Fausto Coppi rode Paris-Roubaix 5 times (1949, 1950, 1952, 1955 and 1959), only one time (1950) managed to win the famous Hell of the North.
Maurice Diot, the other cyclist on the picture finished second. After he arrived, he said:
I won Paris-Roubaix today. Coppi was competing on a higher level.1
Indeed, Fausto Coppi delivered a spectacular performance. Firts he tested his rivals for a bit, then allow them to rejoin. Then Gino Sciardis and Maurice Diot formed a new leading duo. Coppi, near to the feed station of Arras, rode to the front of the peloton as he would collect his musette, but slyly he rode away and joined the duo at the front. Sciardis dropped soon, but Diot was able to keep it up with the Italian Campionissimo for a while. In the end, Coppi rode a 45 km long solo and won the race.
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- “J’ai gagné Paris-Roubaix aujourd’hui, Coppi était hors concours”. [↩]