PEDALARE! PEDALARE! PDF, EPUB, EBOOK John Foot | 384 pages | 22 Jun 2012 | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | 9781408822197 | English | London, United Kingdom Pedalare! Pedalare! by John Foot - Podium Cafe This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy. It looks like you are located in Australia or New Zealand Close. Visit the Australia site Continue on UK site. Visit the Australia site. Continue on UK site. Cycling was a sport so important in Italy that it marked a generation, sparked fears of civil war, changed the way Italian was spoken, led to legal reform and even prompted the Pope himself to praise a cyclist, by name, from his balcony in St Peter's in Rome. It was a sport so popular that it created the geography of Italy in the minds of her citizens, and some have said that it was cycling, not political change, that united Italy. The book moves chronologically from the first Giro d'Italia Italy's equivalent of the Tour de France in to the present day. The tragedies and triumphs of great riders such as Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali appear alongside stories of the support riders, snow-bound mountains and the first and only woman to ride the whole Giro. Cycling's relationship with Italian history, politics and culture is always up front, with reference to fascism, the cold war and the effect of two world wars. Cycling's relationship with Italian history, politics and culture is always up front, with reference to fascism, the cold war and the effect of two world wars. The sport is explored alongside changes in Italian society as a whole, from the poor peasants who took up cycling in the early, pioneering period, to the slick, professional sport of today. Scandals and controversy appear throughout the book as constant features of the connection between fans, journalists and cycling. Concluding with an examination of doping, which has helped to destroy what was at one time the most popular sport of all, Pedalare, Pedalare is an engrossing history of a national passion. Coppi and Bartali. I3 The 19 56 Giro and the End ofthe Golden. The Forgotten Lion. Pedalare! Pedalare!: John Foot: Bloomsbury Publishing To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Pedalare! Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Pedalare! May 05, Sicofonia rated it it was ok. When you write a book about cycling and its history, and then manage to bore an avid cyclist fan and keen history reader surely that means you've done something wrong. What did John Foot intend with this book?. According to his own words Pedalare Pedalare will tell the history of cycling as a history of Italy itself. Foot divided the structure in three main parts: the heroic, golden and doping [sic] age. As if there was no doping before the 60s, how naive. When he writes about the so-called Heroi When you write a book about cycling and its history, and then manage to bore an avid cyclist fan and keen history reader surely that means you've done something wrong. When he writes about the so-called Heroic Age, Foot captures quite well the essence of the epic rides cyclists had to do at the Giro's beginnings. He goes on to explain how cycling became so rooted in Italian psyche during that time as well, and arguably it's the best part of the book as far as cycling and history is concerned. Things start to twist from the Golden Age onwards though. It's when Foot starts to mix politics and sport that things get muddy. Same thing happens to Alfredo Binda and its connection to Italian Fascism. Foot makes a point in saying how a rider would be a supporter of certain side in some way; but then he keeps stressing that point over and over again. That's where he loses his track in this book, by trying to tell the history of Italy thru cycling I think he set himself a goal too wide and the end result is wishy-washy at best. Not to mention that he ignores many Italian cyclists of the 80s and 90s and then out of the blue Lance Armstrong comes in to make his appearance just because he rode Giro. That doesn't feel right. And that was in the Doping Age part. I understand doping is a dark side of cycling and its existence must be told. Actually Foot does a good job in explaining the rise of doctors like Conconi and Ferrari and the methods they used. But again, he goes on a ramble after making a point on doping that makes you feel you're having a constant deja vu. In the end this part of the book is bigger than the attention he granted to the 3 decades spanned between s and s. To me that was he biggest mistake. A passable book nonetheless. View 2 comments. Sep 12, Gregor rated it really liked it. A most interesting read. Jun 13, Mr Graeme Gibbs rated it liked it. A mixed bag this one. Some interesting points of discussion and historical research. But the last part on doping falls flat, with Lance shoehorned in because he rode one Giro. The historical context of what cycling meant to Italy is where the author is in his stride. May 26, David rated it really liked it. A really evocative and accessible history of Italian Cycling. Its a little less thorough when it gets to the 80s onward, but the author has his reasons, even if I feel he misses an opportunity to dig into the nuance of the "doping years". A very interesting read on Italian cycling but also taking into account the cultural and political backgrounds of it. I got to learn a fair bit reading it and really liked the book. May 17, D rated it liked it. Only pages in and I was lost, utterly, amongst tribeswomen in Madagascar. Italy is a fascinating place, but when Ita Pedalare! Italy is a fascinating place, but when Italians partake in something it tends to be done in their own particular way. The Giro came about, and love affair started when all of Italy used to bike, to get to work, to go a courting, to deliver the goods. There is rich history for Foot to write about. There is Binda, from the really early days, looking like something from the whacky races, with goggles on, gritted teeth pulling out a tube from a punctured wheel who was the first. Then there was Gino Bartali, the good man, the humble catholic who saved the Country from Civil War after an assassination attempt on a communist leader, by winning the Tour De France. Then there is Fausto, the little angelic climber who flew up mountains and won in legendary fashion. A prisoner of war, he returned home to Novi Ligure by bike and hitching lifts. In he won Milan San Remo. His life was blighted by tragic death of his younger brother, the messy adultery with the lady in white which put him on a collision course with the church. The great rivalry between him and Bartali is in this book as it the story of the third man who was linked with the black shirted fascists. These are only some of the tales that are contained in this book. Nothing is straightforward; there are surprises around every corner, good and bad. Feb 18, Gumble's Yard rated it liked it Shelves: Readable academic treatment of the subject lots of cross referenced quotations which seeks to understand the myths around Italian cycling - how they arose, why they were propagated as well as how cycling interacted with Italian politics and identity. Particularly good on Bartali's win and how it was retold as having averted a political crisis after an assassination attempt on the Catholic Bartoli supporting Communist Party leader that was in fact nearly a left wing revolution that was emb Readable academic treatment of the subject lots of cross referenced quotations which seeks to understand the myths around Italian cycling - how they arose, why they were propagated as well as how cycling interacted with Italian politics and identity. Particularly good on Bartali's win and how it was retold as having averted a political crisis after an assassination attempt on the Catholic Bartoli supporting Communist Party leader that was in fact nearly a left wing revolution that was embarrassing to the communist party. Feb 06, None rated it it was amazing. Well researched if not always interesting or well put together, it traces the ark of technology and consumer capitalism from the beginning of the Giro with its drummed up nationalism, drugs, local heroes and rampant exploitation of the riders as different newspapers from different countries competed to see who could come up with the most brutal race in an effort to sell the the most papers. Followed by rapid, unchecked growth of the race industry to the present day Too Big To Fail system rife wi Well researched if not always interesting or well put together, it traces the ark of technology and consumer capitalism from the beginning of the Giro with its drummed up nationalism, drugs, local heroes and rampant exploitation of the riders as different newspapers from different countries competed to see who could come up with the most brutal race in an effort to sell the the most papers.