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WORK TITLE: The Beautiful Race: The Story of the Giro D’ltalia
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1/22/1990
WEBSITE: https://colinobrienjournalism.com/
CITY: Rome
STATE:
COUNTRY: Italy
NATIONALITY: Irish
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born January 22, 1990.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Sports and travel writer, copywriter, newspaper reporter.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to periodicals, including Rouleur, ProCycling, Eight by Eight, Ride Cycling Review, Bleacher Report, Paved, Peloton, BeIN Sports, Conquista, the Blizzard, and Cyclist.
SIDELIGHTS
Colin O’Brien is an Irish sports and travel writer based in Rome. He first got interested in cycling and European professional racing when Marco Pantani and other riders visited Dublin with the 1998 Tour de France. O’Brien contributes articles to various global sports magazines including Rouleur, Peloton, Cyclist, and ProCycling. He has also been a copywriter and worked for several national newspapers in Ireland and the UK.
In 2017, O’Brien published Giro d’Italia: The Story of the World’s Most Beautiful Bike Race (published in the U.S. in 2018 as The Beautiful Race: The Story of the Giro d’Italia), a history of Italy’s national cycling race that began in 1909 and helped unite Italy. O’Brien describes famous participants who rode through the race’s beautiful countryside, and explores the changing culture and society of the riders over the years, the influence of two World Wars on the race, and the globalization of the race in the 1960s. He talks about Alfonsina Strada the first woman to race in 1924, Ottavio Bottecchia who was expected to win the Maglia Rosa pink jersey in 1928 but was likely killed by Mussolini’s Black Shirts, playboy and drug addict Fausto Coppi, and Gino Bartali who smuggled papers for Jewish Italians during World War II.
The book commemorates the 100th edition of the race. On the Road Website, Richard Peploe explained that the book is not “a detailed nor chronological account of the ninety-nine previous races, and there are definitely no lengthy tables of race results. This is not that sort of book. Instead O’Brien groups together stories around various themes, often relating to people or places. The result is very readable, but it is no surprise to find that a lot of the material has already been covered elsewhere.”
Explaining how O’Brien has captured the colorful characters and beautiful landscapes of the Giro D’Italia, a writer in Publishers Weekly noted: “O’Brien has written an excellent, detailed narrative that expertly places the Giro within the context of modern Italian history.” With photos, list of winners, and index, the book provides an excellent introduction to the “Giro d’Italia and the personalities who created, directed, and competed in the grueling three-week competition,” according to Brenda Barrera in Booklist. Questioning the author’s lack of bibliography, John Foot commented online at Times Literary Supplement: “O’Brien, boldly, goes for a no-references-or-footnotes at all strategy. We do not find out which books he has read, although we know he has interviewed some cyclists.” Noting how the book covers the main, well-worn accounts of the Giro that will be known to followers familiar with the race, Foot admitted: “O’Brien throws in a few accounts of key climbs to break up the narrative.”
A reviewer online at Ride Velo praised Giro d’Italia, saying: “It is quite dense with facts in places, so something to dip into over time rather than gorging on in one sitting… Its concise chapters manage to encapsulate the key points about each era without becoming sketchy and it condenses over a hundred years of history into an accessible yet detailed account that captures the essence of this glorious, crazy and beautiful race.” Writing in the London Guardian Online, Tim Parks explained: “O’Brien is a sports journalist and the move from reporting single events to writing a book is perhaps as difficult as progressing from one-day races to a Giro. At moments, in the early pages, he risks offering a buff’s chronicle of who won which stage when. Still, there is a feast of anecdote to enjoy.” Parks added: “The book comes into its own describing the great rivalries the Giro has produced,” such as between Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi in the 1940s, and Francesco Moser and Giuseppe Saronni in the late 1970s.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 2018, Brenda Barrera, review of Giro d’Italia: The Story of the World’s Most Beautiful Bike Race, p. 14.
Publishers Weekly, November 27, 2017, review of Giro d’Italia, p. 47.
ONLINE
Colin O’Brien Website, https://colinobrienjournalism.com (May 1, 2018), author profile.
Guardian Online, https://www.theguardian.com/books/ (May 5, 2017), Tim Parks, review of Giro d’Italia.
