le grimpeur

Pedalare nel pasato3
Guy WR posted in Local Climbs on May 26th, 2009

While France and England can probably take shared credit for the invention of the bicycle and its first mass production, Italy certainly deserves praise for the popularization of cycling.

Italians have done much to sustain cycling as a sport over the years and were, of course, early adopters of the notion of the Grand Tour with the Giro d’Italia – celebrating 100 years this year – started just six years after the Tour de France.

Much like the Tour came to symbolize a sportive France, and became infused with the history, culture and politics of the country, the Giro in Italy has had much the same role. One might even argue that the Giro has retained something distinctly Italian while the Tour has become a more international, cosmopolitan – even European – event. One certainly hopes that the great race will soon receive similar scrutiny and study in English-language writing as the Tour has done. (more…)

3′ 10″2
Guy WR posted in Classic Stages, Climbers on May 7th, 2009

The remarkable aspect of the Grand Tours in cycling is that despite covering hundreds of kilometres over several weeks, the margins of victory are often very small. Seconds and minutes are lost relentlessly as small time differences on insignificant stages can have the same effect as larger margins on key days.

Such was the 1958 Tour de France when Italian racer Vito Favero lost the overall race to Charly Gaul by 3 minutes and 10 seconds. It was not the smallest margin in the history of the race – see 1989 – but for Favero it was the difference between a secured place at the forefront of Tour history as the vanquisher of the great Charly Gaul or a footnote as a great rider but not a great champion. (more…)