___Bike Racing Timeline

xx L’Equipe Sport Figure of the Decade 1940-1949  
  Timeline: 1940-45 Racing during World War 2:  
 

 
By Barry Boyce, CyclingRevealed Historian
 
Year
Race Winner
Year
Race Winner
1940

Milan-San Remo

Gino Bartali (Ita)
1943

Milan-San Remo

Cino Cinelli (Ita)
Tour of Flanders Achiel Buysse (Bel)
Paris-Roubaix Marcel Kint (Bel)
Giro d'Italia Fausto Coppi (Ita)
Tour of Flanders Achiel Buysse (Bel)
Giro di Lombardia Gino Bartali (Ita)
Liege-Bastogne-Liege Richard Depoorter (Bel)
1941

Milan-San Remo

Pierino Favalli (Ita)
1944
Paris-Roubaix Maurice Desimplelaere (Bel)
Tour of Flanders Achiel Buysse (Bel)
Tour of Flanders Rik van Steenbergen (Bel)
Vuelta a Espana Julien Berrendero (Spa)
1945
Paris-Roubaix Paul Mayer (Fra)
Giro di Lombardia Mario Ricci (Ita) Tour of Flanders Sylvain Grysolle (Bel)
1942

Milan-San Remo

Adolfo Leoni (Ita) Liege-Bastogne-Liege Jean Engels (Bel)
  Tour of Flanders Briek Schotte (Bel) Vuelta a Espana Delio Rodriguez (Spa)
  Vuelta a Espana Julien Berrendero (Spa) Giro di Lombardia Mario Ricci (Ita)
  Giro di Lombardia Aldo Bini (Spa)

CR's Hall of Fame Article: "We'll Meet Again" Part 1 Part 2 [with the song]

World War 2 (WW2) grasped the headlines for the start of the 1940's:

•  World War 2 - 1940 -1945, Hitler's Nazi Party and Fascism deliver death and destruction across Europe.

•  Pearl Harbor - 1941, the Japanese join the War with a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

•  Milan, Italy - 1942, November 7th in the middle of a brutal war, Fausto Coppi became an instant hero when he broke the World Hour Record at Vigorelli Velodrome in Milan.

•  D-Day - 1944, the allies begin the campaign to stop Hitler in Europe.

•  Leaders - 1945, Hitler commits suicide on April 30th and Mussolini is captured and executed on April 28th .

•  Surrender - 1945, Germany surrenders unconditionally on May 7th .

•  Atomic Bomb - 1945, the first atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6 th and a second on Nagasaki on Aug. 9th .

•  Surrender - Japan surrenders on August 14th .

Notable Deaths -
1940, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1896-1940, author of The Great Gatsby .

1940, * Father of the Tour de France: Henri Desgrange, 1865-1940, founder of the Tour de France and publisher of the French sports newspaper L'Auto.

1941, * Tour de France Champion: Henri Cornet, 1884-1941, Tour de France champion in 1904. He is the youngest TdF champion on record.

1941, Lou Gehrig, NY Yankees, played in a record 2,130 straight baseball games.

1942, Carole Lombard, 1908-1942, American actress, died in a plane crash while returning from a war bond rally.

1943, George Washington Carver, 1860-1943, Black American botanist, who introduced crop rotation to the southern US.

1944, Glenn Miller, 1904-1944, Swing bandleader, whose plane crashed over the English Channel during the war.

1945, Franklin Deleno Roosevelt, 1882-1945, polio stricken President of the Untied States.

 



L'Equipe Sport Figure of the Decade 1940-1949 - L'Equipe's athlete of the decade was Fausto Coppi, of Italy, known as “Campionissimo” (the Champion of Champions). War-torn Italy was starved for a new hero and it was to be radio broadcasts that gave the people a champion. The airwaves brought live coverage of grand Coppi victories to millions of Italian people. His victories included all the major cycling events of the day. He won the Tour de France twice, the Giro d'Italia five times, both the World Championship Road Race and the Paris-Roubaix Classic once, and the Milan-San Remo Road Race three times. Fausto Coppi was the most admired athlete of his time, not only for his dominating victories on the bike, but for what his victories did for a nation in search of a new beginning.

1939

1946

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