Giovanni Rossi

Giovanni Rossi (1926 to 1983) was a Swiss road racing cyclist, born in Bidart in the French Basque country and remembered chiefly for one season. He was selected for the 1948 London Olympics, where the Swiss team finished sixth in the team road race, and in 1949 he became the Swiss national amateur road race champion before turning professional. His breakthrough came in 1951, when he won a stage of the Tour de Suisse and then the opening stage of the Tour de France, which put him in the yellow jersey for the following day. He was second on the third stage but had to abandon the race on stage six. Later that year he finished 24th in the road race at the UCI World Championships, and in 1954 he was second on the opening stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné. He died in Ponte Tresa, in the Swiss canton of Ticino.