Fausto Magazine

Words: Jeremy Whittle Image: Gruber Images If the Côte d’Azur has always been a magnet to creatives, with painters and poets flocking to seek inspiration in the South of France, then Nice has also long been a haunt for everyone from Jean Cocteau to Elton John, Richard Burton to Bono, Davis Beckham to Lewis Hamilton.

Words: John Wilcockson Images: Gruber Images The manner in which Paul Seixas revealed to an expectant world on May 4 that he was going to ride the Tour de France this July said more about his personality than he’d shown at any of his previous public actions. Not for him a corporate press release, nor a statement in a formal setting. No. In a 94-second Instagram video, a playful Seixas is visiting with his paternal grandparents at their home in the French Alps.

Words: Peter Cossins Illustrations: Matthew Burton Pastoralists and environmentalists play out a little game on what has become one of the Tour de France’s favorite Pyrenean climbs. At the very top of the Mur de Péguère, 3.2 kilometers of gravity-defying grind for even the Pogačars and Vingegaards of the cycling world, a message is daubed right across the tarmac. Most of the time the huge capital letters declare: NON A L’OURS (“No to the bear”).

Words: Jeremy Whittle Images: PhotoSport International It was the night before the 1994 Paris–Roubaix. Outside the cozy, no-frills Le Cahors café on the freezing Place de l’Hôtel de Ville in Compiègne, the local juniors were racing with youthful abandon, whipping around the tight square on skating-rink-like tarmac. There was a crash every few minutes, but the teenagers picked themselves up and kept going as a freezing drizzle threatened to turn to sleet.

They’re rare sensations, but every competitive cyclist knows what it feels like to ride a bike when everything just comes together. On those perfect days you don’t even feel your legs. If you get one of those days in a race you know what’s going to happen before it does. You seem to always be in the perfect place in the peloton to avoid crashes, and you’re always in the front of the split. Wind, rain and tempo don’t bother you in the least.

Images: Gruber Images There was a time around the turn of the millennium when my father and I got into the routine of regularly going to watch the world road championships. We saw Oscar Camenzind win in the rain at Valkenburg, Oscar Freire sprint to glory in Verona and Tom Boonen bring joy to Belgian hearts with victory in Madrid.

Words/Images: Paul Maunder Indiana Jones has nothing on me. I am a treasure hunter who will stop at nothing to get my hands on the ultimate prize. Fortunately for me, the ultimate prize is a lurid Belgian pro team cycling jersey. Ideally from the 1990s, with multiple clashing colors, emblazoned with the name of a long-defunct tractor-part wholesaler, a random car dealership on the Kortrijk ring road, and a dodgy café belonging to the team manager’s uncle. Or something like that.

Words/Interview: Brad Roe Image: Horton Collection I owe my fascination with Fausto Coppi to William Fotheringham. His 2009 book, “Fallen Angel: The Passion of Fausto Coppi,” is so intimate, exhaustive, personal. It is written and researched with such care that it’s impossible to read it and not become enthralled with the life and career of Coppi, but also to feel a deep admiration for the journalistic integrity and passion of Fotheringham.

Words/image: Brad Roe Owned by the fourth-generation Petruzzelli family, New Deal Fruit is a pilgrimage destination for anyone interested in Italian deli sandwiches in New England. Located on Broadway in Revere, Massachusetts, about 10 minutes from Boston’s Logan airport, we find ourselves stopping by before and after flights—and often when there are no flights planned at all.

Words/images: Clive Pursehouse the pursuit of happiness. It’s a phrase with some uniquely American history, but the concept of happiness and its true nature have been somewhat elusive for much of human existence. Aristotle called happiness man’s highest good and cautioned against the notion of instant gratification.