Yankee in the Maremma

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Yankee in the Maremma

Sono una Guida cicloturistica specializzata in tour in Toscana... ma non solo! Segui la pagina per t

08/01/2021

PART THREE
Though Bartali lost the leader’s yellow jersey in that stage none of them were too disappointed, it would have been impossible to control the entire race and Binda didn’t want them to become the target for all the other teams to follow. What they didn’t plan on was Gino’s steady dive downward on general classification. Whether for mechanical problems, missing the right break, suffering the infernal heat or simple tiredness, by the start of the sixth stage he was down 22 minutes on the Yellow Jersey worn by the young Louison Bobet. Other Italian journalists began to plan their departure for home, it wasn’t worth going all the way to Paris to see the Azzurri lose this badly.
Somehow they’d forgotten one of Bartali’s principle characteristics, he was famously slow in getting his diesel engine up to cruising temperature. As stage six from Biarritz to Lourdes got underway Gino was beginning to get reassuring signals from his skinny legs. The important climbs that day were the Col d’Aubisque and the Soulor and Gino was marking Robic and Bobet the closest. Early on the climb of the Aubisque Lucien Lazarides and Bobet jumped away followed by Teisseire and Jean Robic but Gino bided his time, waiting until the slopes steepened. By the summit only Robic was still away, Gino had caught and dropped the others and on the descent he bridged back up to Robic who was notoriously poor going downhill. On the run in to Lourdes there were three contenders, Bobet, who had caught back at the bottom of the descent, Gino and Robic. The Italian started his sprint from way out and was able to instantly drop Bobet and hold off Robic for the win, with the bonuses his distance on GC dropped to 18’18”, he was now in 14th position. Being the pious Catholic that he was, he took the winner’s bouquet of flowers to the grotto at Lourdes, praying that he and his team be spared from bad crashes. (end of part three)
TO BE CONTINUED

31/12/2020

This has been an extraordinary year of challenges, setbacks and navigating in unknown waters, this pandemic has really thrown the world into a tailspin. But we remain confident that it will end, especially now that this vaccine is being rolled out. Few segments of the economy have been as hard hit as tourism, here in Italy the losses are topping 72 billion euros. Cycle tourism, an important and ever expanding part of the tourism market practically disappeared, for obvious reasons.

With the faith that things will turn around I'm working on creating tours of some of my favourite places in Italy in which to cycle; Umbria, Tuscany and the Dolomites. Three areas of this amazing country that I've taken many tours to over the two and half decades that I've been working as a guide.

So for further information as the winter proceeds and the world gains some moment for exiting this pandemic!

17/12/2020

PART TWO....

Which brings us back to the TDF of that year. The big question on everyone’s mind was, “who is going to lead the A team?” There was intense political manoeuvring but Gino knew all along that Fausto had no intention of going to the Tour, he’d confided as much to Bartali during the Giro. But Gino couldn’t say that, it would have caused a scandal and cast Fausto in a bad light, despite their sporting rivalry (promoted and exacerbated by the almost hysterical Italian press) they were actually on friendly terms. In the end the Bianchi team released a statement saying that Coppi would not be competing in the Tour de France that year. Though they tried until the very end to impose their weight against Bartali’s interests. So Gino would be the captain and he chose his men; Bevilacqua, Biagioni, Corrieri, Cottur, De Santi, Feruglio, Pasquini, Rossello and Volpi. These riders were true ‘hard men’, guys that Bartali knew would ride their hearts out for him but the press didn’t consider this team to up to the task without Coppi and his faithful team mates. The Italian expedition to the ’48 Tour departed for France with low expectations, everyone that is except the racers and their team manager, Alfredo Binda, yes, THAT Alfredo Binda.

When Gino had won in 1938 the team manager had been the legendary Costante Giradengo, the first “Campionissimo” and when Gino was forming his team, ‘Il Gira’ was the first person he contacted. Giradengo however didn’t feel up to the task, by then in his mid fifties, he begged off but directed Bartali to Alfredo Binda who took the task to heart.

Binda convinced Bartali to follow a strategy that would help draw attention away from his possibilities of winning the race. Leading up the Tour’s depart Binda gave interviews saying that Bartali wasn’t in top form, was still suffering from a crash at the Giro and hopes shouldn’t be raised too much. Such was the lack of enthusiasm that the Italian press corps for the Tour was smaller than usual.

Gino however forgot the agreed upon strategy and managed to win the first stage from Paris to Trouville of 237 km, in a sprint finish on a dirt velodrome. During the stage Gino had flatted, back then you had to either get a wheel from a team mate if you were lucky, or change the tubular tire yourself.

