Coppi always liveseven if every year hundreds of enthusiasts, simple fans or perhaps just connoisseurs attracted by an immortal name they go up to Castellania to pay homage to him on the day of death.
The Campionissimo died on January 2, 1960 to the Tortona hospital for a form of malaria, contracted on a hunting trip in Upper Volta (today’s Burkina Faso) in Africa and misdiagnosed, and it took a long time for the world, not just cycling, to understand how heavy this loss was. 66 years have passed but every time the myth of Fausto lives again thanks to Casa Coppithe association that carries forward his memory in his birthplace in Castellania with initiatives and publications.
It was 2000 when thanks to the push of Candido Cannavòhistoric director of the Gazzetta dello Sport, this then ruined house began the transformation for become a point of reference for Coppi in the worldthanks to the work of Massimo Merlano, president of Casa Coppi, and all the volunteers who dedicate their activity to it.
Thus he was born “Welcome Castellania”, an appointment that takes place on January 2nd in the town church and in front of the Mausoleum of Faustus and Xerxes: a simple and familiar way to say thanks to those who honored Coppi’s memory and to the many benefactors who continue to pass on Coppi’s message throughout the world. To tell the story of a unique day he will also be present the French journalist Alex Roos, head of cycling at the French newspaper L’Equipewho has always been very attentive to the memory of Coppi.
So on Friday at 10.30, in the name of Coppi, the “Welcome Castellania” awards will be awarded to Maurizio Formichetti and Luciana Rota. RCS Sport’s historic representative for cycling in Abruzzo, Formichetti discovered climbs and roads never traveled, and brought his region to the center of the international cycling panorama: think of the Grande Partenza of the 2023 Giro from the Costa dei Trabocchi, the climb of Merckx’s Blockhaus, the dozens of pink stages, of the Tirreno-Adriatico and of the Giro Women, which ended in L’Aquila in 2024. The motivation reads: “Thank you for your silent but extraordinarily precious work”.
Luciana Rota, journalist and writer, lived with her father Franco and her uncle Nino, and through their memories, the truest Coppi, the familiar and unpublished one, which she proposed in her last book “Fausto, my Coppi”, which becomes a bridge between passion, history and feeling. The motivation: “Thank you for being able to convey to the reader the authentic heart of this extraordinary sport”.
Then there are Coppi’s benefactors that Welcome Castellania wants to remember on January 2nd:
– the municipality of Novi Ligure (mayor Rocchino Muliere) for the City of Champions”, the Museum dedicated to Coppi and Girardengo, the numerous activities and sporting events promoted in the area and for the arrival in Novi of the Giro stage;
– the Chamber of Commerce of Alessandria – Acdb Museum, for having been able to skilfully enhance the founding values of a legendary sporting, journalistic and technical history;
– the Municipality of Tortona (mayor Federico Chiodi) for having promoted a sustainable cycling tourism project which, with the passage of the Tour and the arrival of the Giro, has given prestige and international visibility to the territory;
– the municipality of Pozzolo Formigaro (mayor Domenico Miloscio) for the precious contribution to great cycling, in particular through support for the SIOF of Pozzolo, a historical reality and point of reference in the promotion of cycling activity at a territorial and national level
– the municipality of Cassano Spinola (mayor Alessandro Busseti) because it welcomed Costante Girardengo and Sandrino Carrea, keeping alive a sporting history of extraordinary importance;
– Sergio Vallenzona, former mayor of Castellania, because with commitment and passion he was able to transform a small hill village into an open-air museum, capable of welcoming the visitor as a sacred symbol of world cycling
– Claudio Pesci (Fausto and Serse Coppi association) for adding his precious artistic touch to that incredible open-air museum that is the village of Castellania Coppi
– Anna Tegaldi, guardian angel of Casa Coppi who has always and passionately told this family and sporting story, transmitting simple and authentic emotions to thousands of people.
