GIORDANO COTTUR, A TRIESTE SUBSCRIBER FOR THE PODIUM AT THE GIRO D’ITALIA – SportHistoria

article by Nicholas Pucci

Clear eyes, frank smile, heart of steel: Giordano Cottur loved the bike like few others, dedicating his life to it. First as a racer, then, dismounted, as a builder and merchant. His bicycle and moped shop, in the center of Trieste, was the landing point for enthusiasts and not a day went by that, between gears to be adjusted and spokes to be replaced and tightened, warm discussions about racing and champions did not ignite. He seldom misjudged. It was enough for him to see the position on the saddle to understand if the rider who darted in front of him had the numbers to emerge. As, in fact, he himself was capable of doing, at the turn of the Second World War, signing important pages of tricolor cycling.

Cottur, you will have understood it, he was from Trieste in the round, being born there on 24 May 1914, working there and founding the company that still bears his name todaythe SC Cotturfinally offering him his mortal remains, on March 8, 2006. And of the Julian city, long disputed, he inherited, in its entirety, the most authentic soul, the indomitable and generous one, fully expressing it throughout a career which, after numerous successes as an amateur, saw him as a professional between 1938 and 1949first at Eventhen with the viscountcyand lastly in the five years after World War II, at Wilier Trieste.

Cottur was a climber, one of the more tenacious onesand if he lacked that cue in the sprint that could allow him to solve races with a fast paw, got among thebig” 11 successes, few but good, always achieved with solo finishes. Already in 1938, in his first year as a professional, he was able to distinguish himself on the roads of the race that he will love more than any other, the Giro d’Italia, winning at the finish line in Lanciano surpassing that Giovanni Valetti who would have worn the last pink jersey, the most precious one, to then finish in 25th place in the Tour de France, prove to be fundamental in Gino Bartali’s first victory at the Grande Boucle.

In the same 1938 Cottur won the Trieste-Postumia-Trieste, for then, in 1939, put the Giro dell’Umbria in his pocket and repeat the Giro d’Italia, with the success in his native Trieste and the seventh place in the standingsat 18’40” from Valetti himself, then improving the year after that, 1940, getting on the podium for the first time, third with a delay of 11’45″ behind Fausto Coppi and Enrico Mollo.

During the war years Cottur defended the colors of viscountcyracing between bombing raids, making the Empire Circuit his own and finishing in the Milan-Sanremo, sixth in 1941 and fourth in 1942, to then, at the end of hostilities, land at the court of cavalier Dal Molinto whom he brought not only his strength as a cyclist, but also all his enthusiasm as a genuine Trieste native.

With the halberd tunic Cottur achieved success in the Trieste-Opicina in 1945, but it was always at the Corsa Rosa that he was able to give his best. As in 1946, when he won the first stage, in Turin, wearing the pink jersey for a day, finishing eighth in the standings, 38’28” behind Bartali, but above all, on 30 June, entering his native Trieste in command of a squad of 17 runners, after the peloton, due to stone throwing by Tito’s followerswho contested the division that took place after the tragic war events and the arrival of the allies, given that the city was still separated from Italy and governed by the Anglo-Americans, he had been stopped in Pieris and the stage had been neutralized, being carried in triumph by his fellow citizens.

E as in 1947, when it imposed itself in Perugia but abandoned the race after the 14th stage when he occupied the sixth position in the standings, the year in which he was also seventh in the Tour de France, and in the following two years, 1948 and 1949, when he obtained another success, again in the first Milan-Turin stage, wearing the pink jersey in both editions, for eight and five days respectively, and on both occasions climbing on the third step of the podium, in one case beaten by teammate Fiorenzo Magni and by Ezio Cecchi, in the other as dolphin of Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartaliconfessing in 1948 to the trusted mechanic “Bepi“, once the insignia of primacy has been ceded to Vito Ortelli, who “finally tonight I slept as God commands, the past nights I couldn’t sleep a wink. I saw enemies springing up from all sides, determined to rip my shirt off“.

Already, precisely that tunic that he would have so much wanted to wear last, and which, undoubtedly, he would have deserved as well.