Fortunately at that moment Gino had one of his staunchest helpers with him, Vincenzo Rossello, who handed up his own wheel but was left to chase alone, arriving dead last. The Tour’s regulation back then stated that from the second stage onward the last man on general classification would be eliminated each day. If Rossello were to eliminated that early in the race it would have put Gino and his team at a real disadvantage, not to mention depriving Rossello of much needed prize money. So the following day the Italian team did everything it could to get Rossello into a break and towards the end of the stage Gino convinced him to chase after a group that was just going up the road. He managed not only to catch on to the break-away, he even won the sprint for the stage win, thus climbing back up on GC, no longer in danger of elimination....
TO BE CONTINUED.

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11/12/2020

Cycling is my passion... and also writing. I dediced to share with you a long story about Gino Bartali and the 1948 Tour de France.
Follow the page to read the whole story!!

THE 1948 TOUR de FRANCE - PART 1

One of the more impressive pages of cycle racing history was written by Gino Bartali at the 1948 Tour de France. Ten years after winning the race at the age of 24 he returned to France and took the overall victory in what most of the sport’s historians consider a surprising a manner.

Why was it surprising? For one thing he was about to turn 34 years old, considered an advanced age for a professional cyclist. Like all of his colleagues he was coming back to full time racing after a long hiatus due to the Second World War. Many things had changed in those turbulent times, which of cycling’s heroes would be able to return to their previous standards?

Following the 1948 Giro d’Italia, won by Fiorenzo Magni, Gino was not held in high regard for the upcoming Tour. Remember, back then the Tour was raced by national teams, riders were chosen by their respective federations and Italy that year would send two teams, the A team and a second team known as the “cadets.” The Giro was a race within a race in that it was also a sort of selection for the Tour, besides being the normal national tour which back then was hotly contested between the various trade teams. You will recall that pro racing in those years was sponsored by companies that produced bicycles. Fausto Coppi’s Bianchi team was probably the most powerful team and Coppi was considered a demi-god. What’s more, Bianchi was also one of the biggest producers of bicycles in Italy and had a lot of political weight within the federation, not to mention the cycling industry.

Bartali raced for Legnano and those two teams, along with the Wilier team of Magni were considered amongst the strongest in Italy. As happened not infrequently in the long rivalry between Coppi and Bartali, they tended to control one another and during the Giro of 1947 this behaviour rendered the race lacklustre. By the time the race caravan reached the Dolomites everyone was waiting for the fireworks to start. Fiorenzo Magni was in the Maglia Rosa and hindered by his limits in the big mountains, he was a ‘passista’ or as the French called them, a rouleur. In the third to last stage from Cortina d’Ampezzo to Trento that climbed the passes of the Falzarego and Pordoi, Coppi was determined to race himself back into the lead and almost succeeded. He soloed away with almost 150 km to the finish in typical Coppi style while behind Magni, Bartali, Cecchi and Alfredo Martini (long time national team coach for Italy later on) chased. Magni stayed in the hunt thanks to organized pushing almost from the start of the Pordoi to the summit, a fact that led to a 2’ minute time penalty later that day. Though

Fausto won the stage, thanks to the ‘help’ that Magni had received from the pushes on the Pordoi, he wasn’t able to over-take Magni on G.C. After the stage there was a fierce polemic and the Bianchi team wanted the Maglia Rosa expelled from the race and when that didn’t happen they withdrew in protest. Magni went on to win over Cecchi by a scant 11 seconds amidst controversy that took a long time to die down.

Which brings us back to the TDF of that year. The big question on everyone’s mind was, “who is going to lead the A team?”... to be continued!!!

27/11/2020

Considerando la varietà e la bellezza dei panorami, gli affascinanti borghi medievali, le città d’arte e la grande tradizione enogastronomica non sorprende che la Toscana sia una delle regioni più apprezzate dai cicloturisti di tutto il mondo.

Percorrere la Toscana in bicicletta può regalare emozioni uniche e offre la possibilità di scoprire luoghi di incomparabile bellezza.

Questa regione offre lo scenario ideale per gli appassionati di ciclismo di tutti i livelli, dal ciclista amatoriale al ciclo turista che vuole semplicemente pedalare con calma godendosi le bellezze che lo circondano.

Tantissimi sono gli itinerari da cui scegliere per le proprie avventure su due ruote. In ogni località toscana troverete percorsi ricchi di luoghi di interesse e panorami mozzafiato

27/11/2020

Chi viaggia in bicicletta conosce bene quel senso di libertà e di profondo contatto con la natura che solo la due ruote sa regalare. La bicicletta è il mezzo migliore per conoscere a fondo l'anima di un territorio: raggiunge i luoghi più belli, mostra panorami incredibili e consente di attraversare paesaggi incantati.

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