GIRO d’ITALIA THE STORY OF THE WORLD’S MOST BEAUTIFUL BIKE RACE COLIN O’BRIEN giro 4th proof.indd 3 22/2/17 17:33:35 First published in Great Britain in 2017 by PURSUIT BOOKS An imprint of Profile Books Ltd 3 Holford Yard Bevin Way London w c 1x 9h d www.profilebooks.com Copyright © Colin O’Brien, 2017 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Designed and typeset by
[email protected] Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays, St Ives plc The moral right of the author has been asserted. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978 1 78125 716 6 eISBN 978 1 78283 290 4 giro 4th proof.indd 4 22/2/17 17:33:35 CONTENTS Preface // vii Introduction // 1 1 The Giro is born // 7 2 The early years // 17 SALITA FAMOSA Roccaraso, Abruzzo // 26 3 Alfredo Binda: Il Grande Antipatico // 29 4 The Devil wears wool shorts // 40 SALITA FAMOSA Croce d’Aune, Veneto // 45 5 Fascism and the Giro // 48 6 Bartali and Coppi, Coppi and Bartali // 62 7 Magni: Il Terzo Uomo // 80 SALITA FAMOSA Passo dello Stelvio, Trentino-Alto Adige // 98 8 Gracious Gimondi and merciless Merckx // 102 SALITA FAMOSA Blockhaus, Abruzzo // 112 9 The Sheriff and the Rifle Shot //