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Photos: Graham Watson, Richard Baybutt, Offside/L’Equipe, Yuzuru Sunada, Cycling Weekly archive
interview
You’ve either got
it or you haven’t.
Chris Sidwells
reveals his 25
most stylish
riders of all time
S
tyle is a word used a lot in cycling. On one level it’s very
practical. It helps quantify form and efficiency. A good
riding style is efficient because more power goes into the
pedals per calorie of energy burned, but the style we are
talking about here is so much more than that.
Cycling is very visual. It’s quite graceful too when you think
about it. A bicycle transfers the up and down motion of the rider’s
legs into smoothly spinning wheels, and the most stylish riders do
that with the greatest grace.
Then there is the way they look. The way they sit on a bike, their
physical proportions, the elegance with which their limbs work, even
a sartorial flair for just the right length of sock, the fit of a jersey, the
precise position of helmet or cap, arm-warmer or track mitt.
But of course to the observer — just as we are — this is all
subjective. So you might not agree with the 25 riders we’ve chosen,
and certainly not with the order we’ve put them in.
Here’s our countdown, starting with number 25.
042 feature 25 most stylish riders
25 Eric Maechler
Photos: Graham Watson, Hans Roth/Cycling Weekly archive
Maechler won Milan-San Remo in 1987. He also spent six days in the Tour de France yellow jersey later
the same year. He was a useful rider who won stages in important races, and was always there to back up
his more talented team-mates. But above all, Maechler looked good on a bike.
He was tall, which helps. Short stocky sprinters will never be elegant. They have too many sharp
angles; long lines are always smoother. Maechler tucked his elbows in and sat back in the saddle, lightly
resting his hands on the handlebars. He would be higher in this list but for his bad haircuts. Maechler
started out not too bad, but then he went bottle blond and he ended his career with a long slicked-back
‘do’ that made him look like Wolf from the Gladiators TV show.
“Maechler tucked his elbows in and sat back
in the saddle, lightly resting his hands
on the handlebars”
043
23 Rolf
Sorensen
24 Gert-Jan
Theunisse
Theunisse’s long, lank hair, his
piercing eyes and long, skinny
limbs gave the flying Dutchman an
otherworldly appearance but he
could really make a bike move.
Actually, thinking about it, we
reckon that Theunisse spanned the
border between elegance and awful,
and eventually he crossed it.
His elegance peaked with PDM,
on a stage during the 1989 Tour.
Clad in the polka-dot jersey, he
took flight on the Galibier and rode
alone over the Croix de Fer and up
to Alpe d’Huez to win. Theunisse
had wings that day, his lean frame
seemed inexhaustible. But the
wings melted and so did his style
when he joined TVM.
Theunisse started wearing
hideous headbands, probably to
cover the Euro-mullet haircut he
adopted. TVM even made the style
mistake of riding moulded
magnesium girder-like Kirk
Precision frames for a while. Clad in
yellow, blue and red, and on one of
those bikes, Theunisse looked like
Lego on wheels. Nobody can carry
that look off.
Now Rolf Sorenson could wear a headband.
This latter day viking once graced the cover
of Euroman, a sort of Danish GQ. He was
elegant on the outside, steel on the inside,
which is a great combination for a bike rider.
Sorensen won Northern Classics: Paris-Tours
in 1990, Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 1993 and
the Tour of Flanders in 1997, and he looked
just right on a bike. Nothing particular you
could put your finger on, just the whole
package. Sorensen’s riding was smooth,
capable, concise and deadly. He could ride
the track too, which always adds a little
‘souplesse’ to the ‘coup de pédale’, if you’ll
excuse my French.
“He was elegant on
the outside, steel on
the inside”
22 Dietrich
Thurau
Style is no guarantee of success, although
it is always a sign of talent. Dietrich
Thurau is the first unrealised talent in this
list. Unrealised? That might sound harsh,
seeing as Thurau won Liège-BastogneLiège in 1979, spent 15 days in the yellow
jersey and was best young rider during
his Tour de France debut in 1977. But
having that much success so early is the
clue to why we say unrealised.
Frankfurt-born Thurau was so good so
young that he was huge draw for six-day
races, which were very big in Germany in
the late 1970s and through the 1980s. And
that’s where Thurau traded his talent. He
liked money, and six-day races were
where he got the most money per watt of
effort. But he never lost the style.
