Serse Coppi was the younger brother of the Italian cycling star Fausto Coppi by four years . His professional career began in 1946 in the Italian team Bianchi ; there he drove with his brother.
Coppi's greatest success of his career was the victory at Paris – Roubaix in 1949, which was, however, controversial. First, the Frenchman André Mahé was honored as the winner. Due to the mistake of a policeman who had guided him incorrectly, the latter had to take a detour, which is why he had entered the Roubaix Velodrome from the wrong side ; two other drivers, who had felt the same way, took second and third place. Serse Coppi won the main field sprint.
Serse Coppi's older brother Fausto then exercised his influence on the ranking of the race. After months of tug-of-war between the French and Italian cycling federations and within the UCI , Mahé and Coppi were named equally winners.
In 1951, Serse Coppi started the Piedmont tour together with his brother Fausto . During the final sprint in Turin, his bike got stuck in a tram track and fell on his head. Nevertheless, he returned to his hotel, but his condition deteriorated there and he had to be taken to the hospital. Before he could be operated on, he died of a cerebral haemorrhage.
Serse Coppi and his brother Fausto, who died in 1960 at the age of 40, are buried together in a grave in the cemetery in their home town of Castellania.
