Information about Gino Sciardis, Tour de France 1949

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Champ5000
Posts: 80
Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2014 4:13 pm
Location: Denmark

by Champ5000

Hi Guys

I am searching information about this image.

Image

What I have found so far:

Gino Sciardis, IT, 28 January 1917 – 9 January 1968
Original a mineworker

Tour de France, 1949
Ended 12 (+ 1h 22' 01")
21 stages
4,808 kilometers ridden at an average speed of 32.121 km/hr

What I would like to know is:

Which stage is the photo from?

Which mountain?

General bike information?

What did the rider carriage? Pump, tools, tire etc.

If any one have the photo in high-res it would love a copy.

Thanks

BR

Christian

by Weenie


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boysa
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by boysa

I have no information, but what a great picture. And look at his legs!
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kbbpll
Posts: 494
Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2010 5:56 am

by kbbpll

I'm not a bicycling historian but from the picture I'd guess he's using an iteration of the Super Champion (Osgear) derailleur due to the obvious chain tensioner, possibly the Vittoria Cervino mentioned here.
A post-war development by the Vittoria brothers it was the ultimate incarnation of the Super Champion with fully automatic variable chain tension, a rubber coated tension pulley for quieter running it was used by Gino Bartali in 1949 and 1950.

According to this it's not lube he's pouring, it's actually hot black coffee, which that site claims was common practice in 1949. I can't vouch for the veracity of that, but if you zoom in on the photo, it sure looks like a thermos from that era and you can see a stream of blackish liquid.

I don't know what resolution your photo is but the previous url has the same image and when I saved it off it looks pretty good. I'm also not a TdF buff, but reading about the 1949 route, these guys were hardcore. Nearly every stage was over 200km, the freakin' ITTs were 92km and 137km, and the last stage into Paris was 340km. Overall it was 4808km. They did have 4 rest days.

As for where it was taken, good luck. Looks mountainous, so that narrows it down to five stages. I like the well-dressed spectators in the background.

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prendrefeu
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by prendrefeu

Wouldya just look at those cannons! :shock:
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tinman143
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by tinman143

Would love to see him hooked up to a power meter...those legs!

Champ5000
Posts: 80
Joined: Fri Apr 18, 2014 4:13 pm
Location: Denmark

by Champ5000

kbbpll wrote:it's not lube he's pouring, it's actually hot black coffee, which that site claims was common practice in 1949.


I have also read this several places. What maybe the reason for this?

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prendrefeu
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by prendrefeu

1949 -> Caffeine for your gears
2015 -> Caffeine for your hair


???
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AJS914
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Joined: Tue Jan 28, 2014 6:52 pm

by AJS914

Were those guys using anabolic steroids back then?

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