Ride Velo, http://www.ridevelo.cc/blog/ (May 4, 2017), review of Giro d’Italia.
Road, http://road.cc/ (April 30, 2017), Richard Peploe, review of Giro d’Italia.
Times Literary Supplement, https://www.the-tls.co.uk/ (May 17, 2017), John Foot, review of Giro d’Italia.
Colin O'Brien is an Irish sports writer based in Rome. His passion for cycling and the European professional racing scene was ignited when Marco Pantani and the world's best riders came to Dublin with the 1998 Tour de France. He contributes to leading publications worldwide, including Rouleur, Peloton, Cyclist, and ProCycling.
I’m a sports and travel writer based in Rome and Dublin. My work has featured in some of the leading sports publications globally, including Rouleur, Eight by Eight, Ride Cycling Review, Bleacher Report, Paved, Peloton, BeIN Sports, Conquista, the Blizzard, Cyclist Magazine, as well as several national newspapers in Ireland and the UK. I’ve also been fortunate enough to work as a copywriter for some incredible organisations and great companies. If you’d like to know more, get in touch!
The Beautiful Race: The Story of the Giro D'Italia
Brenda Barrera
Booklist. 114.13 (Mar. 1, 2018): p14+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
The Beautiful Race: The Story of the Giro D'Italia. By Colin O'Brien. Apr. 2018. 240p. illus. Pegasus, $26.95 (9781681776644). 796.6.
Just as the Tour de France was launched as a sporting event to sell newspapers, so marked the birth of the Giro d'Italia and the race for the coveted Maglia Rosa (pink jersey). Irish sportswriter O'Brien traces the race's rich history from its inception in 1909 to the current day, weaving in the historical context and lending insight into Italian history and culture. Notable highlights include epic battles among rivals Gino Banali (three-time champion) and Fausto Coppi (considered by many as the greatest Italian cyclist) to the modern era with the rise and tragic fall of Marco Pantani, 1998 champion, and the grit of 2013 and 2016 winner Vincenzo Nibali. The narrative is markedly stronger in chapters with interviews of past winners, including the only American to win the coveted title, Andrew Hampsten, who achieved his dream in 1988. Overall, this is a solid introduction to the Giro d'Italia and the personalities who created, directed, and competed in the grueling three-week competition. Includes photos, a list of winners, and index, but missing is a bibliography.--Brenda Barrera
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Barrera, Brenda. "The Beautiful Race: The Story of the Giro D'Italia." Booklist, 1 Mar. 2018, p. 14+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532250789/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=514c7e8f. Accessed 14 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532250789
The Beautiful Race: The Story of the Giro D'Italia
Publishers Weekly. 264.48 (Nov. 27, 2017): p47.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Beautiful Race: The Story of the Giro D'ltalia
Colin O'Brien. Pegasus, $26.95 (240p)
ISBN 978-1-68177-664-4
O'Brien, an Irish sportswriter living in Rome, wonderfully captures the colorful characters and landscapes that have shaped a century of Italy's national cycling race. As he explains, the adage goes that the Giro, which started in 1909, did more to unite Italy than Giuseppe Garibaldi's Risorgimento in 1870. There is plenty here to support that assertion, especially through the 1950s, when the stars of the Corsa Rosa--the Pink Race, so named for the pink jersey worn by the race leader-were primarily Italian and came from all over the country. Founding director Armando Cougnet oversaw a grueling race that contrasted with the established and rigid Tour de France; the Giro immediately drew swarms of passionate cycling fans. O'Brien hits the historical highlights of the race, starting with the 1920s dominance of Alfredo Binda, then details the 1950s rivalry between Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi, which symbolized two sides of midcentury Italy (Bartali was a religious Florentine; Coppi came from working-class Turin), and the globalization of the race in the 1960s with riders such as Belgian Eddy Merckx. The author provides seven "Salita Famosa" sections that illustrate how formidable climbs have influenced racing (the Passo Croce d'Aune inspired the quick-release lever design, for example). O'Brien has written an excellent, detailed narrative that expertly places the Giro within the context of modern Italian history. Photos. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Beautiful Race: The Story of the Giro D'Italia." Publishers Weekly, 27 Nov. 2017, p. 47. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A517575680/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5fed9923. Accessed 14 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A517575680
Giro d'Italia: The Story of the World's Most Beautiful Bike Race by Colin O'Brien
7
by Richard Peploe April 30 2017
1 Comments
Verdict: Enjoyable but brief overview of the Giro d'Italia and its many stories, prompted by the 100th edition of the race
Weight: 200gContact: profilebooks.com (link is external)
Giro d'Italia: The Story of the World's Most Beautiful Bike Race by Colin O'Brien
7 10 Richard Peploe
1 / 5Giro d'Italia by Colin O'Brien.jpg
Every year there is a flurry of book releases in November, timed to capitalise on the Christmas market. In our cycling world, we benefit from another peak in the middle of the year to coincide with a focus on the Tour de France. This year we are in for yet another peak, as publishers look to take advantage of the 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia.
