Meanwhile back in Italy, Palmiro Togliatti, Secretary of the Italian Communist Party had been seriously wounded in an assassination attempt, which resulted in large scale civil unrest, protests, and rioting in the streets throughout Italy.īartali received a phone call from a friend, Alcide de Gaspari, a Deputy in the Italian Christian Democratic Party. In the following stages the lead was taken by Lousion Bobet, a rising young French star riding his second Tour.īobet emerged from the Pyrenees with a nine minute overall lead, and Bartali was some twenty minutes down. It has been said that Gino Bartali’s 1948 Tour de France win helped subdue political unrest in Italy, even possible civil war.īartali took the yellow jersey in the first stage with a win in the finishing sprint. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Italy was still recovering their defeat in WWII, and the rest of Europe was still slow to forgive. The rivalry between these two in some ways divided a nation, but both riders gave Italy much to celebrate, and this was a country that needed cause for jubilation at that time. (Picture below left, Coppi nearest camera.) Bartali from Florence in the Tuscany region, was a devout Catholic and deeply religious this earned him the nickname of “Gino the Pious.” Coppi, on the other hand, was from the industrial north, was not religious at all. Gino Bartali is probably best known for his epic rivalry with Fausto Coppi, another great Italian cyclist.

He was also the first to win both the Mountains Jersey and take overall victory in the Tour de France in 1938, then repeated the feat in his 1948 win. He also won the Giro d’Italia three times, in 1936, 1937, and again after the war in 1946.īartali was a great climber and won the Giro Mountains Jersey a record seven times. He came back ten years later in 1948 to win the Tour a second time. He was 24 years old when he won the Tour de France in 1938 then the war robbed him of his peak athletic years, from his mid twenties to his early thirties. Gino Bartali born in Florence, Italy, in 1914 had a cycling career that spanned both sides of WWII.

Bartali paolo conte collection