I think he is probably riding a Campag Paris-Roubaix gear? Have a look at his left hand brake lever it looks to me like a Bartali or has it something on top of the lever? Might be just a distortion in the photo or more likely my tired old eyes. The Coppi's yes this time the two of them managed to break the Belgian domination of this spring classic. Serse Coppi won it in 1949. It happened like this; Three riders held a narrow lead on the last approach to the velodrome where they were misdirected by the gendarmes, they couldn't find the entrance so they jumped the turnstiles with their bikes, they then raced to the finish with Andre Mahe beating the other two, unfortunately for him the bunch had already arrived and Serse Coppi had been the first over the line. The officials decided to award first place to both of them probably one of the very few dead heats in classics history. Next year in 1950 Fausto Coppi attacked at the feed and dropped all but one of his companions, he then constantly kept on attacking until he shot off Maurice Diot then going on to win alone. Diot then claimed he had won saying Coppi was "hors concours" beyond competition. More trivia from Mick! Be lucky Mick Butler Hunts UK
Thats all for now. Keep those wheels spinning, in your memories if not still on the road. Be lucky Mick Butler Huntingdon UK.