A Bianchi track bike. From 1946. Fixed gear, measures 90×160, 32-spoke wheels, pedal cages. And that colour, between blue and green, aqua, seductive. It belonged to Fausto Coppi. From Coppi as a gift to a hotelier, from the hotelier for sale to Tarcisio Persegona, from Persegona on loan to the Museum of the Champions of Novi Ligure. It is reproduced on page 233 of the volume “The myth of speed”, art, motors and society in 20th century Italy. The only bike among cars and motorbikes, planes and helicopters.
Coppi was also a champion as a track racer in the most road-racing test: the pursuit. Two world titles (1947 and 1951) and five Italian titles (1940, 1941, 1942, 1946 and 1947). Plus the hour record (45.798 on November 7, 1942 at Vigorelli). Plus a Six Days (in Buenos Aires, in the velodrome friend of his partner, the Argentine Jorge Batiz). In the pursuit he boasts an extraordinary record: 84 challenges won out of 95 contested, and 28 times reaching the opponent before the end, like a knockout victory in boxing. Not only did he chase his opponents, but he chewed them up and swallowed them.
Speed is a relative concept. There is speed and speed. Thirty per hour on the road is a safe speed, even for a car considering bikes, thirty per hour in a garage is a scene from a film. The speed of a 1951 Alfa Romeo Gran Premio Tipo 159 Alfetta (page 51) is less than half that of the 1929 Fiat C29 seaplane (page 163). The speed of the 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, but in a 1:18 scale model version of the Burago, corresponds to that of the arm of the person moving it or the imagination of the person imagining it.
Speed is silent, as Paolo Conte sings. Speed is a form of ecstasy, as Milan Kundera philosophized. The speed can even be slow. Speed is a sprint and a finish line, a slavery and an addiction, a thrill of exhilaration and a danger to life. In the book published by Giunti in 2008, edited by Eugenio Martera and Patrizia Pietrogrande, purchasable (at the time) for 48 euros, and donated by Giuseppe Castelnovi to the Lucos Cozza bicycle library, we delve deeper into
the concept of speed also in cinema and fashion, in design and nuclear physics.
Of cycling, in addition to Coppi’s track bike, two links also appear: the white and blue version of Bianchi in 1946 and the iridated world champion version of 1953. Both by Coppi. And both are the heritage of the Casa Coppi Museum in Castellania. Unlike the track bike, these two apparently felted wool sweaters seem to stand in place, immobile not only in a frame and under glass, but also in time. With open arms. Like the moment you cross the finish line, instantly stopping for the souvenir photo, for that moment of glory, eternal and infinite.
