I got to meet author Tim Moore up in Yorkshire over the weekend after listening to him talk about his latest book ‘Gironimo!’, in which he shares the highs and lows of his recreation of the “toughest Grand Tour in history” – the 1914 Giro d’Italia. Only 8 of the 81 starters completed this most gruelling of tests. Not one to do things by half, Moore elects to ... Read More
14 Results for tag giro d'Italia
Climbs and Punishment – Book Review – Felix Lowe
For some reason books about epic cycle rides often struggle to maintain sight of the reason behind the particular journey. Caught up with geography, mileage and the inevitable misfortunes that happen along the way, we are quickly left to forget what the point of the epic ride was in the first place. Context is quickly abandoned in place of stories about encounters with mountains, deserts ... Read More
Giro d’Italia – Final Roundup
Read The Jersey Pocket’s first three Giro Rest Day Roundups here, here and here. As expected, actually being in Italy during the final week of the Giro affected my ability to follow the race as closely as I could at home. That said, watching some of the stages as they were broadcast live and highlights of others in Italian did give the experience an ... Read More
Giro d’Italia – Rest Day Roundup #3
Read The Jersey Pocket’s first two Giro Rest Day Roundups here and here. We finished our last round-up with the suggestion that we were heading for new territory on the Giro GC and the middle week of the Corsa Rosa eventually provided that, but not before more familiar fare had been dished up. More rain, more crashes, more cautious riding by the top contenders ... Read More
Giro d’Italia – Rest Day Roundup #2
Read The Jersey Pocket’s first Giro Rest Day Roundup here. Having flown 2,500km down to the Mediterranean, the gruppo might have been forgiven for thinking that they had left the poor weather behind in Ireland, along with a great deal of good feeling and a fair few hangovers. In fact they were in for a set of rude, and often painful, shocks when the ... Read More
Pantani:The Accidental Death of a Cyclist – Film Review
The new Marco Pantani film had its premiere in London’s West-End this week. I went along to see the film and also spoke with director James Erskine about it. – Often alone on the mountain climbs upon which he made his name. Ultimately alone in the Rimini hotel room where he died ten years ago, aged just 34. Always, it seems, alone in ... Read More
Giro d’Italia – Rest Day Roundup #1
So, four days in and the Giro entourage finally hit Italian soil this morning. A massive transfer of cargo planes and charter flights took place last night and today to transfer the 196 continuing riders, probably twice as many support staff and countless more media personnel to the decidedly drier climes of sunny Puglia. Something like 500 bikes and a couple of ... Read More
Giro d’Italia Preview – Whatever happened to all the heroes?
“Whatever happened to all the heroes? All the Shakespeareos?” – The Stranglers: No More Heroes With the Giro d’Italia starting in Belfast on Friday, and the inaugural Women’s Tour of Britain breaking new ground in England this week, there are probably more top-level cyclists currently on UK soil than for many, many a year. But whilst the Women’s Tour has attracted the& ... Read More
The Sky is Not the Limit – the other British riders in the pro peloton
Team Sky (or Sky Procycling as they were until the start of this season) have undoubtedly changed the way that cycling is perceived in this country. Although they were set up from the start as an internationally rostered team – albeit with a very clear aim of initially achieving success in the Tour de France for a British rider – they were often described as a de ... Read More
Bonne Anniversaire – Jacques Anquetil
Jacques Anquetil – 08.01.1934 – 18.11.1987 TdF Winner - 1957, ’61, ’62, ’63, ’64 Giro D’Italia Winner – 1960, ’62 Vuelta A Espana – 1963 L-B-L – 1966; Ghent-Wevelgem – 1964 The Hour Record – 1956 The first 5-time winner of the Tour de France, and first winner of all three Grand Tours, Monsieur Chrono was famous (and often maligned) for his reliance on his time-trialling ability to win. He was widely decried as being boring in his professional career. The opposite could be ... Read More
Dear Santa: Bike Books
Christmas is coming. Obviously we are all hoping for a big dump of snow around the 23rd to get us into the festive spirit, and then a week of glorious winter sun between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, so that we can get out on our bikes and feel like we have earned some of that mulled wine and chestnuts on our return. ... Read More
The Off Season (or What the Hell Do We Do Now?)
The absence of competitive road cycling from mid October has not really been a big issue for me in the past. As a kid and then as a teenager I only followed the Tour de France and never even considered the fact that cycling had a wider season which waxed and waned around it. The Tour was everything and everything was the Tour. It was ... Read More
Foreign Starts – Grand Tours on Tour
With both the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia set to start outside of their own borders next year it seems like a good time to have a look at this increasingly regular phenomenon. In 2014 the Giro will spend three days in Ireland during May, visiting both Belfast and Dublin, before Le Tour comes to Yorkshire, Cambridge and London in July. Whilst the ... Read More
The Mavericks – Adam Hansen – Seventh Heaven for Grand Tour Glutton
Lotto Bellisol’s Adam Hansen has just completed his seventh straight Grand Tour. Since late 2011 he has ridden the Giro and the Tour twice each and La Vuelta three times – all without a break. He has covered almost 24,000 Grand Tour kilometres in those 2 years and raced an incredible total of 16,059km over 106 days last year alone. In an era of ever increased targeting of races ... Read More