Fausto Coppi may not have been the most successful racing cyclist in history – Eddy Merckx easily winning that title – but the Campionissimo is surely the most revered, winning as he did five Giri d’Italia and two Tours de France, setting a world hour record that stood for almost 14 years and producing, in 1946, perhaps the greatest performance in classics history to take Milan-San Remo in a career split by the second world war.
2010 is both the 50th anniversary of Coppi’s death and the 70th anniversary of his first Giro win and to celebrate the latter the Rapha Cycle Club is hosting an exhibition of memorabilia from the era.
It is to be found downstairs at the club’s 146-148 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1 premises and includes evocative photography and three Bianchi cycles similar to those that would have been ridden by Coppi in his pomp.
The exhibition will run until 30th May and can be viewed between 8am and 8pm from Monday to Friday, 10am and 8pm on Saturdays and on Sundays from 10am to 4pm.
