Pierre Brambilla

Pierre Brambilla
Personal information
Full name	Pierre Brambilla
Nickname	La Brambille
Born	(1919-05-12)12 May 1919 Villarbeney, Switzerland
Died	13 February 1984(1984-02-13) (aged 64)
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional team(s)
1939	Terrot
1942	Tendil - Hutchinson
1944	Mercier - Hutchinson
1946–1949	Metropole - Dunlop
1950	Mervil
1951	Alcyon - Dunlop
Major wins
King of Mountain, 1947 Tour de France
Infobox last updated on 30 June 2008

Pierre Brambilla (12 May 1919 at Villarbeney in Switzerland – 13 February 1984 at Grenoble, France) is a former French former professional road bicycle racer. He was of Italian origin but adopted French nationality on 9 September 1949. He was known as "la Brambille" and he won the King of the Mountains competition in the 1947 Tour de France where he also finished third overall and wore the maillot jaune for two days. In that 1947 Tour, Brambilla was leading the race at the penultimate day, with Aldo Ronconi at 53 seconds and Jean Robic at 2'58". At the last stage, Caen-Paris, Robic and Edouard Fachleitner attacked, and finished more than 13 minutes before Brambilla, taking the first two places. Brambilla was the first cyclist to lose the lead in the Tour de France on the last stage. Brambilla is pictured in a short story 'Brambilla' by Julian Barnes, published in a collection of short stories Cross Channel in 1996.