Joe wrote "Urago was originally an Italian team in 1935. They were either French or Italian from 1935 to 1961 in their various forms: Urago, Urago-Dunlop, Urago-D'Allesasndro, Urago-Simplex. Perhaps this is where the confusion has crept in but the frames were French and made in Nice. Your very own Joseph Magnani (U.S.A.) rode for them in 37 and the record books show it was an Italian team then."
I was quite puzzled by this statement and looked through all of my Italian sources and could not find any mention of Urago as being an Italian team. Perhaps Joe would like to expand on this and provide the sources of such information. In all my French books, it also says that Urago was only ever a French manufacturer and team, besides which, if one were to study the races that the Urago team participated in, you would see that they were overwhelmingly in France or just over the border into the neighbouring parts of Italy and/or Switzerland. It simply doesn't make sense to me. More than likely, this is one of the many cases where riders were licensed to more than one team. This was actually not uncommon well into the 50's, with riders participating in races under one team in one country or race and under another team and jersey in others. I believe two of the most notorious for riding for multiple teams wer the two Swiss superstars Ferdi Kubler and Hugo Koblet. Kubler rode for at least two teams concurrently in every season from 1948 until 1956, Koblet for 10 of his 12 years as a pro. This was furthermore not a purely Swiss thing as even riders of the stature of Bartali and Bobet, from major cycling markets, rode for multiple teams (Bartali rode concurrently for Tebag and Legnano in 1946, Bobet for more than one team in 5 seasons, including the combination of three teams in 1952: Stella-Hutchnson in France, Tebag in Switzerland and Bottecchia in Italy).
Speaking of Magnani, here is a great blurb about him:
http://www.velonews.com/
I would expect that listmember Ted Ernst would have known Magnani and can perhaps add something to the background.
Steven Maasland
Moorestown, NJ
USA