New book about Italian cycling

afx237vi

This looks quite good.

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. "Pedalare! Pedalare!" is the first complete history of Italian cycling to be published in English. The book moves chronologically from the first Giro d'Italia (Italy's equivalent of the Tour de France) in 1909 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. 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.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pedalare-Histor ... 053&sr=8-5

cogidubnus

Ive read his history of italian football which was a good read. So if this is similar should be a fascinating read

Neil McC

Received an email last night, saying I should receive my copy at the end of April. Two new Giro books to read as well! After so long with not enough books on Italian cycling imo.

EDIT: Just clicked your link and it's in stock and my order says it's about to ship. Excellent, original publication date was supposed to be 3rd May.

cajun_cyclist

My main point in reading cycling is if that I want something that one can really get into, as I've said 200 pages really is nothing. I see this one is near 400 pages, so something that someone can sink into. No matter how many people praise 'The rider', it's way too short.

Gran Fondos are now being run in a lot of places, in different nations and even bike radar has a few articles on them, http://www.biciveneto.it/granfondo.html , in fashion right now. An Italian concept.

I also read Foot's book on Italian football, really thick book and would talk about for example, football during World War II, very informative. Maybe this will be similar in format. I'd like to know a whole lot more about Italian cycling than the usual, Coppi, Panrtani, Bartali, Boetecchia.

ms_tree

Just got an e-mail to say it's coming out earlier than they thought. Also got the Herbie Sykes one on the pile to read at some time.

cajun_cyclist

I just had to add on to the Gran Fondo bit, Doesn't it look fun. Look how far back the pink goes.

http://www.biciveneto.it/ridingagranfondo.html

Here the Gazzetta even runs an article on a Gran Fondo:

http://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/11-04-2 ... 7706.shtml

Translated as "Great Bottom", maybe they mean something about after the ride: :roll: because you are not racing from what I can tell but you are testing yourself competitively. I did a precursory scan in the training forum and did not find much on this but bike radar does have some articles on this kind of ride, so I was just expanding on this here.

Sounds like fun, if I did it, I'd probably become a slacker on it and ride it at a comfortable pace. The Gazzetta though has some reader comments that shed some light on this.

babyjebus

Thanks for the tip-off. Foot's book on Italian football ('Calcio') is the best English language book on the subject, covering historical context as well as simple narrative, so this should be well worth reading, and unlikely to skip over any of Italian cycling's less savoury episodes. My copy is now on the way.