In the history of sport there are feats that go beyond victories, beyond trophies and rankings. They are the ones that remain engraved in the collective memory because they tell of willpower and human courage more than the numbers of a race. One of these is undoubtedly Fiorenzo Magni’s feat in the 1956 Giro d’Italia, when the Tuscan cyclist born in Prato ran with a fractured collarbone and humerus, inventing an incredible way to manage to complete the race.
Magni, already a three-time winner of the “Corsa Rosa” (1948, 1951 and 1955), arrived at the start of the 1956 Giro d’Italia as one of the great favourites, behind the iconic duo Coppi-Bartali. He was 35 years old, a lot of experience and still the desire to fight with the younger ones. But after a few stages, in particular in the twelfth stage Grosseto-Livorno, a fall on the Volterra descent put everything into question: fractured collarbone and excruciating pain. For any other rider it would have been the end of the race, but not for Magni.
He decided to continue anyway, with a trick that has remained in legend: he had his mechanic Faliero Masi tie an inner tube to the handlebars and put it in his mouth. By clenching it with his teeth, he was able to reduce the pressure on his fractured shoulder and control the bike. A brilliant and desperate solution at the same time, which today seems almost impossible to imagine. As if that wasn’t enough, a few days later, in the Modena-Rapallo stage, Magni crashed again. This time the humerus also fractured. A blow that would have convinced anyone to stop permanently. Not him: indeed, it is said that while he was on a stretcher inside the ambulance, he ordered to be let out so he could get back on the saddle and chase the group. A scene that belongs more to myth than to sport.
The “third man” who challenged two legends: the story of Fiorenzo Magni
Fiorenzo Magni – first a cyclist and later an entrepreneur and sports manager – was born in Vaiano, in the province of Prato, in 1920. At the age of 4, Magni risked no longer being able to cycle due to a pimple on his foot which soon led him to undergo surgery in Florence. Years later, Fiorenzo would discover that the operated foot was pushing on the pedals faster than the other. Magni wins and a lot throughout his cycling career, where the number three will often appear. In fact, from 1940 to 1956 (the year in which he retired), Magni won 3 Giri d’Italia (1948, 1951, 1955), 3 Italian titles, 3 Giri del Piemonte and 3 Trofei Baracchi but also won other races such as the Giro di Romagna and the Giro di Toscana, collecting a total of 81 victories. Among other things, with the victory of the “Corsa Rosa” in 1955, Magni established a record that still stands today, that of the oldest winner of the Giro d’Italia at the age of 35.
Magni was not just a man of great tours. In 1949, 1950 and 1951 he won the Tour of Flanders consecutively, a record that even today no Italian cyclist has managed to break. That feat earned him the nickname “Lion of Flanders” due to his tenacity and ability to find strength when other runners were exhausted. As a boy, thin and tall, he was also affectionately called “Cipressino”.
Italian cycling in those years was monopolized by two legendary icons: Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali. Despite this, Magni still managed to carve out a space of his own, away from the spotlight and above all capable of interrupting the domination of the two giants. Precisely for this reason he was defined as the “third man”.
A fractured collarbone, an inner tube and a lot of tenacity: Magni’s masterpiece at the 1956 Giro d’Italia
The last edition of the Giro d’Italia in which Magni participated in 1956 has become one of the most incredible stories in all of cycling. It will also be his last season as a cyclist as he himself stated at the beginning of that year. During the twelfth stage of the tour of that edition, in particular the stage from Grosseto-Livorno on 29 May, coming down from Volterra, Magni falls and hits his left shoulder on the asphalt, gets up and finishes the stage but in the end he is taken to hospital where the doctors diagnose him with a fractured collarbone. Despite the doctors telling him that his arm must be in a cast, Magni wants to continue the Giro.
To protect his shoulder, he covers the handlebars in foam and sets off for the next time trial. Despite the pain, he continues stage after stage. The Bologna-San Luca hill climb arrives and here Magni is unable to leverage the handlebars, which is necessary to push on the pedals. His mechanic, Faliero Masi, takes an inner tube, ties it to the handlebars and Magni tightens it with his teeth. In this way he manages to complete even the most difficult climb of the time trial.
The following day, in the Modena-Rapallo stage, Magni crashes again. This time the humerus also fractures. The pain is so strong that he faints. He is in the ambulance heading to the hospital when he regains consciousness: he orders the driver to stop, gets out and gets back on his bicycle in pursuit of the group. The stage from Merano to Monte Bondone is one of the hardest not only for Magni but for all cyclists on a route through snowstorms, intense cold and slippery roads. Many of the favorites withdraw, but Magni doesn’t give up. He reaches the top, taking second place in the general classification, a position he will maintain until arriving in Milan.
Even though the 1956 Giro saw Luxembourg’s Charly Gaul triumph, Magni’s feat remained forever in the annals of sport, an immortal example of determination and courage.
