Gastone Nencini

Gastone Nencini, born on 1 March 1930 in Barberino di Mugello near Florence and died on 1 February 1980, was an Italian road racing cyclist who won the 1960 Tour de France and the 1957 Giro d'Italia. Nicknamed Il Leone del Mugello, the Lion of Mugello, he was a powerful all-rounder, particularly strong in the mountains, and a gifted descender. The French rider Raphaël Géminiani said the only reason to follow Nencini downhill would be a death wish, and it was in trying to follow him down a mountain on stage 14 of the 1960 Tour that Roger Rivière missed a bend and broke his spine. Nencini was an amateur painter and a chain smoker, and a bronze bas-relief monument to his memory stands on the Futa pass above his native town.