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Gironimo!: Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy
Current price:
$33.53
This product is not returnable.
Publication Date: May 3rd, 2016
Publisher:
Pegasus Books
ISBN:
9781681771281
Pages:
368
Usually Ships in 1 to 5 Days
Description
The 1914 Giro d’Italia: The hardest bike race in history. Eighty-one riders started and only eight finished after enduring cataclysmic storms, roads strewn with nails, and even the loss of an eye by one competitor. And now Tim Moore is going to ride it. And he’s committed to total authenticity. . .
Twelve years after Tim Moore toiled around the route of the Tour de France, he senses his achievement being undermined by the truth about 'Horrid Lance'. His rash response is to take on a fearsome challenge from an age of untarnished heroes: the notorious 1914 Giro d'Italia. History's most appalling bike race was an ordeal of 400-kilometer stages, filled with cataclysmic storms, roads strewn with nails, and even the loss of an eye by one competitor—and it was all on a diet of raw eggs and red wine.
Of the eighty-one riders who rolled out of Milan, only eight made it back. To truly capture the essence of what these riders endured a century ago, Tim acquires the ruined husk of a gear-less, wooden-wheeled 1914 road bike, some maps, and an alarming period outfit topped off with a pair of blue-lensed welding goggles. As Moore rides up and over the Alps and then down to the Adriatic (with only wine corks for breaks) Gironimo! is an adventure that is by turns recklessly incompetent, bold, beautiful and madly inspiring.
Praise for Gironimo!: Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy
You don't have to be into cycling to reap the benefits of Gironimo! An entertaining and jauntily written travelogue that at times made me laugh out loud. With Moore as your guide, you may want to hurry over to Italy on the next flight out.
In
this funny and fascinating tale of cycling, writer Tim Moore takes the reader
on a journey few will ever attempt, let alone finish: a 3,162-kilometer route
over the Italian mountains that was once the setting of a notoriously difficult
bicycle race. On a mission that could easily veer into preachiness, Moore is
too humorous a narrator to let the story go off track. Hilarious.
Disgusted by the Lance Armstrong scandal and disappointed in the dispassionate, technology-driven cycling world, British humorist Moore challenges himself to ride the route of the 1914 Giro d’Italia. His journey is peppered with self-deprecating humor, and his interactions with the people he encounters and charming towns he visits are very entertaining. Moore’s patented combination of humor and travelogue proves thoroughly engaging.
Moore’s
adventures are perfect for adventure readers, cyclists, and sports fans alike.
A superbly funny read.
One of the funniest books about sport ever written.