Dietrich Thurau looked like he was
born on a bike. He looked like an athlete
and his pedalling was perfection. He was
world individual and team pursuit
champion in 1974, and pursuiters can
pedal. Nine of the 25 in this list were either
national champions and/or have done the
pursuit at world or Olympic level. Three of
them were pursuit world champions.
044 feature 25 most stylish riders
21 Rochelle
Gilmore
045
20 Giovanni Battaglin
The first of six Italians in this list,
Battaglin was a climber who did the
Giro-Vuelta double in 1981. He also
made a nuisance of himself, regularly
attacking Eddy Merckx whenever the
road went upwards, particularly in the
Giro. The attacks didn’t work but
Battaglin is here for how he looked,
rather than his effectiveness.
He sat well on a bike — same as all
the others — but it was the way
Battaglin accessorised that gave him
true style. He would often race with a
gold Rolex on his wrist. He wore kid
leather track mitts. And when he won
the King of the Mountains in the 1979
Tour de France, Battaglin did so on a
red Colnago with gold-plated forks and
gold anodised toe clips.
Another Italian, Mario Cipollini, had
a penchant for gold, but he went way
over the top with it, which is why
Cipollini isn’t in this top 25 and Battaglin
is. Giovanni Battaglin showed style with
restraint. Plus nobody wore the azzurra
better than Battaglin. That was the
all-blue Italian kit the national team
used in World Championships and
Olympic Games, before somebody
messed with it and ruined it.
Another great road racer who started
on the track, Gilmore was second in
the 1999 junior points race World
Championships. She also took two
silver medals in the Worlds scratch
race as a senior. Actually, finishing
second was the template of Gilmore’s
career, but she looked good doing it.
Rochelle Gilmore still is elegance on
two wheels.
Photos: Augustus Farmer/Wiggle Honda, Hans Roth/Cycling Weekly archive, Graham Watson, Cor Vos
“Rochelle Gilmore
is elegance on
two wheels”
19 Jan
Janssen
The first Dutch winner of the Tour de
France was the epitome of 1960s
Euro-chic. With his swept back blond
hair and gold-rimmed spectacles,
Janssen looked businesslike and
efficient even before he even got on
his bike. He wore tailored suits when
travelling to races, not jeans and a
jacket. He carried his kit in a leather
suitcase, not in a kit bag. And he wore
Italian leather shoes, not loafers.
Super-smart, super-smooth, and a
winner; that’s style.
“He wore tailored suits when travelling
to races, not jeans and a jacket”
18 Michele Bartoli
Whippet built, whippet quick, Bartoli had the flattest back in
road racing. Between 1996 and 2003 Bartoli used poise and
speed to win five Monuments; one Tour of Flanders, and two
each of Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Lombardy.
Bartoli was fast and elegant, something bunch sprinters
rarely achieve. But of course Bartoli wasn’t a bunch sprinter, he
won races in sprints from small groups, which he whittled down
with stinging attacks. Or he’d attack them late and go it alone.
Bartoli invented the slammed stem, rode the smallest frame
he could, and showed lots of seatpost. He was aero on a road
bike before people really thought too much about aero road
bikes. His flat back, head level with his shoulders, elbows tucked
in and hands holding the drops made Bartoli super-slippery. He
rode like that on the flat, and climbed all but the steepest hills in
the same position.
“Whippet built, whippet quick,
Bartoli had the flattest
back in road racing”
17 Marcel
Kittel
Kittel is the fast and elegant bunch
sprint exception. Tall, blond, strong
and immaculate, his power is as
controlled as it is devastating. And it’s
control that gives Kittel ice-cool style.
Most of the riders he competes with in
sprints are on the ragged edge, and
very often they cross it, but Kittel
never is, at least not yet.
Sprinters are the first to lose their
edge, so we’ll see if Kittel is so cool
when the next big sprint thing
challenges him in a few years’ time.
He’s the number one for now though,
plus he’s got the sharpest haircut in the
21st century peloton, and he can wear
aviator sunglasses — a style statement
that few can carry off.
“He’s got the
sharpest haircut in
the 21st century
peloton”
046 feature 25 most stylish riders
047
16
Andrea Tafi
14 Malcolm Elliott
15 Laurent Fignon
Laurent Fignon would make this list just for having
enough style to carry off a ponytail, but there’s
more. Grand Tours aren’t won today the way
Fignon won them. He did it with bare-knuckle
attacks. So did his rivals Bernard Hinault and Greg
LeMond, but while they always looked like they
were in a fight, Fignon’s elegance belied his
aggression and determination.