The first of these new Giro books to arrive is by Colin O'Brien, who you might know from his frequent contributions to various cycling magazines. His experience of living and working in Italy ('a land of inconsistencies and complications') will surely have been of great benefit in helping to achieve his aim for the book: 'the Giro can sometimes seem to elude full comprehension, but it means a great deal to an awful lot of people. This book sets out to explore why that it is'.
Buy Giro d'Italia: The Story of the World's Most Beautiful Bike Race by Colin O'Brien (link is external)
What follows is neither a detailed nor chronological account of the 99 previous races, and there are definitely no lengthy tables of race results. This is not that sort of book. Instead O'Brien groups together stories around various themes, often relating to people or places. The result is very readable, but it is no surprise to find that a lot of the material has already been covered elsewhere.
Giro-d'Italia-by-Colin-O'Brien---pages4.jpg
For example, the story of Tullio Campagnolo being inspired to invent the quick release hub on the Croce d'Aune has been told many times, as has 'that rivalry' between Coppi and Bartali.
Some of the better known stories are told largely through interviews with the main protagonists, such as Andy Hampsten and Stephen Roche recounting their career-defining moments in the race for the umpteenth time.
Some stories are perhaps less well known: we learn why the Passo dello Stelvio, 'perhaps the closest a road engineer will ever come to genuinely artistic expression', has achieved legendary status – even though it features on the race route more often than it is actually ridden because of the unpredictable weather when the race is held. Making its first appearance in 1953, Coppi got the climb's reputation off to a good start by unexpectedly taking the race lead off Koblet on the climb, which added drama to the race. Apparently he used a gear of 46 x 23 (or about 54 inches), which is impressive.
Giro-d'Italia-by-Colin-O'Brien---pages3.jpg
The appearance of Alfonsia Strada in 1924 is another good story, with Strada being the only woman to ever compete in the men's race. She did not finish officially, but it was a newsworthy story. And just as with the Tour de France six years earlier, the Giro was created to sell newspapers, in this case the La Gazzetta dello Sport. Apparently it was printed on green paper at first, rather than the pink that was in place by the time that the race adopted the colour for the leader's jersey.
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The Giro has been involved in more than its fair share of controversies over the years, which make for necessary if uncomfortable reading: the rise and fall of Pantani (who features on the cover), the sudden removal of mountain stages to favour the local riders, and even the use of a helicopter's down-draft to hinder foreign opposition.
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Giro-d'Italia-by-Colin-O'Brien---pages2.jpg
Equally intriguing is O'Brien's explanation that 'Mussolini's Fascist regime was arguably the first to see the full political potential of sport, using it not only to glorify the perceived superiority of the Italian race but also in making sport a big part of the country's indoctrination into the party's machismo mentality'.
The final chapter is a little different and more forward looking, based around an interview with the current race director Mauro Vegni, and it covers topics like the financial challenges, the drugs issue, his favourite riders, and his plans to keep the race relevant.
Giro-d'Italia-by-Colin-O'Brien---pages1.jpg
The Giro and Italy, Italy and the Giro: this book helps to explain how each has helped shape the other. It is clear that the Giro has been an important feature of Italian sport – and indeed the country – since 1909; some have even suggested that 'the race has done more to unite Italy than Garibaldi's Risorgimento ever managed', although I doubt that was part of the original plan.
