Born in the USA to Italian emigrant parents, Joseph Magnani was raised in South-East France, where he started partipating in cycling competitions.
No wonder, his victories and other important results during the 1930s, came from the cycling races (mostly one-day races) held around Marseilles, Toulon or Nice. In 1938 he managed to reach a 9th place in overal at the Paris-Nice.
However, he never had the chance to ride Tour de France, because in those days, when national teams competed the famous French grand tour, there wasn’t any US team to participate.
On the other hand, he managed to ride Giro d’Italia once, in 1946, making him the first US cyclist participating in the Italian grand tour. Unfortunately, he had to abandon the race.
Nowadays he is mostly remembered by the phrase “who challenged Coppi and Bartali in the Giro d’Italia”, which seems a bit exaggerated and tabloid style written statement.