Fignon had all the guts and grunt, but he had
style with it. He would attack, attack and attack, and
still look good. He looked good when he was losing,
too. It was a joy to see LeMond come back from
injury, and all the problems that went with it, to
win the 1989 Tour de France, but the dignity
Fignon showed in that final time trial as he tried and
tried but slowly lost his lead, it tugged at your
heartstrings.
Win, lose, walk, talk or live, Laurent Fignon did
them all with style, and his style was unique. He
was, as the French would say, un artiste original.
“Win, lose, walk, talk or live,
Laurent Fignon did them all with style,
and his style was unique”
We did a photo shoot with Elliott recently for Cycling
Weekly, and discovered that he has strong views on
how cyclists should wear their kit. For example,
Elliott thinks that modern socks are far too long, but
turning down the tops doesn’t meet his aesthetic
ideal, so he folds them inside his shoes. And that’s not
all he does before he’s ready for the camera. An
Elliott kit change takes time, thought... and a mirror.
With that attention to detail it’s no wonder Elliott
looked good when he raced, but there was more. He
had balance and poise on a bike, and he still has. His
weight is distributed perfectly; his body fits a bike.
Those facts helped him become one of the best
criterium racers of his generation. Even on the
tightest city centre circuits, which don’t suit tall
riders like Elliott, he took the best lines through
corners, tighter than anyone else when he needed.
12 Tom Boonen
Is Boonen the best cobbled Classics rider
ever? Maybe. But whatever history decides
Boonen is an example of form powering
function. His style. His long upper body that
spreads weight between the front and back
of his bike. His innate ability to control his
bike over the worst roads. They all combine
to make it look less like Boonen rides over
cobbles, more like they melt down to
tarmac beneath his wheels then reform
once he passes.
Tall guys can’t always do that. Elliott’s style isn’t just
show, it’s functional, and he hasn’t lost it.
Back to the photo shoot. We were in Cumbria
and had stopped at the top of the super-steep
Honister Pass. Kevin Dawson, a former pro and
multiple national time trial champion was with us.
Dawson set off down the pass, the idea being that
they would climb back up together, but Elliott hung
around at the top chatting for a bit.
Then, when Dawson was no more than a fast
moving dot thundering towards the valley, Elliott
started to descend. We have never seen anyone go
downhill so quick. He caught Dawson near the
bottom and flew past him. We don’t know how he
did it, and can only assume it’s the way he sits on
and controls his bike. Maybe it’s no coincidence that
the most stylish riders are also among the best.
13 Lizzie
Armitstead
The track is the way to road success.
Sky boss David Brailsford said as much
years ago. Some people laughed, We
don’t know why, because it’s true and
always has been. The great French
directeur sportif Raymond Louviot, who
ran the St Raphael and Ford France
teams in the Fifties and Sixties used to
say, “Give me a pursuit world champion
and in three years I’ll give you back a
champion on the road.” Look at the
number of riders with a good track
background in this list. Lizzie Armitstead
is one of them.
She’s a product of British Cycling’s
talent system, in which track racing
plays a huge part. She was team pursuit
world champion in 2009, and under-23
European scratch race champion in
2007 and 2008. She also won silver and
bronze medals in the senior Track
World Championships.
Track racing improves pedalling.
Track riders develop a style of pedalling
that makes use of their feet so they
transfer power through a larger
percentage of each pedal revolution,
and due to a fixed wheel, they do so
smoothly. That’s a great performance
boost, increasing both power output and
efficiency. It looks good, too.
Lizzie Armitstead has the whole
package; she looks good on a bike for
the same reasons as the men do in this
list. She’s elegant and she holds her bike
just right with perfect weight
distribution. She’s a joy to watch.
Photos: Yuzuru Sunada, Graham Watson, Cor Vos
If the other riders in this list are
Ferraris (the cars, not the doctor),
Jaguars, Lamborghinis and McLarens,
then Andrea Tafi is our Bugatti
Veyron: megawatts of power but with
style and poise to go with them.
Tafi won the Tour of Lombardy in
1996 and the Tour of Flanders in 2002,
but his glory was the 1999 ParisRoubaix. Tafi was built for cobbled
Classics. He suffered terribly at the
end of Paris-Roubaix in 1996, when
he was scripted third in a Mapei 1-2-3
behind Johan Museeuw. The script
was allegedly dictated by Mapei boss
Giorgio Squinzi, but Tafi wrote his
own in 1999 when he powered over
the cobbles to win in Roubaix alone.
