DISRAELI DOCUMENTS
Pietro Bestetti, Italian, 1898-1936.
Pietro Bestetti was an accomplished professional cyclist who rode the Giro d'Italia six times between 1922 and 1931. He also rode the Milan-San Remo nine times, competed in the 1920 Olympic Games and came second in the 1925 Paris-Roubaix. Pietro's brother Angelo was also a successful professional cyclist.
Pietro Bestetti appears to have retired from professional cycling in the early 1930s. He is included on this site because he seems to have produced a derailleur bearing his name in 1934. This was a sophisticated design rather similar to a Vittoria Margherita.
Unfortunately Pietro Bestetti died of pneumonia in 1936, aged only 37 - cutting short his promising career as a derailleur manufacturer.
This caricature is taken from the French newspaper L'Œuvre in September 1928. Stylish hat!
(Source gallica.bnf.fr/ Bibliothèque nationale de France)