Ste80

Hello, here's an article on the great Italian classic champion Alfredo Binda.


Alfredo Binda, one Legnano and five Giro d’Italia in the golden age of Italian cycling



A painter to Legnano

What a character Binda (Cittiglio, Italy, 1902-1986), strong, elegant. Paid not to ride, to stay at home, to restore interest in the Giro d'Italia of 1930. So that, if Binda competes, you already know how it ends.
Extraordinary champion of the golden age of Italian cycling. When the gentlemen who wrote the first pages of sport newspapers used to breathe the dust from the work of their arms earlier than from riding a bike. The 1920s and 1930s, misery and moral ground for an Italy with broken bones from the Great War and about to embark on another catastrophe.
And he,the greatBinda,starts to ridein Nice, on the French Riviera,emigratedwith his brotherto learntoplasterwalls from his uncle. Thirteen brothers, how many mouths to feed, too many to stay with dad and mom in Cittiglio, in theterritory ofVarese. But in Nice love was born for cycling. He starts riding and rides fast.
Just turned professional with the French Diamant, he beats Girardengo in the harsh 1923 Nice-Mont Chauve. Second place for another Italian, Tano Belloni. How did it happen? A neo-pro who gives his back to the elite of climbers? Girardengo, pedal fast and witty mind, does not mind that much, and indeed is the maker of the return home of his future rival.
Costante convinced the organizers of two meetings at Palazzo dello Sport in Milan to recruit that taciturn boy. He has long eye, Gira. And he's not the only one. Patron Bozzi of team Legnano-Wolsit is impressed by the Varese rider and proposes to him the engagement of a lifetime, it is 1925.


In the Hall of Fame of cycling with Coppi and Merckx

Binda to team Legnano, what a blow! For both. Alfredo can count on the resources of one of the two Italian manufacturers of bikes most powerful back then (dualisms and rivalry of the first order, Bianchi and Legnano. Bartali and Coppi). Legnano cycling team and bicycle brand is generously reciprocated with a wave of victories, they will make it famous worldwide. At the height of success, the Italian pro team can afford to dress up in green lizard Bartali, Coppi andBaldini.
Eberardo Pavesi, historical Team manager at Legnano, hang on to Alfredo for his whole cycling career. Lo considera “el pussè grand”, “il migliore", meglio di Coppi e Merckx.
He considers him "el pussè", "the best", better than Coppi and Merckx.
Numbers are important: five Giro d'Italia (1925, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1933), two Milano-Sanremo (1929, 1931), four Giro di Lombardia (1925, 1926, 1927, 1931), three World Road Race Championship (1927, 1930, 1932), four consecutive Italian Road Race Championship (1926-1929). Until 2003 it is his the record of 41 Giro stages. Just Mario Cipollini will do better.
France, instead, is stingy with Binda. It baptizes him, but then does not want to let him excel. Yet, he leads both in classics and in stage races. Five Giro d'Italia, gentlemen. But no, the efforts of the exhausting Tour does not suit him.
When, finally, he centers two consecutive victories on the Pyrenees, Pau and Luchon, we are in 1930, he leaves. He takes the opportunity of a mechanical failure and abandons theteammate and rival Learco Guerra. Binda returns home, angry with the Federcicli. What was going on?
First and only time in the history of cycling (as far as we know), Gazzetta dello Sport, Emilio Colombo, and Legnano, Emilio Bozzi, proposed Binda to miss the 1930 Giro d'Italia and still collect the 25,000 lire award. Alfredo accepts and keeps his word. The organizers of the Giro do not. At least not right away.
Money delays to arrive, too much according to Binda. No, Alfredo will not let them trick him this way. He has given up the Giro and the concrete possibility to win it. 28 years and 4 Giro d'Italia already in his palmarès, what better premises. Now he is entitled to that money. And after the abandonment of the Tour the agreed upon payment arrives immediately.
Other accomplishments that matter, World Championships, another Giro d'Italia, Giro di Lombardia. Another abandonment breaks the spell of a career that, according to law of nature, turns towards a natural decline, it is 1936. This time not for personal choice. Broken femur at 35 years old, foot on the ground, definitely.


Diplomat at the service of the National Team

But Binda has still so much to give to cycling. On the human side, perhaps more than it has given riding. From the handlebar to the steering wheel the step is short. He's been sitting 12 years on the team car of the Italian National road cycling team, as coach.
Master and counselor of Bartali, Coppi, Nencini. He guides them to victory at Tour and World Championship. He spurs Coppi not to abandon the Tour in 1949. It is the year of the epic undertaking.
Tour debut and first victory, no one else in the picture. And to think that if it were not for Binda things would have turned out very differently.
It was going bad for Fausto. The first four stages unable to get going, 18 minutes from the yellowjersey, the Frenchman Jacques Marinelli. In Rouen-Saint-Malo the Campionissimo breaks awayfrom the peloton, from the very beginning; but after 100 km the fork gets broken. He has clashed with Marinelli himself.
Coppi needs a new bicycle. But with the gregarious Ricci's one he does not restart and the backup bike is slow to come. It is too much, Fausto has a nervous breakdown and he wants to end it there, time to quit.
Thankfully, Binda comes by motorcycle with a bike underarm and, spurred on by Bartali, Coppi jumps back on saddle. In the evening, the coach persuaded him to continue, not to repeat his same mistake of 1930. He would regret it all lifelong.
In the Alps, the Italian co-captains Coppi and Bartali uphold the "non-aggression agreement" of Chiavari, signed on Binda pressure. They raise their heads and attack (in those years the Tour is organized on national teams, our champions dress the “tricolore” jersey).
Fausto will triumph in Paris. Bartali will follow second at more than ten minutes, Marinelli third at nearly half an hour. A single man in command, Coppi enters cycling history: for the first time Giro d'Italia and Tour de France conquered the same year. Thanks to Binda, too.
As pro racer, public has not forgiven the "trumpeter of Cittiglio" his stately demeanor, accusing him of not put his heart and soul in cycling. It prefers passionate characters like Girardengo before and then Guerra.
Binda has got heart, instead, and how if he has. He demonstrates it as coach of Italian team. Heart, charisma and diplomatic skills, of all respect too.
Imagine to make the fierce rivals Campionissimo and Ginettaccio ride in the same team, what skill. Make them win even. Coppi and Bartali. Bartali and Coppi, rather, because B comes before C.


I hope you liked it

Article originally published on cycletoscana.com, Alfredo Binda, one Legnano and five Giro d'Italia

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Ste80