Andrea Tafi was Italian national
champion in April 1999, so he owned a
Tricolore jersey. His style was pure
bulldozer — the force coming from the
massive engine of his hip and thigh
muscles. He had a knack for getting
low across his bike, despite his size.
And he could wear a cap — not
everybody can. Tafi could even carry
off the caps he wore in summer with
the middle cut out so they were just a
headband with a peak. Anybody else
would look like a Western
Union telegraph clerk,
but Tafi just looked
utterly cool.
048 feature 25 most stylish riders
049
10 Eddy
Merckx
9 Alfons De Wolf
“Fonske? He was just too damn handsome to be a
cyclist.” That’s what Britain’s Barry Hoban says
about Belgium’s first ‘next Eddy Merckx’. Of
course there’s never been another Eddy Merckx,
how could there be? How could anybody live up
to that billing?
De Wolf tried. He had all the physical attributes
to do it, and he oozed style. He turned pro in 1979
at 22 and won five stages and the points jersey in
the Vuelta. He won the Tour of Lombardy the
following year, then Milan-San Remo in 1981.
Belgium went mad. De Wolf was the answer to
a nation’s prayers. Tall, good-looking, fashionable,
friendly, De Wolf had it all, and everybody wanted
a piece of De Wolf. The same thing happened to
Tom Boonen when he was young, but De Wolf was
even younger when it happened to him and he
couldn’t run away to Monaco and hide from it like
Boonen did.
By 1982 De Wolf was coming second where
before he would have won, and the pressure
mounted. After 1984 even second places were
hard to get. De Wolf’s career was on the slide. But
boy he looked good on a bike, especially in 1983
when he rode for Bianchi.
Looking back he says: “The public expected
too much.” These days he’s a funeral director in a
town near Brussels, and he’s very happy.
“Fonske? He was just too damn
handsome to be a cyclist”
Photos: Offside/L’Equipe, Staff/AFP/Getty Images, Phil O’Connor/Cycling Weekly archive
11 Francesco Moser
Moser is Tom Boonen with Italian flair.
They were both good at the same
races. Moser won Paris-Roubaix three
times; that was three times in a row,
just to be clear. He has the same long
body, the same powerful build as
Boonen, but he was more streamlined.
Moser could get his head lower
than his back on a standard road bike.
His arms were just right, too. In a
full-speed crouch they bent 90 degrees
at the elbows, forearms parallel to the
ground, hands gripping the drops. If he
held the hoods his body didn’t change
position one bit, he just closed up the
angle of his elbows to compensate.
Moser could ride the track; he won
five national track titles, was
professional pursuit world champion in
1976, and he won 16 six-days. His track
pedigree is part of his style, but Moser
had more.
The British sports journalist
Geoffrey Nicholson saw it the first time
he saw Moser. Nicholson wrote a
beautiful book about the 1976 Tour de
France, and this is how he describes
the young Francesco Moser in it.
“Moser is a handsome downhill racer
from the Dolomites who always carries
with him, like a whiff of aftershave, a
touch of the expensive glamour of
winter sports.”
So true. Moser kept that style, that
flair and a certain swagger
throughout his career, in which he
proved to be so much more than just
good at going downhill.
“His track pedigree is part of his style,
but Moser had more”
In still pictures, Eddy Merckx would be number one. He is style
personified. That Elvis haircut, those silky Seventies sideburns, his
inscrutable face, his long powerful limbs and powerhouse back
and chest. But Merckx in motion just takes the edge off the stills.
Merckx was once asked what made him the best, and he
thought for a moment then said, “I was just very, very strong.” And
that’s it, pure strength. It was obvious with Merckx where his
speed came from. There are many on this list where it isn’t, and
that lends them mystery, which in turn adds to their style.
There was no mystery about why Merckx went so fast; he
simply pounded the pedals with every fibre of his body. His
shoulders, arms and back pushed behind his legs. He was
aggressive, too. If he wanted something he would stick out his
elbows, snarl and spit and crack the road up until he got it.
More than one Seventies pro has said that Merckx would shout
at riders in breakaways. Nobody ever did a long enough turn or
went hard enough in a break for Eddy Merckx. He was oblivious to
the fact that once he’d turned up the heat it was all anybody could
do to hold on. The riders higher up this list never shouted, at least
not much, they just rode. There was just too much streetfighter in
Eddy Merckx to make it any higher than 10th.
