Pierre Brambilla

Pierre Brambilla (12 May 1919 – 13 February 1984) was a French professional road cyclist. 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 yellow jersey as leader of the general classification 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 Édouard 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 the short story "Brambilla" by Julian Barnes, published in his collection of short stories Cross Channel (1996).

Major results

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