and-demigods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/coppi-and-bartali-of-men-and-demigods\/","title":{"rendered":"Coppi and Bartali: Of Men and Demigods"},"content":{"rendered":"

As though it were the simplest question in the world: \u201cSo do you know Bartali? Do you know Coppi?\u201d These are the opening words of \u201cHow I Know Gino and Fausto\u201d, an article <\/a>written by Orio Vergani<\/strong> for Pirelli magazine no. 4 of 1950, though he does say it is \u201ca question that might sound silly to most people\u201d. Because who wouldn\u2019t know Fausto Coppi<\/strong> and Gino Bartali<\/strong>, at the height of that golden year of 1950<\/strong>? But then again, it is likely that not even those on first name terms with them, who followed them patiently hour after hour on the races, truly knew these cycling aces. Theirs was a silent profession and the reporter might get twenty words per race \u2013 if that \u2013 and just a couple of glances.<\/p>\n

But Vergani was not one to give in: there must be a way to portray Gino and Fausto, the two athletes who at that moment were unquestionably the greatest stars of Italian cycling<\/strong>. And the great journalist of the Corriere della Sera would certainly manage to do so in some unconventional way, just as he had managed a few months earlier to immortalise Tazio Nuvolari<\/a>, a legend of speed<\/strong> then in his twilight years. After all, a really in-depth, almost scientific examination of the two champions had already been written by Giuseppe Ambrosini<\/a><\/strong> in the same magazine, in issue no. 3 of 1949<\/strong>. In the article, Bartali and Coppi had been x-rayed down to the bone, and their psychology examined in the minutest detail.<\/p>\n

Then there was the great Nino Nutrizio<\/a><\/strong>, who had been following their athletic feats for years, writing up meticulous diaries<\/strong> and going to spy on them, as it were, even when they were resting. So Vergani just had to come up with something original to paint a new picture of the two champions. When he wrote about them that summer, in 1950, he had known Bartali for at least fifteen years. He was \u201cthe human locomotive\u201d but without the ability to pounce. His talent emerged in long, gruelling rides, \u201cas powerful as a November downpour and as black as a summer storm\u201d. A talent that had Bartali say, when he was way behind his opponent Louison Bobet<\/strong> on the Tour de France in 1948<\/strong>, \u201cthe Tour ends in Paris\u201d. And indeed it was the Italian who won the race, making history with his perseverance in the face of impossible odds. Fausto Coppi, on the other hand, was \u201cthe man who bears the weight and responsibility of being the most phenomenal athlete I\u2019ve ever seen since Binda\u201d, wrote the great veteran of sports interviews, Orio Vergani<\/strong>. Coppi was a phenomenon and he knew it, but he would have preferred not to be. Melancholy, uncertainty, and the burden of responsibility were the features of his life. In Vergani\u2019s account, Bartali is as easy and open as a man can be, while Coppi is as enigmatic as Superman. Vergani compares one to Ulysses \u2013 the irascible patient born of mortals \u2013 and the other to Achilles, the offspring of the gods wishing to divest himself of his divine gifts. Yes, everyone, absolutely everyone knew \u201cGino and Fausto\u201d in that summer of 1950. But possibly no one as well as Orio Vergani.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As though it were the simplest question in the world: \u201cSo do you know Bartali? Do you know Coppi?\u201d These are the opening words of \u201cHow I Know Gino and Fausto\u201d, an article written by Orio Vergani for Pirelli magazine no. 4 of 1950, though he does say it is \u201ca question that might sound […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[248,356,183],"class_list":["post-52671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-from-world-of-pirelli","tag-racing","tag-rubrica-en","tag-sport-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCoppi and Bartali: Of Men and Demigods - Fondazione Pirelli<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/activities\/stories-from-world-of-pirelli\/coppi-and-bartali-of-men-and-demigods\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coppi and Bartali: Of Men and Demigods - Fondazione Pirelli\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As though it were the simplest question in the world: \u201cSo do you know Bartali? 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