This book gives an excellent introduction to the history of the Giro and all that it means to Italy and cycling, but it will not satisfy those who want detailed race commentary and results.
Verdict
Enjoyable but brief overview of the Giro d'Italia and its many stories, prompted by the 100th edition of the race
If you're thinking of buying this product using a cashback deal why not use the road.cc Top Cashback page (link is external) and get some top cashback while helping to support your favourite independent cycling website
Make and model: Giro d'Italia by Colin O'Brien
Size tested: Hardback
Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
From Pursuit Books:
About the book
Born of tumult in 1909, the Giro d'Italia helped unite a nation. Since then it has reflected it too; the race's capricious and unpredictable nature matching the passions and extremes of Italy itself. A desperately hard race through a beautiful country, the Giro has bred characters and stories that dramatise the shifting culture and society of its home: Alfonsina Strada, who cropped her hair and raced against the men in 1924. Ottavio Bottecchia, expected to challenge for the winner's Maglia Rosa in 1928, until killed on a training ride, probably by Mussolini's Black Shirts. Fausto Coppi, the metropolitan playboy with amphetamines in his veins, guided by a mystic blind masseur; and his arch rival Gino Bartali; humble, pious and countrified (and brave: recently it emerged he smuggled papers for persecuted Jewish Italians). The Giro's most tragic hero - Marco Pantani, born to climb but fated to lose. Halted only by World Wars, the Giro has been contested since 1909. The 2017 edition will be its one hundredth. This book celebrates it in all its kaleidoscopic glory.
About the author
Colin O'Brien is an Irish sports writer based in Rome. His passion for cycling and the European professional racing scene was ignited when Marco Pantani and the world's best riders came to Dublin with the 1998 Tour de France. He contributes to leading publications worldwide, including Rouleur, Peloton, Cyclist, and ProCycling.
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
Title: Giro d'Italia
Author: Colin O'Brien
Publisher: Profile Books
Date: 13/4/17
Format: Hardback
Pages: 231
ISBN: 9781781257166
Price: £16.99
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
It is a great primer for those new to the Giro, but look elsewhere for the definitive reference book
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
Other than being up-to-date, it adds little that is new to existing material
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Yes
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Use this box to explain your score
It does its job well, and makes for a very accessible introduction to the history of the Giro
Overall rating: 7/10
About the tester
Age: 55 Height: Weight:
I usually ride: My best bike is:
I've been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: Every day I would class myself as: Expert
I regularly do the following types of riding: commuting, touring, club rides, sportives, general fitness riding,
Giro d'Italia by Colin O'Brien Review
May 4, 2017
With the unmistakable silhouette of Marco Pantani on a pink background on its front cover, this book had us reaching out to the shelf to pick it up with some excitement. The Pirate, as he was known, seems to encapsulate so much of what the Giro d’Italia is about.
Now in its 100th edition, this beautiful Grand Tour has often been defined by its unpredictability, its heroism, suffering and betrayals. Add to that feuds, glamour, rivalries that split the nation and, of course passionate racing, you have a gripping and fascinating yarn to tell.
Colin O’Brien, a cycling journalist based in Rome, is well-placed to narrate it, explaining in his preface how, “With the exception of a long Christmas dinner at home in Dublin, there’s nothing I look forward to every year more than the Giro d’Italia.”
He tells the story in chronological form, describing its inception as a gamble that helped to unite a nation. Like its two counterparts, the Tour and the Vuelta, it was born to sell newspapers and the Gazzetta dello Sport jumped at the chance, despite a dearth of funds and the usual organizational bungles. As we know, the Italian public fell in love with the race from the off, boosting the founding newspaper’s sales dramatically.
The Tifosi, the Italian term for sports fans (from the Greek word typhus for fever) were bitten by the cycling bug, eager to devour all the gory details of each day’s brutal racing. With some stages as long as 320 kilometres the race was a war of attrition rather than outright speed and the grit, bravery and determination needed to simply finish demanded almost superhuman powers.
It has created a wonderful cast of heroes (even a heroine) and villains since it began in 1909 and with that a long list of wonderful nicknames like the Squirrel of the Canals, the Iron Man of Tuscany and The Human Locomotive.
