Rain fell first, down in the valley, then turned to snow. Tiny ice pellets battered down on the wool-clad back of a boy from Pittsburgh as he rode alone over the day’s second major pass, the 5,000-foot Forca Capanine. He stuffed a newspaper in his jersey and continued onward, down into the storm.

By the finish of the Giro d’Italia’s eighth stage, he had 39 minutes over his primary rival. His first leader’s jersey, earned two days prior, was confirmed that wet and cold day in Umbria and won outright seven days later in Milan.