1. Costante Girardengo was the first rider to be declared a "Campionissimo" or "champion of champions" by the Italian media and fans.
12 Facts About Costante Girardengo
1. 2.
Costante Girardengo was ranked number one in the World in 1919,1922,1923,1925 and 1926.
3.
Costante Girardengo raced almost exclusively in his home country as was the custom in those days, as foreign travel was not easy.
4.
Costante Girardengo met with immediate success winning a stage in the Giro d'Italia and becoming Italian road race champion.
5.
Later that same year Costante Girardengo took part in the Tour de France for the only time in his career, riding as a guest for the Automoto team he crashed several times in stages five and six and abandoned the race.
6.
Costante Girardengo finished in the first three of the same race every year from 1917 to 1926 and was first over the Turchino Pass on five occasions.
7.
Costante Girardengo took the first of his Giro d'Italia wins in 1919, however his form in the Giro was not always good and he abandoned the race in the early stages in 1920,1921 and 1922 before dominating in 1923.
8.
In 1924 Costante Girardengo won the GP Wolber in France, then regarded as the unofficial World Championship.
9.
Costante Girardengo finished runner up in the inaugural World Championship road race held on the Nurburgring in Germany in 1927, the four man Italian team included Alfredo Binda, Gaetano Belloni and Domenico Piemontesi, the Italians worked perfectly as a team with Binda breaking away 20 miles from the finish to win comfortably, the Italians filled the first four places on that rainy day in Germany.
10.
Costante Girardengo became the head coach of the Italian national squad for a time, advising Gino Bartali when he won the 1938 Tour de France.
11.
Costante Girardengo has been immortalised in Italian popular culture through the critically acclaimed song "Il Bandito e il Campione" by Francesco De Gregori that juxtaposes his life with that of his childhood friend the notorious bandit and outlaw Sante Pollastri.
12.
Costante Girardengo died in 1978 at Cassano Spinola, just outside Novi Ligure, at the age of 84.