The 14th stage of the 2014 Tour de France finishes in Risoul on 19 July, with the town in the French Alps celebrating its premiere at the Tour. As a fitting introduction, the organisers have placed one of the most famous climbs of the Tour in front of it, the Col d'Izoard. This year marks the 34th time that the Alpine pass is on the Tour de France programme.
A few kilometres below the top of the pass, there are two commemorative plaques on a rock in the Casse Déserte: one for the Frenchman Louison Bobet and one for Fausto Coppi. Bobet was first to the summit three times and laid the foundations for two of his three Tour de France victories there in the early 1950s. The Italian Coppi won the Izoard mountain prize twice, in 1951 and 1949.
The Tour de France in 1949 is contested by national teams. The Italian team unites two of the absolute heroes of the time, and that is more of a curse than a blessing. Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi, who was five years younger, were bitter rivals and they were reluctant to ride together in the national team. Bartali has won the Tour de France twice, including last year, and Coppi has just won the Giro d'Italia for the third time. The team manager of the Italian squad is none other than Alfredo Binda. The three-time world champion and five-time winner of the Giro d'Italia has the difficult task of dealing with the vanity of both stars. Binda leaves the question of captaincy unanswered before the start of the Tour, emphasising that it is all about an Italian victory.
The Tour gets off to the worst possible start for Fausto Coppi. He loses time on the first stages and crashes on stage 5. As team boss Binda is not immediately on hand with a spare bike, Coppi senses that he is at a disadvantage compared to Bartali. Coppi already wants to abandon the tour, but Binda uses his diplomatic skills to keep his star in the race.
Before the start of the 16th stage, Bartali and Coppi are both almost 15 minutes behind the yellow jersey. The stage takes the peloton over the Col d'Allos, the Col de Vars and finally over the Col d'Izoard on the way to the finish in Briancon. Gino Bartali won the identical stage last year. With the good memories in the back of his mind, he broke away from the group of favourites early on - accompanied only by Fausto Coppi. Alfredo Binda is said to have ordered both of them to form this alliance as a last chance to win the Tour for the Italian national team after all. Binda's plan worked. Both quickly open up a clear lead over the rest of the field. But at the start of the climb to the Col d'Izoard, Coppi's bad luck catches up with him again - a puncture forces him to stop. Instead of continuing, Bartali also stopped and waited for his team-mate. A little later on the climb, Bartali gets a flat tyre, but this time Coppi waits so that the two of them can tackle the final climb together. During the climb, however, Bartali realises that the younger Coppi is the stronger rider. However, he is determined to win the stage in Briancon - it is the day of his 35th birthday.
At the summit, he is said to have suggested to Coppi that if he let him win the stage, he would support him to win the Tour de France. They both reach the day's finish more than 20 minutes ahead of their rivals, and Bartali wins the stage.
At the same time, he also takes the yellow jersey. When both were riding the next stage, Bartali suffered a puncture and this time signalled to Coppi that he could continue. Coppi pulled away and won his first Tour de France in 1949. Two years later, he repeated his triumph in the Tour of France.
Gino Bartali wins the Tour de France twice - in 1938 and 1948 - but many experts are certain that his record would have been better without the Second World War. The Tour did not take place from 1940 to 1946.
In addition to his successes in France, Fausto Coppi achieved a total of five victories in the Giro d'Italia. He dies early at the age of 40 from malaria, which he catches on a PR tour in Africa and is misdiagnosed by the doctors.
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