Alfonsina Strada, the Devil in a Dress or Queen of the Cranks
Alfonsina Strada, the Devil in a Dress or Queen of the Cranks
Perhaps my favourite character of all is that afore mentioned heroine, Alfonsina Strada. Known as the Devil in a Dress to some, the Queen of the Cranks to others, she defied convention and created scandal among her local community of deeply religious peasants when she began racing her bicycle rather than attending mass. Married at 14, her new husband bought her the best bike he could afford, on which she rode the 1924 Giro.
Portrait of Fausto Coppi print by Richard Long - available from the Ride Velo shop
Portrait of Fausto Coppi print by Richard Long - available from the Ride Velo shop
The rivalry between Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali is explained succinctly here. These two represented opposing sides of a divided nation: Bartali the earthy, religious south while Coppi came from the more forward looking industrial north. While Coppi oozed sophisticated glamour and scandalised the nation with his mistress, Bartali remained pious and brave. After his death it emerged that he had used his training rides as a cover to smuggle papers for persecuted Jewish Italians during the war.
Portrait of Gino Bartali - print by Richard Long available from the Ride Velo shop
Portrait of Gino Bartali - print by Richard Long available from the Ride Velo shop
The rivalry and feuding was not exclusive to native Italians either. Stephen Roche’s 1987 win over his own teammate, Roberto Visentini, had the nation in a fury and has created opposing and passionate views from cycling fans ever since. For a fellow Irishman, O’Brien attempts an unbiased view of the race, despite using an interview from Roche where he states his case in no uncertain terms. The Froome/Wiggins contretemps at the 2012 Tour pales into insignificance.
While the stages in modern times have become more humane, the suffering endured by the riders has continued and the verbatim account of Andy Hampsten’s victory brings to life the fear, pressure, intimidation of Italian riders and public and the sheer physical hardship of the race. It’s these first hand accounts in the book that leap off the page.
The Pirate embodies the spirit of the Giro
The Pirate embodies the spirit of the Giro
But it’s Pantani that I always come back to when I think of the Giro and for anyone who hasn’t read Matt Rendell’s excellent biography of this tragic hero, there’s a good distillation of how his talent burned so brightly, too brightly, igniting passions in the tifosi, but ultimately bringing about his own downfall That he still inspires cycling fans from a different generation is a testament to his brilliance. The Pirate: he’ll always be held in the deepest affection.
As the 100th Giro plays out over the next three weeks, this book is the perfect accompaniment to the beautiful racing, drama and excitement I am sure we are about to experience. It is quite dense with facts in places, so something to dip into over time rather than gorging on in one sitting: three weeks is the perfect timeframe! Its concise chapters manage to encapsulate the key points about each era without becoming sketchy and it condenses over a hundred years of history into an accessible yet detailed account that captures the essence of this glorious, crazy and beautiful race.
Giro d’Italia by Colin O’Brien review – cycle racing and how Italians think
Sport and leisure
Published to coincide with the 100th race, this history is packed with anecdote and reveals much about the Italian mentality
Tim Parks
Fri 5 May 2017 09.00 BST Last modified on Wed 29 Nov 2017 09.39 GMT
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Vincenzo Nibali, centre, climbs with his teammates on his way to take the leader’s pink jersey during the 20th stage of the Giro d’Italia last year.
Vincenzo Nibali, centre, climbs with his teammates on his way to take the leader’s pink jersey during the 20th stage of the Giro d’Italia last year. Photograph: Claudio Peri/AP
One of the most common weekend irritations in Italy is to find your favourite road to mountains or seaside suddenly blocked for the passage of a bike race. Men jump out before a junction waving red flags. You are caught and have to wait. Ten minutes. Fifteen. “Can’t we just cross? It only takes a second.” “No!” There is much self-important finger-wagging. It would be the height of selfishness to insist.
Eventually a cyclist appears, hammering up the slope in brilliant Lycra, grim self-satisfaction stamped on his face. A minute later, two more, chasing frantically. Then three. Finally the group, the peloton; 40 men, bunched close, sweating hard, bent forward in collective endeavour. After them the stragglers, disheartened, making a show of diligence perhaps; then a string of cars and vans laden with spare wheels, water bottles and lunch bags.
