"He never asked nor accepted any reward, because he was good and simple and did not think that one did good for a reward." (Primo Levi, If This Is A Man) 

Gino Bartali wanted to keep it to himself. 

How could a man, so famous and so revered, keep it a secret for so long? 

"Good is something you do, not something you talk about," Bartali once explained. "Some medals are pinned to your soul, not to your jacket." 

He was Italy's very own version of Babe Ruth -- a man whose personality, character and success transcended sport. 

In the 1930s, Bartali, a son of Tuscany, was one of the leading cyclists in the world, a man admired by all. 

He had won three Giro d'Italia titles -- one of the three major European cycling events -- in addition to his triumph at the 1938 Tour de France and was very much the country's poster boy. 

And yet for a man who lived in his life in the full glare of the public, a new film, My Italian Secret reveals a very different side to Bartali's remarkable life. 

Directed by Oren Jacoby, the film shows how Bartali was part of a secret Italian resistance movement which helped hide the country's Jews during the Nazi invasion of 1943. 

Using the handlebars on his bike to hide counterfeit identity papers, Bartali would ride to Jews in hiding and deliver their exit visas which allowed them to escape transportation to the death camps -- he is credited with saving the lives of 800 people. 
What was his sport?
cyclist