Costante Girardengo was born in Novi Ligure on March 18, 1893. He won all the major races on the Italian cycling calendar – including the Giro d’Italia twice, the Milano-Sanremo six times, the Giro di Lombardia three times, the Milano-Torino five times and the Italian Championships nine times.
He also scored three Giro del Piemonte wins. No wonder he became the first “Campionissimo” of Italian cycling.
His record of achievements is even more astonishing if you think that Girardengo was part of that generation of riders whose careers and lives were greatly impacted by World War I, which robbed them of some of their best seasons (as it would happen to ‘the other Campionissimo’, Fausto Coppi, 25 years later).