Pierre Brambilla

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 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 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 the short story "Brambilla" by Julian Barnes, published in his collection of short stories Cross Channel (1996).