2014 Giro d'Italia stage 15

LOCAL HERO
Want a genuine Giro d'Italia hero? How about the greatest of them all, the absolute number one. Coppi? Binda? Merckx? Not a bit of it. Ladies and gentlemen we give you… Felice Peli!

Who he? When the Gazzetta launched the race in 1909, a 19-year-old from Sarezzo, was quickest out of the traps. He gathered together the ten lire inscription fee and dispatched it, post haste, to Milan. As such, and given that he was the first to put his name down, he got to wear the number one dossard subsequently reserved for the previous year's winner. No Fausto Coppi perhaps, but he remains literally, if not perhaps qualitatively, the number one Giro d'Italia rider of all time. And that's not all. As a matter of fact he and Coppi do have a good deal in common. Both were butcher's apprentices, and both trained by delivering salumi on their pushbikes. So now you know…

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