Jan asked:
> How tall was Coppi, anyhow? I know he was tall - Steve Maaslands says
> Koblet and Coppi were the same height - but was he really THAT tall?
Coppi was variously stated as being 1m85-1m87! He too rode a 59 cm c/c frame. I own a De Rosa bike used by Roberto Conti for his 16th place finish in the Tour de France, he is 1m88 and it is a 56 cm c/c frame. According to Ugo De Rosa, most Americans who get a custom made frames end up with frames that are 2-3 cm smaller than what they are accustomed to. He says their general reaction is of disbelief until they take the bike out for a ride. They then never want to return to the larger frame size.
--
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ
> According to Le Cycle (Aug. 4, 1951, quoted from VBQ vol. 2, No. 2),
> Koblet measured 186 cm. They don't say whether this is with socks or
> barefoot.
>
> His frame was a 59, assuming c-c. That is small! Maybe the largest
> stock frame La Perle made?
>
> (Toni Theilmeier reported that Koblet used a stock frame to win the
> Giro. That must have been the 1950 Giro, according to J-P Ollivier's
> book the only one he won, unless I overlooked something. So maybe he
> liked the stock bike, because one would assume that after a Giro win,
> he'd get a custom bike. Or maybe not. He was not the favorite for
> that Tour in 1951. Did racers have to buy their own frames back then,
> which they had relabeled as whatever they were supposed to ride, or
> did their sponsors pick up the tab? I suspect they had to pay
> themselves. Maybe some preferred to save their money and ride what
> they were given?)
>
> --
> Jan Heine, Seattle
> Editor/Publisher
> Vintage Bicycle Quarterly
> http://www.mindspring.com/