The Beautiful Race: The Story of the Giro d'Italia by Colin O'Brien

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


After watching three grand tours and a handful of classics all crammed into a single season, I got hold of this book...and enjoyed it. Yes, I'm a fanatic. If that's you, too, and you're not really up on the history of the sport, get this book. It's short, readable and informative, both on the Giro's (and bike racing's) early years, and the great racers and rivalries (like Coppi and Bartali) that followed. I also really got off learning more about the later era, racers I followed like Stephen Roche, Andy Hampsten, Moser, and Hinault (but almost nothing on Mario Cipollini, who never won the Giro but was one if its greatest sprinters; weird). Not into bike racing? This ain't for you. It's aimed at fans, which by and large rules out Americans. As Stephen Colbert quipped (back when he was funny) after Lance Armstrong retired, "Now Americans don't have to pretend they like bicycle racing." Not many did.



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