His preparations were not the best; there was a war going on and Fausto was in the army assigned to an infantry regiment stationed at Tortona.
Notwithstanding the adverse circumstances, on November 14 he gave it a go on the track at the Vigorelli Stadium in Milano. Lacking experience, Coppi went out too fast but held the pace until the 30th lap when he began to slow.
At the half hour Coppi was 61 meters down with 22,946 kilometers covered against Archambaud's 23,007.
In the 70th lap, he appeared to have corrected the problem and made up some of the lost time; he was now only 2 seconds off the Frenchman's pace.
The last 30 laps were pure torture, for Fausto certainly, but also for the spectators; he would gain precious meters in one lap only to lose them in the next. Like a loose anchor swinging back and forth he was gaining some and losing some; luckily he managed to gain a little more than he lost!!!
When the whistle blew, after 115 laps of the track, Coppi had managed to take the record to 45,871 kilometers, just 31 meters better than Archambaud's effort.
Of course the French fired up a controversy regarding the legitimacy of the ride, basing their objection on the fact that there was a war going on. Finally the record was ratified on 9 February, 1947 after much wrangling and many difficulties because some of the officials and observers (the timekeeper for instance) had been killed during the war.
The record stood for 14 years, and was finally bettered by Jacques Anquetil on 29 June, 1956.