Gino Bartali

Gino Bartali in the Tour de France (July 19, 1938)

Bartalis' birthplace in Ponte a Ema

Gino Bartali (born July 18, 1914 in Ponte a Ema ( Bagno a Ripoli ) near Florence ; † May 5, 2000 there ) was one of the most successful and popular cyclists in Italy . He won the Tour de France twice and the Giro d'Italia three times . For his involvement in the rescue of persecuted Jews during World War II, he was posthumously awarded the Righteous Among the Nations in 2013 .

Cycling career

Bartali achieved his first victory at the age of sixteen in the finals of the Grand Prix of Debutants in Florence. His record as a junior and amateur was 44 victories in 92 races and various podium places. Gino Bartali, professional cyclist from 1935 (he started as an independent cyclist in 1935 , but with a permanent contract) until 1953, was considered the best mountain cyclist of his time. He won the mountain classification of the Giro d'Italia seven times . He also triumphed three times ( 1936 , 1937 and 1946 ) in the overall ranking of the Giro. In 1938 Bartali was able to win the Tour de France for the first time. In the prime racing driver's age, he had to interrupt his career for several years because of the Second World War . In 1948 he returned to the Tour and won the "Big Bow" a second time after ten years with almost half an hour ahead of second-placed Briek Schotte .

Bartali's career was shaped by the competition with the five years younger " Campionissimo " Fausto Coppi : This most famous rivalry in cycling history divided the huge Italian fan base into the irreconcilable camps of the "Bartalists" and the "Coppists". In 1946 Bartali won the Giro even before Coppi. In the 1949 Tour de France , Bartali, now 35, came second; Coppi won after 4,810 km with a lead of 10 minutes 55 seconds. At the Tour de France in 1951 he was fourth; also at the Tour de France 1952 .

In that year, 1952, the reporter Carlo Martini took a picture that has become legendary: Fausto Coppi in a gold jersey is driving ahead through the alpine stone desert on the Galibier , behind him Gino Bartali. Coppi stretches his right arm back, Bartali leans forward over the handlebars and hands the rival a bidon . Or was it the other way around? Is it Coppi who, on July 4, 1952, on the tenth stage of the Tour de France on the Galibier Pass, gave his compatriot a drink in the slipstream? The picture became an icon of fairness and reconciliation. In reality, Coppi and Bartali did not see themselves as rivals. It later emerged through Martini's photo agency that the scene had been recreated for the photographer; in fact it had taken place the day before.

A year later, Bartali almost lost a leg to amputation after a fall; the fall ended his career.

Bartali dominated the two most important Italian one-day classics : he won four times at Milan-Sanremo , three times he won the Tour of Lombardy . He never won the road world championship. At the end of his long career he had 124 victories.

Bartali remained closely connected to cycling for many years as a commentator for Italian television and radio.

Bartali was also called "the cycling monk" because he was a lay brother of the Carmelites .

Honors

Piazza Gino Bartali in Florence

After the armistice in Cassibile on September 8, 1943 and the occupation of Italy by German troops, Gino Bartali worked as a bicycle courier for the underground movement DELASEM , which campaigned for the rescue of Jews. He hid members of the Goldenberg family from persecution by German and Italian fascists . His actions are said to have saved 800 persecuted Jews from deportation. In 2005, the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi posthumously awarded him the Gold Medal of Honor (Medaglia d'oro al merito civile) for his humanitarian work. Yad Vashem , the Israeli "Memorial to the Martyrs and Heroes of the State of Israel in the Holocaust ", awarded Bartali in September 2013 the title Righteous Among the Nations .

The feature film The Assisi Underground set a monument to Bartali as early as 1985 . His later sports career is mentioned in the credits of the film.

Parts of his equipment from that time are exhibited at the pilgrimage site of the cyclists, the Church of Madonna del Ghisallo , and in the Museo del Ciclismo in Magreglio . In Magreglio, a street was named Via Gino Bartali .

