He wore the yellow jersey of leadership for six days in the 1949 Tour de France before finishing third.

[3] He was so thin and sickly-looking as a boy that his mother urged him to play accordion rather than ride a bike.

On the fourth he came second and became race leader, leading a field that included Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali.

Next morning the organiser, Jacques Goddet, wrote in L'Équipe: "Our budgerigar has been transformed into a canary", a reference to Marinelli's small shape in yellow.

Marinelli rode above himself and exploited the rivalry between Coppi and Bartali to keep the lead for another five days, as far as the Pyrenees.

He then became director of a branch of Conforama, a furniture chain, in the town and ran a company called Marinelli Connexion, which had 150 employees and ran delivery vehicles painted yellow.