Coppi's Comeback

Italy's Joe DiMaggio is a lean (5 ft. 11 in., 156 Ibs.), hawk-nosed bicycle racer named Fausto Coppi. In 1949 Coppi won bicycling's two biggest races, the Tour de France and the Giro d'ltalia, and was acclaimed "the greatest rider of all time." But the 1950 season was one disaster after another, including a.broken collarbone and a cracked pelvis suffered in bike crashes. Last year Fausto tried a comeback. He suffered, instead, a tremendous setback when he saw his younger brother, Serse, killed in a spill.

"I am through," grieved Coppi. Then, in a dramatic scene before his brother's grave, Coppi announced that he would compete in the Tour de France. He finished tenth, and it seemed that the great Coppi, then 31, was indeed through.

Last week Coppi wound up another comeback try in the Giro d'ltalia, a tough, 2,500-mile course, whose 20 laps, raced in 20 days, run over the steep, curling roads of the Alps and Apennines. On the lap from Rome to Rocca di Papa, all uphill, Coppi, his legs pumping like pistons, spurted from eighth to second place. From then on, Coppi's fervent fans hysterically paved his way with flowers, sloshed buckets of water on their sweating idol, painted slogans along the route ("Fausto, you are the only king left to us!").

Coppi responded to the adulation with such unbeatable sprints that, two days before the race was over, some of the spectators were complaining that Coppi spoiled the suspense. But his delirious fans waited six hours at the Milan finish line last week to welcome their comeback hero, who took down the 1,000,000-lire ($1,600) first prize, plus 285,000 lire in bonuses for lap leads. What was more, Coppi set a new Giro d'ltalia speed record: 34.6 kilometers an hour (21.6 m.p.h.).

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