Pierre Brambilla

Pierre Brambilla
Personal information
Full name Pierre Brambilla
Nickname La Brambille
Born 12 May 1919
Villarbeney, Switzerland
Died 13 February 1984 (aged 64)
Team information
Discipline Road
Role Rider
Professional team(s)
1939 Terrot
1942 Tendil - Hutchinson
1944 Mercier - Hutchinson
19461949 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.

Palmarès

1939
Lyon - Grenoble - Lyon (with Giuseppe Martino)
1941
Montluçon
1942
Vuelta a España:
Winner stage 10
Mountains classification circuit de France
1943
Carcassonne
Circuit du Mont Ventoux
Course du Mont Chauve
GP d'Espéraza
GP Haute Savoie
Perpignan
1945
Annecy - Grenoble - Annecy
1946
Tour de l'Ouest
1947
Paris - Clermont-Ferrand
Tour de France:
Winner Mountains classification
3rd place overall classification
Wearing yellow jersey for two days
1949
Cahors

External links