The most famous photo in the history of cycling is the one of Coppi and Bartali's water bottle (but it was taken at the Tour). One of the most famous of the Giro was taken in 1956 by Magni, in the Giro later won by Luxembourger Charly Gaul.
Magni, also known as the Lion of Flanders, fractured his collarbone falling downhill in Volterra, but refused to abandon the race. At the time trial up San Luca Magni realized that he was struggling to hold the handlebars because of the pain he was feeling. He then found a way to do it, in fact it was the young Ernesto Colnago (then mechanical assistant) to propose to use the inner latex of a spare tube to fix to the handlebars and keep it ... between his teeth!!! (photo)
1956 San Luca ITT
But the bad luck was not yet over! The next day in the Modena-Rapallo stage he fell again. Fracture of the humerus and unconsciousness, Magni was loaded in the ambulance. After few minutes he came to his senses and against the opinion of the doctors he went back on his bike in pursuit of the peloton.... Inhuman!
Which also helped him to let off some steam for the pain he felt. At the end of that Tour he arrived second in general classification.
Excerpt from an interview to Magni in 2011:
"At the '56 Giro, I crashed on the Volterra descent and fractured my collarbone. "You can't start," the doctor tells me. I let him speak and I do my own thing: I put the foam rubber on the handlebars and I run the time trial. Then I pass the Apennines. But trying the uphill time trial of San Luca I realize that I can not even tighten the handlebars from the pain, then my mechanic, the great Faliero Masi, decides to cut an inner tube, I tie it to the handlebars and I hold it with my teeth, not to force my arms. The next day, during the Modena-Rapallo race, I fell again and broke my humerus. I pass out from the pain. I was on the stretcher when I regained consciousness and ordered the ambulance driver to stop. I throw myself down, chase the group, catch up and arrive on Bondone under a blizzard. For this gesture Ugo Tognazzi and Raimondo Vianello (two famous Italian actors of the time), who were following the Giro, renamed me Fiorenzo the Magnificent."
Magni was a concrete man, who never cried on himself, on the contrary, he always reasoned with the positivity of those who know that nothing is impossible.
Incidentally, this was the first story of heroic cycling that I remember. As a child my coach at the time told me the story of Magni to give me strength and to endure the pain of a fall. This story is an inspiration to most stoic cyclists!
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