Each week I'm posting a photo of a winner of Paris-Roubaix, in year order.

For this week, here is a photo of the winner of the 1950 Paris-Roubaix, Fausto Coppi.

The 1950 Paris-Roubaix was 247 km long and raced at an average speed of 39.123 km/hr (24.31 mph).

There were 231 starters and 76 classified finishers.

It was a day of torrential rain.

In the lead were 20 riders when they came to the feed station in Arras. There, Fausto Coppi attacked, taking only Maurice Diot for company.

Diot's director Antonin Magne told Diot not to work with Coppi. In response to Magne's orders, with 45 kilometers to go, Coppi went solo, riding a 52 x 15 all the way to Roubaix.

Coppi went solo on his way to completing on of the great rides in cycling history.

"...Fausto Coppi, the totally prodigious, has crushed Paris-Roubaix" - Jacques Goddet (French journalist and director of the Tour de France 1936 - 1986).

We have complete results for every edition of Paris-Roubaix. You can find them here.

"Bill and Carol McGann had set a high standard with their compelling and authoritative Story of the Tour de France, and now they follow up with Le Tour’s inspired Italian offspring in The Story of the Giro d’Italia. 

Volume 1 of “The Story of the Giro d’Italia” tells of Italy’s most celebrated riders: Costante Girardengo, the first campionissimo, or “Champion of Champions”; Alfredo Binda, who so dominated the Giro that one year he was paid by the organizers not to enter; Gino Bartali, who looked to become the dominating rider of his era; and Fausto Coppi, a fascinating personality and Bartali’s great rival, who became not only Italy’s, but the world’s finest rider.

"In this Volume I covering the Giro’s debut in 1909 through 1970, this work of patient research, passionate writing, and insightful analysis lays out the struggles, battles, and rivalries in detail and sweep that have made Italy’s grand tour endure. And the American audience can read about Joseph Magnani―a native of LaSalle, Illinois―who rode in the 1946 Giro on the Olmo team and quietly made history as the first U.S. rider to compete in one of the grand tours in the era of dusty roads against Italy’s heroes Bartali and Coppi." —Peter Joffre Nye, author of The Six-Day Bicycle Races: America's Jazz Age Sport and Hearts of Lions.

You can get The Story of the Giro d'Italia Vol 1 in print, Kindle eBook or audiobook versions here on Amazon.