Del Velocipedismo Á. Gino Bartali

Capanni & Cervellati, 1998

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Dear Bob;

I send you this page drawn by a book I edit from the province of Florence from the title "From the VELOCIPEDISMO Á. GINO BARTALI" Of CAPANNI And CERVELLATI,  
Faliero Masi had been born to Sesto Fiorentino ( name= six Roman miles from the center of firenze) 
for this the this was tied up to the lily/iris of firenze, symbol of the city, different from that of the French Orleans for the presence of the stamens. 
I hope that you are able it translates and is you useful for the popularization.  
 
Ciao, Roberto   
by Florence

Other valid craftsmen worked in Sesto Fiorentino. The main one was Campostrini, who in his advertising boasted an "award-winning workshop founded in the 1889." Faliero Masi, a good youngster from Sesto, raced with others on Campostrini bicycles.

Masi, after a brilliant career among the juniors, turned professional towards the end of the twenties, obtained a victory in the "Zucchi Cup" and participated in the Giro d' Italia in both 1931 and 1932. Masi was attracted, not only by the sport of cycling, but also by the construction problems of the tool used by the cyclists when they competed, namely his bike. Even during the years of his most intense racing activity, he continued to work, as an apprentice, in the same Campostrini workshop that produced the bicycles upon which he raced.

Once he stopped racing, he opened, still in Sesto Fiorentino, a shop of his own: he was so good and capable that he soon [was] called to Milan by the famous company Viscontea, where he was put in charge of the racing division. Later on, he began, [also] in Milan, near the Vigorelli Velodrome, to build on his own the bicycles that carried his name and which were used, among others, by the Frenchman Jacques Anquetil when he set his world hour record. In 1984, an American magazine even went so far as to assert that "Masi is to cyclists what Ferarri is to car fans."

Caption: A young Faliero Masi (in the center, with the dark jersey with the wide white band), with two teammates from "Cicli Campostrini" surrounded by fellow citizens of Sesto Fiorentino.

 

Translation courtesy Steven Maasland

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