On May 4, 2018, the Giro d'Italia started outside Europe for the first time in its 101-year history: The first stage of the Giro d'Italia 2018 took place in Jerusalem and was dedicated to Bartali. On the occasion of this event, Bartali was posthumously granted Israeli citizenship. 15 participants of the tour took part in a commemorative trip to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial .

successes

• 2 × Tour de France ( 1938 , 1948 )
• 3 × Giro d'Italia ( 1936 , 1937 , 1946 )
• 4 × Milan – Sanremo (1939, 1940, 1947, 1950)
• 3 × Giro di Lombardia (1936, 1939, 1940)
• 2 × Tour de Suisse ( 1946 , 1947 )
• 4 × Italian road champion (1935, 1937, 1940, 1952)
• 5 × Giro della Toscana (1939, 1940, 1948, 1950, 1953)
• 3 × Giro del Piemonte (1937, 1939, 1951)
• 2 × championship of Zurich (1946, 1948)
• 2 × Giro dell'Emilia (1952, 1953)
• 2 × Giro della Campania (1940, 1945)
• 1 × Coppa Bernocchi (1935)
• 1 × Tre Valli Varesine (1938)
• 1 × Tour de Romandie (1949)

Fonts

• Gino Bartali, Pino Ricci: Tutto sbagliato, tutto da rifare: con 33 illustrazioni fuori testi , Mondadori, Milan 1979.

literature

• Alberto Toscano: Gino Bartali. Una bici contro il fascismo . Baldini + Castoldi, Milan 2019, ISBN 9788893881654 .
• Gian Paolo Ormezzano with Marina Coppi and Andrea Bartali: Coppi & Bartali. Due amici che l'Italia voleva rivali raccontati dai figli , San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo 2009, ISBN 978-88-215-6501-4 .
• Jean-Pierre Ollivier: Le Lion de Toscane. La véridique histoire de Gino Bartali . Editiones de l'Aurore, Grenoble 1991, ISBN 2-903950-57-1 .

Web links

Commons : Gino Bartali  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Gino Bartali in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Ginettaccio - The legend of Gino Bartali
• Museo del Ciclismo "Gino Bartali"
• Gino Bartali in the Tour de France database(French / English )
• Stefan Osterhaus, Jan-Christoph Kitzler: The unknown side of the cycling champion Bartali. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from September 14, 2012
• Katja Iken: Gino Bartali, the savior of the Jews, by bike : Calves made of steel, heart made of gold. In: Spiegel Online . April 27, 2018. Retrieved April 28, 2018 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jean-Paul Ollivier: Le Lion de Toscane . Les Editiones de l`Aurore, Grenoble 1991, p. 221 (Italian).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Interest group for cycling (ed.): The cycling . No. 7/1950 . Sportdienst Verlag Zademack and Noster, Cologne 1950, p. 2 .
3. ↑ Peter Hartmann: Shaping a lost world: Coppi, Bartali and Pantani, doping, blood and gasoline. Italy loves the myths and stories about its racing cyclists . - Neue Zürcher Zeitung, international edition: Monday, May 22, 2017, 32.
4. ↑ Luciano Boccaccini, Giovanni Tarello: Annuario Storico Del Ciclismo Italiano . Publialfa Edizion, Milan 1994, p. 48 (Italian).
5. ^ Association of German cyclists (ed.): Radsport . No. 5/1962 . Deutscher Sportverlag Kurt Stoof, Cologne 1962, p. 20 .
6. ^ Stefan Osterhaus: Gino der Gerechte , NZZ, September 28, 2013, p. 37.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Klaus Blume: 800 Jews saved from deportation NZZ , February 1, 2012
8. ↑ Bartali awarded as "Righteous Among the Nations" " kicker.de, 23 September 2013
9. ↑ The champion who saved the Jews, deutschlandradiokultur.de, November 9, 2013
10. ↑ The Assisi underground cinema.de
11. ↑ The Assisi Underground - Actors, Cast & Crew moviepilot.de
12. ↑ Italian cycling legend: The silent hero Gino Bartali page 0. In: tagesspiegel.de . January 9, 2018, accessed August 23, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Gino Bartali on the website of Yad Vashem (English)
14. ↑ Gino Bartali was granted Israeli citizenship posthumously. In: radsport-news.com. May 2, 2018, accessed May 4, 2018 .