All-time bicycle star Gino Bartali nearly abandons the sport at a young age, when his brother Giulio dies in a race. Fra' Leone, for whom Gino will carry out clandestine missions during the war, convinces him not to give up. Then, in 1948, when Italian Communist Party leader Palmiro Togliatti is nearly assassinated, Prima Minister De Gasperi asks Bartali to help avert disorders by winning the Tour de France. Though far behind, he winds up finishing first.