Costante Girardengo

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Costante Girardengo (1914)

Costante Girardengo (born March 18, 1893 in Novi Ligure , † February 9, 1978 in Cassano Spinola ) was an Italian cyclist .

He won the Giro d'Italia twice , Milan – Sanremo six times and the Tour of Lombardy three times . He was the first cyclist to receive the honorary title "Campionissimo" and can be described as the first real star in the history of cycling .

Biographical

Career start

When Girardengo turned professional in 1912 , neither he nor the hot-blooded Italian Tifosi could have suspected that the first big serial winner of cycling had appeared on the stage here, even if a ninth place on the very difficult Tour of Lombardy in the debut year made people sit up and take notice.

But already in the following year, 1913, his class became clear: He won the first of a total of nine Italian championship titles on the road - already at that time the most contested national title in cycling. He also managed a stage win and sixth place overall at the Giro d'Italia as well as a victory in the very long one-day race Rome-Naples-Rome.

In the following year, 1914, he repeated his victory in the Italian championship and won another stage in the Giro: the longest day segment ever driven there from Lucca to Rome over 430 kilometers.

But just as his career was getting underway, it was suddenly interrupted: One can only guess what his Palmarès would look like if the First World War had not caused the Giro and most of the other races from 1915 to 1918 to be canceled.

When racing slowly got going again in 1917, it took Costante Girardengo a little longer to regain his top form. So this year he only got various good placements. One placement, however, the second place at Milan – Sanremo , indicated what would make Girardengo famous: because a year later, in 1918, he won there, at the so-called Classicissima , the first of a total of six victories, a record that only exceeded fifty years later to be surpassed by the greatest cyclist of all time, Eddy Merckx .

The dream year

The year 1919 surpassed everything so far: Costante Girardengo won the Italian road championship for the third time and dominated the Giro d'Italia from the first to the last stage in the pink jersey with seven stage victories - with victory in the most important race in the world at the time, he was final become a champion. He rounded off the year in autumn by winning the second great Italian classic, the Tour of Lombardy .

But the hopes (and fears) that this dominance could continue for the next few years were not confirmed: Although he continued his series of Italian championships uninterrupted until 1925 and continued to win important classics, he gave the three following Giri d'Italia in each case prematurely (on the second, fifth and fourth stage) and that after he had won the first four stages in a row at the Giro in 1921.

The second checking win

But everyone who had already written off Girardengo as the winner of the big tours should be taught better in 1923: Successful for the third time at Milan-San Remo in the spring, he found his form from 1919 in the Giro - overall victory and a total of eight stage wins the consequence.

After an unremarkable year in 1924, 1925 was Girardengo's last big year: his ninth national championship title, the fourth victory at Milan-San Remo and a second place overall behind the upcoming star Alfredo Binda in the Giro with six stage wins clearly showed that Girardengo was still capable of great achievements at the age of 32.

The changing of the guard

The turning point in his career came in 1926: after his fifth win at Milan-San Remo, Girardengo was beaten again for the first time after the incredible and unique series of seven Italian championships in a row and had to be content with second place - again defeated by Alfredo Binda . The changing of the guard was finally completed, the Girardengo era was drawing to a close.

This was to become even clearer in 1927 when he had to admit defeat to Binda again at the world championship held for the first time (on the Nürburgring - Nordschleife in Germany ) and his only victory that year in tandem with Binda at the Milan six-day race .

Girardengo was to continue professional cycling for nine years, but at 35 years of age he was no longer able to keep up with the young top riders. Only the sixth victory at Milan-San Remo in 1928 let his former class shine through.

In May 1936 (two months after Alfredo Binda!) Costante Girardengo, the first great hero of cycling , ended his active sports career.

After retirement

After the end of his career, Costante Girardengo founded the bike brand GIRARDENGO in his hometown of Alessandria , which (as was customary at the time) also had its own professional racing team, with Girardengo acting as its sporting director. The team was driven by three-time world champion Rik Van Steenbergen , who won 15 stages at the Giro and was therefore also very interesting for an Italian team: in 1951 he even took second place in the overall ranking for Girardengo.

Il Bandito e il Campione

A true and tragic story from this time revolves around Girardengo's friendship with one of the most famous contemporary bandits in Italy: Sante Pollastri , who was one of Costante Girardengo's greatest fans. He always managed to escape the police . It was only when a police officer recognized his admiration for the professional cyclist that Sante Pollastri was arrested during a race near the finish line, where he was waiting for his friend to arrive. So Sante's enthusiasm for the triumphs of his friend was undoing.

The Italian musician Francesco De Gregori , the story in his song was Il Bandito e il Campione , lyrics and music by Luigi Grechi ( stage name of Luigi De Gregori, the brother of Francesco), from the same album picked up (1992/1993), the chorus is :

Vai Girardengo vai grande campione
Nessuno ti segue su quello stradone
Vai Girardengo non si vede più Sante
È dietro a quella curva è semper più distante
Drive Girardengo, drive great champion
Nobody follows you on this road
Drive Girardengo, Sante can no longer be seen
He's around that corner, he's always further away

Palmarès (excerpt)

Web links

Commons : Costante Girardengo  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Girardengo, Costante
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian cyclist
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Novi Ligure
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1978
Place of death Cassano Spinola