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Only after many years in the country would I appreciate the connection between the Italian mindset and the obsession with cycling. Group belonging is a central consideration here. To be accepted as a worthy member of your group, whether it be family or friends, sports team or political party, is a matter or life or death. To command the group, or be its chosen champion, is happiness itself. The cyclist leading the race is alone, but acting on team orders; he’ll be il festeggiato – the feted one – if he hangs on. Glory is only glory when reflected in the eyes of your peers. The group back down the road is made up of separate teams, each working for its champion, protecting him, perhaps sending ahead a decoy to draw out the other teams’ best men early and burn them off. Maybe one of those stragglers at the back was such a decoy, in which case, exhausted with his efforts, job done, he doesn’t mind being behind. But if he is there because he’s just not up to it, then he’s alone in a quite different way. Solo come un cane, Italians say. Lonely as a dog. Facing exclusion. Unworthy.
My most frustrating encounter with an Italian bike race came on a Sunday in 1984 when the Giro d’Italia ended in Verona. Living on the outskirts of town I was completely unable to get into the centre to meet friends visiting from London, so great were the crowds, so many the barriers. In his book, Colin O’Brien explains what a controversial day’s cycling that was. The whole race, with its 22 stages and 3,800km, had been entirely mapped out to suit the talents of ageing Italian darling Francesco Moser, who had never won a Giro, and his arch rival, Giuseppe Saronni. Since neither were strong mountain riders, while the French hopeful Laurent Fignon was a mountain specialist, the Alpine stages were kept to a minimum. When it seemed Fignon might win anyway, an Alpine section was cancelled with the dubious excuse that a snowfall had made the road impassable. Moser finally clinched the race on the last day’s time trial from Soave to Verona, with Fignon claiming that RAI’s TV helicopter had flown just behind the Italian, to speed him on with its wind, then right above Fignon “to bury him in its downdraft”.
In short, the sense of belonging extends beyond the teams to the race organisers, the fans and the media. “If you have a champion,” La Stampa defended the exceptionally flat route, “why not protect him?” What matters, then, is not that the best man wins but that everyone gets frantically excited about their local hero and pores over the pink newsprint of La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The Giro in St Mark Square, Venice, 1978.
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The Giro in St Mark Square, Venice, 1978. Photograph: Archivio Cameraphoto Epoche/Getty Images
Timed shortly before the start of the race’s 100th edition on 5 May, Giro d’Italia tells how the tour began when La Gazzetta’s director realised the Tour de France, first raced in 1905, had boosted French newspaper sales. Following its inauguration in 1909, and aside from the years lost during two world wars, the three-week Giro has offered an annual sporting orgy ever since. It is held in May, when the weather can be scorching hot in the Po valley and wickedly cold in the Alps and Apennines, with some stages now climbing above 2,000 metres. In the early years, though, with riders on heavy fixed-wheel bicycles with no gears, there were limits to how high they could go.
Back then, public identification with the racers was far easier. Before widespread car or motorbike ownership or public transport was efficient, the bike was the working man’s only way of getting around fast. And most of the cyclists were working men, often taking part simply for the 300 lira award for anyone who finished. Given that the average stage was a gruelling 300km or more, that was hardly a foregone conclusion. It was survival of the fittest, or the most desperate. Bricklayer Ottavio Bottecchia, who became the first Italian to win the Tour de France in 1924, said “I don’t race for sport, and even less for the glory. I race for the money.” The sentiment made sense to the fans who turned these men into idols; interest in the Giro was then huge, certainly greater than the attention paid to football. As late as 22 May 1963, when AC Milan won their first European Cup, La Gazzetta’s main headline went to the Giro.
