Fausto Coppi was one of the top all-around bicyclists in history. He won the Tour de France and the Italian equivalent, the Giro di Italia, multiple times. In addition, Coppi won numerous one-day races and the World Championship for road cyclists. Coppi is generally believed to have been capable of winning the Tour de France more times, but he was interrupted by World War II, during which Le Tour was suspended for seven years. He was the first person to ever win both the Tour de France and Giro di Italia in the same year. This is a huge feat, as both races are three weeks long and involve long, steep climbs.
Coppi was an interesting mix of strength and fragility; his bones broke easily, yet on the bicycle he could outclimb his peers easily. He thrilled his fans with his successes, yet he was known to be childish and petulant. Coppi was known for his rivalry with another great Italian cyclist, Gino Bartali. Their rivalry divided Italian cycling fans down sharp lines, as the two men were very different in habit and personality. Bartali purportedly was angry that Coppi “doped” (this was legal at the time), Bartali was very religious and conservative, while Coppi was an atheist, and Bartali was at the top of bicycle racing before the younger Coppi arrived on the scene and stole the limelight. Either way, Italian cycling fans loved them, and their rivalry added spice to cycling before and after the war. In the photo these two cyclists share a water bottle; each claimed he was giving his bottle to the other!
Coppi died a premature death from malaria when he was just 40 years old. He, along with several other famous cyclists, had been invited to Burkina Faso to ride and hunt. Both Coppi and his roommate there caught malaria, but Coppi did not recover. Although some mystery surrounds his death, this is the accepted and official version.
To find the correct coordinates for Coppi’s Cache, do a little research and find the values for the letters below.
44 AB.CDE 124 FG.HIJ
AB = last two digits of the year of his birth minus 1
CD = his age at his first road race plus 2
E = number of times he won the Giro di Lombardia race
FG: Take the last two digits of the year he died and reverse them
H = last digit of the year in which he won the Paris-Roubaix
I = number of times Coppi won the Giro di Italia (3-week) race
J = number of times Coppi won the Tour de France (3-week) race
You can check your answers for this puzzle on GeoChecker.com.