Fallen Angel

Product Description

Voted the most popular Italian sportsman of the twentieth century Fausto Angelo Coppi was the campionissimo
- champion of champions. The greatest cyclist of the immediate post-war years he was the first man to win cyclings great double the Tour de France & Tour of Italy in the same year
- & he did it twice. He achieved mythical status for his crushing solo victories world titles & world records. But his significance extends far beyond his sport. Coppis scandalous divorce & controversial early death convulsed a conservative staunchly Roman Catholic Italy in the 1950s. At a time when adultery was still illegal Coppi & his lover were dragged from their bed in the middle of the night excommunicated & forced to face a clamorous legal battle. The ramifications of this case are still being felt today. In Fallen Angel" acclaimed cycling biographer William Fotheringham tells the tragic story of Coppis life & death
- of how a man who became the symbol of a nations rebirth after the disasters of war died reviled & heartbroken. Told with insight & intelligence this is a unique portrait of Italy & Italian sport at a time of tumultuous change."