On 22 May 1963, when AC Milan won their first European Cup, La Gazzetta’s main headline went to the Giro
O’Brien is a sports journalist and the move from reporting single events to writing a book is perhaps as difficult as progressing from one-day races to a Giro. At moments, in the early pages, he risks offering a buff’s chronicle of who won which stage when. Still, there is a feast of anecdote to enjoy, including the stories of Alfredo Binda, who won so easily that the exasperated organisers eventually paid him not to compete; Alfonsina Strada, who in 1924 became the only woman ever to ride the Giro; Fiorenzo Magni, who in 1956 continued to ride with a broken collarbone, tying an inner tube to his handlebars that he pulled with his teeth to steady the bike uphill; Michel Pollentier, who in 1978 was discovered with a condom full of urine under his armpit for use in eventual doping tests; Giovanni Arrigoni, a sponsor arrested in 1983 for bribing waiters to put laxatives in an opposing team’s food; and Marco Pantani, who in 1997 tossed away his bandana and diamond nose stud in a final sprint for the finish, claiming they were weighing him down.
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The book comes into its own describing the great rivalries the Giro has produced: Gino Bartali against Fausto Coppi in the 1940s and Moser against Saronni in the late 1970s. In each case O’Brien describes how one man came to represent the conservative and Catholic side of Italian life; the other the secular, sophisticated, devil-may-care tendency. More interesting than the athletes themselves, perhaps, is the way Italians will grasp the opportunity at any event to organise themselves in opposing groups – you sometimes wonder if sportsmen aren’t there mainly to offer the public an opportunity for group conflict. “A necessary embarrassment,” I remember a Hellas Verona supporter once remarking of the team’s players.
But by far the best chapter is an interview with the Irish rider Stephen Roche who scandalously challenged his Carrera team’s chosen champion, Roberto Visentini, to win the Giro in 1987. Roche had shared his past winnings with team companions, whereas Visentini hadn’t, and was naive enough to imagine this would encourage their loyalty. The description of how the team reacted to his rivalry with the main man is a marvellous account of intercultural misunderstanding, and a tremendously exciting story. Roche, hiding in his room, having his food tasted for poison and constantly defending his bike against tampering, is made to run the gamut of some very Italian emotions, discovering how terrible it is to be ostracised and utterly alone. The following year he did not return to defend his crown.
Giro d’Italia is published by Pursuit. To order a copy for £12.99 (RRP £16.99) go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
They want to ride their bicycles
JOHN FOOT
In May 1909, 127 cyclists set off from Milan. It was 2.53 am. They were riding in the first Giro d’Italia, a race which copied the Tour de France that had been set up in 1903. The current Giro is the 100th edition. Only two world wars, fought partly on Italian soil, have stopped the race taking place. The Giro is an annual ritual, a sporting event which has meshed with politics, culture, society and geography over time.
It was also, especially in the early years, an event which explained Italy to the Italians. Before television and the internet, journalists in particular used poetic licence to describe “the race” and the feats of its sporting heroes to their readers. This was a form of literature, largely detached from the actual details of the Giro. Crowds rarely saw much more than a glimpse of the cyclists as they pedalled past. They learned about what “had happened” through the sporting, popular and quality press, but also thanks to word of mouth (and later radio). The power of cycling lay in its mystique, in the way it was narrated, framed and described by writers. In Italy this tradition was particularly strong, with journalists of the calibre of Dino Buzzati and Gianni Brera dedicating much time to the Giro, but also writers like Vasco Pratolini, Anna Maria Ortese and many others.
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With television and the Web, much of this mystique has gone forever. Moreover, the sport itself has been radically changed by technology and heightened professionalism. The great breakaway rides of Fausto Coppi in the 1940s and 50s are unrepeatable in the era of Team Sky. We know every detail of every race today. Writers have lost their importance in covering these events. Cycling is now essentially a team sport, where every second is controlled and where there is little mystery.
The recent British cycling boom – partly about a different way of getting to work, partly about lots of lovely expensive kit and men who can discuss Campagnolo groupsets at length, and partly about tourism – has spurned a bevy of glossy publications, as well as an army of would-be pros who travel miles to pedal up Mont Ventoux or the Stelvio Pass. It has led to numerous books about cycling, of variable quality, many of them aimed at English-speaking audiences. Both of these books are supposedly histories of the Giro d’Italia. Both rely above all on English-language material (and thus largely refer to the great and vast tradition of quality Italian cycling writing and sports journalism only when it has been translated, which is hardly ever) and both aim to explain the Giro to an audience who – it is assumed – know nothing about it. The books essentially see Italy as a beautiful backdrop to a sporting feast which both authors profess to love. But this is almost always a passive backdrop, where nothing ever really changes, where there is no economic development, no motorization, no changes to the road system, little or no politics (no politics linked to sport: in Italy!) and no changes to geography or landscape. History has little or no impact on the Giro in these books, apart from a few cursory flashes. These are books about cycling, pure and simple.
