I owe my fascination with Fausto Coppi to William Fotheringham. His 2009 book, “Fallen Angel: The Passion of Fausto Coppi,” is so intimate, exhaustive, personal. It is written and researched with such care that it’s impossible to read it and not become enthralled with the life and career of Coppi, but also to feel a deep admiration for the journalistic integrity and passion of Fotheringham. I’ve known and worked with William over the past decade and while most of our conversations were work related, he produced a great website called La Course en Tête with which we would partner on content and podcasts during the Peloton magazine days. Fotheringham spends part of his non-writing time running Halesowen Cycling Club, a successful team of junior and U23 cyclists—and rumor has it that he has the team cars kitted out in the legendary Mapei team colors (one of the club’s sponsors).
Why did you decide to write this book about Fausto Coppi? I guess I was looking for another project after completing my Tom Simpson biography, which was published in 2002. I guess Coppi had always fascinated me from when I lived briefly in Italy in the mid-’80s, where I’d still see his picture in bike shops so long after his death. When I started working as a journalist, I got to know some Italian writers pretty well and some of them had known Coppi. When I started in journalism it was about 30 years after Coppi died. Writing the Simpson book made me realize the importance of what the late Sam Abt called “archaeology”—going back into the past and getting people on record before the grim reaper got to them. Something I learned with the Simpson book is what happens with iconic figures: People develop a fixed set of memories they tell journalists, but as a fresh face and possibly as a non-Italian face I could potentially get new insights. Unlike with Simpson, there was a vast amount of secondary literature on Coppi. He was an industry before he died and he was an industry after he died. There were dozens of Fausto Coppi books. A lot of them conveyed the same memories. I saw an opportunity for a fresh approach.
Where had you lived in Italy previously and how did you begin your research? I lived on the terra firma near Venice, not in Venice itself but on the mainland. There was a little bike shop where I took my bike, and I learned Italian there during my six-month stay, becoming fluent—which was absolutely crucial for writing the Coppi book. Bizarrely enough, I think I began my research in Scotland, staying with my sister on a small island off the west coast. Every time I went to Italy, I bought books about Coppi. I was holed up for about four days during a gale in a little port going through a huge pile of Fausto Coppi books to thoroughly learn his story. This preparation meant that when I went to do interviews, I was often better informed than my interviewees. I was dealing with guys who were in their 70s or 80s with fading memories. I knew the facts and that was critical.
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