8 Luis Ocaña
Not too tall, lightly built with slim shoulders and
long limbs, this dark-eyed Spaniard was born to
be a cyclist. He could climb, he could time trial,
but he was also frail and very highly strung.
Ocaña won the 1973 Tour de France at a
canter, but Eddy Merckx was missing from the
starting list. Two years earlier, Ocaña had destroyed
Merckx on one day in the mountains and taken the
yellow jersey by a wide margin. Starting the next
day Merckx fought Ocaña for every corner and
every inch of the road. He ran his rival ragged until
he made a mistake. Ocaña crashed on the descent
of the Col de Mente in the Pyrenees. He tried to get
up, twice, but each time he was knocked down by
other riders. Ocaña couldn’t continue.
Merckx would have. He would have got up and
he would have carried on, somehow. But Ocaña
couldn’t. He was fragile, both physically and
mentally. But frailty like that also adds something
to the story of a rider. Let’s call it style.
Luis Ocaña was like a racehorse; a gifted
thoroughbred but with a body too frail to fully
support that gift. When he climbed, when he rode
a time trial, it was impossible to see where
Ocaña’s power came from. But it was there.
When Ocaña won the 1973 Tour de France he
won six stages and put an impressive 15 minutes
into second-placed Bernard Thevenet. But
Bernard Thevenet wasn’t Eddy Merckx, and Eddy
Merckx wasn’t there.
050 feature 25 most stylish riders
051
5 Jacques
Anquetil
Maître Jacques, that’s what they called him; not just
the fans but his fellow riders, too. In France the title
Maître means the master of a subject. It was a term of
respect, reverence even, which in Anquetil’s day was
used for lawyers and teachers, who were both held in
higher esteem than they ever were in the UK or the US.
Anquetil had a presence. He held himself in a certain
way, outwardly imperious but always a gentleman.
Privately he was nervous, superstitious, contradictory,
and some aspects of his life were downright dodgy. But
in public he had a presence and he had style.
Anquetil was at his best in a time trial. He was
aerodynamic perfection for the kind of bikes they rode
then. Crouched low, his legs powering a huge gear with
smooth finesse and a toe-down style that nobody else
has replicated, it really was something to behold.
He was classy, too. Barry Hoban, who raced against
Anquetil and Merckx when they were at their best
reckons, “Anquetil was as strong as Merckx, but he
wasn’t as explosive, as driven or as dedicated. He
didn’t want to win everything, either. Neither did he
shout and bawl at other riders if they didn’t work.
Anquetil just got on with it. And he always dressed
immaculately and travelled with an entourage: his
beautiful blonde wife Janine, his manager and other
hangers on. I was in awe of him to be honest.”
7 Fabian Cancellara
Here’s a handy guide for any cyclist: when you are buying cycling kit, or even
getting dressed to go out on your bike, keep this thought in mind — would
Fabian Cancellara go out in this? If the answer is no, then don’t do it. The Swiss
superstar is today’s cycling fashion icon. He always looks immaculate, even
when covered in mud, and that’s no accident. It’s style.
Photos: Richard Baybutt, Cycling Weekly archive, Offside/L’Equipe, Graham Watson
6 Lucien Van Impe
Van Impe was sublime. Arguably cycling’s greatest-ever
climber, he danced uphill with a balletic grace that no one has
ever quite matched. But then Van Impe wasn’t like any other
climber. He was light, yes, but that was due to a lack of height,
not muscle.
Lucien Van Impe was compact and neat. He climbed
smoothly, transferring easily into and out of the saddle.
Contrast that with the jerky, sticky-out-elbows style of another
climbing great, Julio Jimenez, or the tortured progress of
Marco Pantani.
Van Impe looked like he had wings. The only riders close
to him were his hero Federico Bahamontes, and Charly Gaul;
the Eagle of Toledo and the Angel of the Mountains
respectively. Together with Van Impe those three are the
greatest climbers of cycling. We reckon we should call Lucien
Van Impe the Falcon of Flanders from now on.
“Arguably cycling’s greatest
ever climber, he danced uphill
with a balletic grace that no one
has ever quite matched”
“He held himself in a certain
way, outwardly imperious but
always a gentleman”
4 Stephen Roche
1987 Triple Crown winner, Stephen Roche was a bit like
Luis Ocaña, the thoroughbred racehorse with a fragile
body. He pedalled exquisitely, like it was gift, and as such
he represents the last of that kind of rider. After Roche,
cycling became all about power, about numbers and
logical calculations. It became physics. If a rider can
sustain 400 watts and weighs 69 kilograms he will be fast.
