In the name of the father: DeMarchi profiles il Campionissimo in new video
How do you approach a myth? How do you talk about one of the greatest champions of all time without being trivial?
More than sixty years after his untimely death, Fausto Coppi is still a huge presence in the memory of a nation and a sport, which in his time had begun to fly thanks to the feats of those who will be remembered forever as heroes. And Coppi, of those heroes was the greatest. (For context, suggest the William Fotheringham bio, Fallen Angel. A cracking read.)
Romantic hero, with that neorealist actor look. Style hero. Before him, cyclists were only rudimentary athletes. His grace, his ways and his precise ideas in terms of dressing and his presence even outside the competitions helped to create the collective consciousness of a people that began to spread its wings.
Few cycling brands straddle the knife’s edge of storied past and contemporary relevance quite like DeMarchi. Sure, most of their collection borrows heavily from the brand’s yesterday; the retro-modern jerseys one’s sees mostly at Eroica rides. And yet, its adherence to its distinctive past is what makes it interesting. The celebration of its core: the place it occupies in cycling legend.
From DeMarchi, a good 5 mins look at what it was like to grow up with Coppi as a dad, if only for a brief moment.