Jacques Augendre presents the moving tale of Fausto Coppi, a cyclist and a hero who lived the life a myth.

From the book’s jacket:

The former butcher’s delivery boy, who rose to the elevated positionof a cycling super-star, was a hero adored and loved for his legendaryexploits and dramatic misfortunes. Having experienced all of the emotionalhighs and lows that sport can bring, Fausto Coppi then suffered a painfuldecline in his personal and sporting life from which he could not recover.The Campionissimo was a tragic hero.
Fate decreed that he would die at forty years of age, and so he became theobject of a myth, as much as our memory of him is surrounded by mystery. Theparadoxes of his personality and the significant moments of his existence arelaid out by the pen of Jacques Augendre, and through magnificent and oftenvery moving images, the defining moments from his life are presented here.Forty years after his death, the warmth, aura and melancholy personality of theincomparable Fausto Coppi come alive in these pages.
A former journalist with the French newspaper L’Equipe and an editor of Cycle, Jacques Augendre works today as an archivist with the Socit du Tour de France. He is the author of ten books on cycling.