The authors are sparing with their use of footnotes and references. Colin O’Brien, boldly, goes for a no-references-or-footnotes at all strategy. We do not find out which books he has read, although we know he has interviewed some cyclists. Brendan Gallagher opts for a bibliography and a short acknowledgements section, where he pays special debt to a few volumes (in English). Sometimes the authors will cite another author within the text. The danger here is one of what may be called over-reliance on a few basic texts, or on Wikipedia. So, when a quotation is used from another book, and has, in that book, been sourced and translated by an author from Italian, and is not referenced at all, how should we react? Shrug our shoulders, I suppose, and admit that quotation property is (not) theft.
Both authors adopt a largely chronological account of the Giro, which covers the main, well-worn ground that will be recognizable to anyone who knows the literature, and is largely centred on the great cyclists who have graced the Giro. O’Brien throws in a few accounts of key climbs to break up the narrative. Both books contain numerous errors. O’Brien claims that “most of the north [of Italy] was against [national] integration”, and he states that Italy “went to war” in 1912 (it was 1911). He also claims that Italy’s racial laws were “criticised by the royal family”. Both authors are confused about what exactly happened in the 1946 Giro. O’Brien states that Trieste was “on the border with present-day Croatia” (actually Slovenia) and that the cyclists on that Giro were attacked by “Slavic rebels” (Gallagher, on the other hand, thinks the attackers were “Yugoslav partisans”). Gallagher is rather more ropey on history, arguing that the 1919 Giro took place “just 13 days after a national referendum had voted to declare an Italian Republic and elections for the first properly national assembly” (I presume he is thinking of 1946).
Both books contain passages which are extremely familiar. In O’Brien’s case some are so familiar, in fact, that I could almost have written them myself. O’Brien states that the cyclist Alfredo Binda “was too good for his own good”. I put it slightly differently, in my book on Italian cycling, but only slightly: “Binda became too successful for his own good”. I also wrote that Fausto Coppi “had been born to ride a bike, so ungainly was he off the saddle, so elegant on it”, O’Brien states that “Standing, his long legs, peculiar posture and and barrelled chest looked strange, but in the saddle he was a picture of elegance”. About Marco Pantani, I cited Gianni Mura who wrote that “Merckx won more races in a year than Pantani did in his whole career”. O’Brien puts it this way: “Eddy Merckx won more in a year than Pantani managed in his whole career”. O’Brien also writes, with relation to the cyclist Fiorenzo Magni, that “evidence has emerged” in recent years which casts doubt on his wartime record. Indeed, evidence has emerged. I “emerged” it and wrote about it. At times, O’Brien and Gallagher’s books seem to mirror each other, as with their almost identical accounts of the life and times of Alfonsina Strada, a woman who rode the Giro in 1924.
Both books are much better on the more recent years of the Giro when, it could be argued, this race has become more of a global product and much less important for Italy itself. Football, Formula 1 and Motorcycle racing have long overtaken cycling as the most popular spectator sports in Italy (and you could make a case that other sports are up there as well now – Basketball, Volleyball, Swimming, Water Polo, Skiing). Italy struggles today to put together teams to rival corporate giants like Sky or Movistar. The glory days when the best rider in the world like the Belgian Eddy Merckx rode for an Italian team are gone. Doping has devastated the Giro in recent years; almost all the leading riders, and winners, of the 2000s have been implicated. Both authors are notably coy on doping, and when they do discuss it their analysis tends to be in moralistic terms and usually as some sort of individual failure on the part of the dopers, as opposed to a systematic and systemic issue at the heart of world sport. The Giro remains a powerful race, beautiful thanks to Italy’s extraordinary landscape (and the Giro course has aimed to promote this landscape in itself, as opposed to cycling, in recent years) with a strong sense of its own history. But is it a great sporting event any longer? I’m not so sure.