When the 36th Tour de France finished in Paris on 24th July 1949, it wasn’t only Fausto Coppi’s first Tour de France victory, but also the first ever Giro-Tour double was accomplished.
In June, Coppi won his 3rd Giro d’Italia (after 1940 and 1947). But he never rode Tour de France before 1949.
It was a quite complicated situation to have Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi in the same team, but Alfredo Binda, the team manager of the Italian team managed to find the right way to threat these two cyclists superstars.
In 1952, Coppi repeated his success to win Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year.
Read the list of riders, who achieved the Giro-Tour double>>