A game-shooting safari at Ouagadougou in Upper Volta
(today Burkina Faso) proved fatal for Fausto Coppi, one of Italy’s greatest and
most idolized cyclists who, in the 1940s and 50s, was acclaimed by his fans as
the Campionissimo or the Airone (Heron), like the bird. When he returned to Italy just before Christmas 1959,
after taking part in celebrations for the independence of that African nation
with other Italian and French cyclists, he had a fever that he thought was a
simple influenza. His doctors thought likewise. Coppi had malaria from which he
died, just over 40 years old, on January 2, 1960. The French rider, Raphaël
Géminiani, who shared a room with Coppi during the trip also came down with the
same symptoms, but, treated in time with quinine, he survived.
Born Angelo Fausto Coppi in Castellania, a small rural
village not far from Tortona in Liguria
on September 15, 1919, he was one of five children. As a young man, while
working as a butcher’s delivery boy in Novi Ligure, he met the famous blind
masseur, Biagio Cavanna, known as the ‘magician of Novi’
or the ‘blind clairvoyant’ of cycling who, as his trainer, would mould his
future career.
In July 1937, Coppi took part in his first road race
on the local Boffalora circuit and, the following year, won his first event at
Castelletto d’Orba. Wearing his famous white and sky-blue jersey, he was
equally talented as a long-distance rider, sprinter and climber. He won 138
races on the road (118 as a professional), including the Giro d’Italia a record
five times (1940, 1947, 1949, 1952 and 1953); the Tour de France twice (1949
and 1952); the Giro di Lombardia, a record five times (1946, 1947, 1948, 1949
and 1954); the Milano Sanremo (1946, 1948 and 1949); and 84 out of 95 track
pursuit races.
Physically, Coppi was the antithesis of the athlete,
although his unusually slow heart beat of 30 to 40 times per minute-about half
the normal rate of 70-amplified his stamina. A tall, skinny man with a delicate
frame and hooked nose, he was fastidious about his diet and exigent about his
equipment. A reserved person, he talked little and smiled rarely.
Italy,
which at the time of Coppi’s greatest successes was struggling to recover after
the cataclysm of World War II, was badly in need of optimism and a new
beginning. The Italians venerated him.
Their adoration was further fuelled by his legendary rivalry with Gino Bartali,
the champion from Ponte a Ema, near Florence,
almost his complete opposite in every respect, even down to their religious and
political views: Coppi, an atheist, represented the Communist Party while
Bartali embodied catholic Christian Democrat ideals.
What the press and his fans could not pardon was that
their ‘divinity’ had clay feet. Coppi, a married man, made the unpardonable
error of falling in love with a beautiful married woman and mother of two small
children whom she would leave for him. In 1948, during the Three Valleys
of Varese race,
Coppi met Giulia Occhini, the wife of one of his most enthusiastic fans and a
local doctor, Enrico Locatelli. In 1953, when Occhini, was seen wearing a white duffle
coat, was spotted waiting for Coppi at the finish line of the race that crowned
him road-racing champion of the world, a French journalist from L’Équipe revealed her presence, calling her ‘la dame en blanche’ (the lady in white). In
the bigoted 50s, the scandal caused by their relationship was huge, even
provoking the Vatican
to openly condemn the couple. The tabloids could not get enough of it, falsely
painting Occhini as vain, grasping and some kind of a witch who had ruined
Coppi’s life and career.
In 1954, Coppi consensually separated from Bruna
Ciampolini, his wife and mother of his daughter. Locatelli, however, refused to
accept the situation and denounced his wife for adultery, then a criminal
offence. Occhini was arrested, kept in prison for four days and then forced,
while awaiting trail, to reside in Ancona
while Coppi’s passport was confiscated. At the end of the court case in 1955,
Coppi was sentenced to two months in jail while Occhini was given a three-month
sentence (both later suspended).
The couple finally married in Mexico, yet the marriage was never recognised in
Italy.
Their only son, Angelo Fausto Maurizio Coppi, known as Faustino, was born in Buenos Aires on May 13,
1955. Not yet satisfied, Locatelli who was considered the father of the child
under Italian law at the time refused, for many years, to repudiate paternity.
Then, just when some serenity appeared to have entered their lives, Coppi died,
leaving Occhini to bring up their five-year old son alone. Never spared by
destiny, at 69, she was seriously injured in a car crash and died on January 6,
1993, after spending 510 days in a coma.
THE MUSEO DEI CAMPIONISSIMI in
Novi Ligure (near Alessandria)
is dedicated to Coppi and other great cycling champions.
Viale
dei Campionissimi
Novi
Ligure (AL)
Tel. 0143/72585
Hours: Fridays 3pm – 8pm; Saturdays, Sundays and
holidays 10am – 8pm. Groups of 10 or more can reserve for alternate days.
For more information, visit www.museodeicampionissimi.it/home or email museodeicampionissimi@comune.noviligure.al.it
