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Rest day reading: “Corsa Rosa – A History of the Giro d’Italia”

  • Ron 

While there have already been excellent books written about the Giro d’Italia – most notably Herbie Sykes’ “Maglia Rosa: Triumph and Tragedy at the Giro d’Italia” (read our review here), this year’s 100th edition of the race certainly qualifies as a worthwhile landmark to revisit the history of the race. This edition is called “Corsa Rosa: A History of the Giro d’Italia“. Penned by another British cycling journalist (Brendan Gallagher) and published by Bloomsbury (the publisher of ‘Maglia Rosa’), but serves as a more scholarly read as compared to ‘Maglia Rosa’s coffee table format.

What “Corsa Rosa” seems to make clear is that, while the Giro was clearly started to copy it’s northern rival the Tour de France, it served in many ways a more noble purpose – to unite a nation that only years before had form out of a loose collection of city-states. While sporting newspaper La Gazetta dello Sport did found the race with the same self-serving interest as France’s L’Auto – to sell more newspapers – the race really did help to make Italy a nation and to make cycling the national sport of Italy.

Corsa Rosa marches through the history of the race in chronological format, breaking the race into eras – from the years trying to get off the ground to its’ golden age from 1919 to 1925 to the reigns of its’ early stars like Alfredo Binda, Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi and Eddy Merckx.

Also notable in the book is the hand-in-hand role that the race played in Italian politics and religion. It’s no secret that fascist leader Benito Mussolini looked draw in the winners of the race to be served up as heroes of and models for the ideal Italian citizen. Even in an increasingly secular society, it’s only in Italy that you would see the Pope bless the start of a bicycle race and be gifted with a gold plated Colnago.

The book gives special focus to the spectacular rise and fall of Marco Pantani and the dark days of doping that the sport suffered through. When Pantani came back from a suspension to place 13th in the 2003 race, there was hope that the sport could leave doping behind, but of course, his death from a cocaine overdose in early 2004 ended that possibility.

The book ends with a recap of the 2016 edition of the race. Is it any wonder that Bob Jungels and Tom Dumoulin, who both figured heavily in the early days of last year’s race are battling for the lead this year?

 

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