But logic couldn’t explain why Roche was fast.
He wasn’t muscular and he wasn’t particularly skinny,
either. He just looked at home on a bike, perfectly
balanced and in control. And he was always immaculate.
Dirt and mud didn’t seem to stick to Stephen Roche.
Neither did he ever look flustered, even on the day in the
1987 Giro when the tifosi spat at him and threatened him
on the road to Sappada.
052 feature 25 most stylish riders
3 Maurizio
Fondriest
Robert Millar once said of the way Maurizio Fondriest looked
on a bike: “It would take you all day in front of a full-length
mirror just to get the arms right.” Everything about the Italian
from the mountain town of Cles screams style.
He sat just right on his bike, he pedalled perfectly, he looked
immaculate. But it was all enhanced by the way he raced.
Fondriest was fast, a Classics winner who made flashy attacks
and had the grit to make them stick. He was a joy to watch. He
is also one of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet.
“He sat just right on his bike,
he pedalled perfectly, he looked
immaculate”
Photos: Cor Vos, Cycling Weekly archive, Offside/L’Equipe
2 Roger De Vlaeminck
A four-time Roubaix winner,
Roger De Vlaeminck also won
Liège-Bastogne-Liège,
Milan-San Remo three times,
the Tour of Lombardy twice and
the Tour of Flanders, as well as
22 stages in the Giro. And he
won a lot of those races at a
time when Eddy Merckx was
trying to win everything.
De Vlaeminck was at one
with the bike. He rode it like a
musician plays an instrument.
Those who raced against him
swear he sped up when he hit
stretches of pavé. But he didn’t
batter the cobbles like Tom
Boonen or Fabian Cancellara
does. De Vlaeminck floated
over them.
He had a unique style for
pavé. His hands rested on the
brake hoods, while his arms
acted as a suspension system,
absorbing the bumps, allowing
his bike to move beneath him.
His legs were the same. They
seemed to flex independently
of his pedalling.
Add in his dark good looks,
Seventies fashion, a love of
fast cars and playboy
reputation, and it’s easy to see
De Vlaeminck’s style even
now, 40 years after his pomp.
That American-styled
Brooklyn jersey helped too. It
would look good in the
peloton today, and so would
Roger De Vlaeminck.
053
1 Fausto Coppi
Grainy film and sepia prints are all we
have left of Fausto Coppi, but even
they drip with style. Watch any
footage of Coppi and you’ll see a
style of attack like no other. Nothing
changes, except his legs spin faster.
One moment he’s pedalling in a group,
then he’s alone. There was a period in
his career, and it lasted for more than
a year, when if Coppi attacked he was
never caught.
Coppi used to say that when he was
riding well he felt like he was pedalling
from his kidneys. We think what he
meant was he felt like his body was
held rigid so that his legs could press
down on the pedals from a rock solid
platform. Translate that to what we
know now and Coppi is talking about
core strength. So, if you want an
explanation for why he was so good
that’s it: Coppi had phenomenal
strength in his lower back and legs.
But we don’t want an explanation.
For us Coppi was amazing and he
looked amazing. Commentators at the
time said he was ungainly off his bike,
awkward, gangly, odd-looking even,
with narrow shoulders, sunken
cheeks, skinny arms and huge, long
muscular legs. His great rival Gino
Bartali said that Coppi looked like a
skinned cat. It was different once he
got on a bike.
As we said earlier, there isn’t much
left to see of Coppi now, so we’ll leave
it to somebody who did see him to
describe his riding style — the 1930
and 1932 Tour de France winner,
André Leducq. For a while after he
retired the Frenchman worked as a
journalist for Le Miroir des Sports. This
is how he described Coppi in 1952:
“He seems to caress rather than
grip the handlebars, while his torso
appears fixed to the saddle. His long
legs extend to the pedals with the
joints of a gazelle. At the end of each
pedal stroke his ankle flexes
gracefully. It’s as if all the moving
parts turn in oil. His long face appears
like the blade of a knife as he climbs
without apparent effort. He rides like a
great artist painting a watercolour.”
Now that’s style.
“His great rival Gino Bartali said that
Coppi looked like a skinned cat.
It was different once he got on a bike”