Gironimo!: Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy - Softcover

Moore, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0224092073 ISBN 13: 9780224092074

Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press, 2014

Synopsis

On the eve of the Giro d'Italia's 100th anniversary, Tim Moore sets out to cycle the route of the first race, all 3,162 km of it. On a 100-year-old bike. That he built himself. The Giro is arguably the most brutal of the Grand Tours, and it began in style. At midnight on 24 May 1914 eighty-one starters were waved off by 10,000 spectators for this first circuit of Italy. Two weeks later, after enduring cataclysmic storms, roads strewn with nails, even the loss of an eye by one competitor, eight cyclists finished. Tim hadn't done any significant cycling for twelve years, but taking on the 1914 Giro was a compelling challenge. To make it more authentic, he decided to do it on a 1914 bike, which, unburdened by relevant experience, he needed to assemble from a stack of rusty parts in a Breton farmer's barn. Fuelled by Chianti, wearing period leather goggles and a woollen cycling shirt, and with the winner of the 1914 Giro's diary as his trusty companion, Tim sets off to tell the story of this historic race, as well as the travails of a middle-aged man cycling up a lot of mountains on a mainly wooden bicycle.

About this title

About the Author

Tim Moore’s writing has appeared in the Daily Telegraph, the Observer, the Sunday Times and Esquire. He is the author of Gironimo!, French Revolutions, Do Not Pass Go, Spanish Steps, Nul Points, I Believe In Yesterday and You Are Awful (But I Like You). He lives in London.

Edition details

• Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0224092073
• ISBN 13: 9780224092074
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368