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maglia rosa. triumph and tragedy at the giro d'italia by herbie sykes, rouleur books. hardback 312pp illus. £29

maglia rosa

i have a distinct literary bent, not something you'd notice from a distance, but definitely an incurable disease. though i refrain from purchasing a sunday newspaper (over the winter months, the sunday papers do not arrive on the island until around 4pm; barely enough time to unpack the sunday times or the observer, let alone read anything), i do indulge myself with the guardian saturday edition, a scale model of both of the above mentioned sunday papers. despite it being the weekend, there still seems less than enough time in either day to appreciate every article in every section, and it is therefore necessary to be selective. aside from any interesting articles in the colour supplement, and home and international news across the main section, it's the review part that holds the buk of my attention. consisting principally of book reviews and interviews i can not only remind myself of how poorly read i am for one so interested in books, but also the idiosyncracy of reading a review of a book consisting of book reviews.

only in the world of literature...

though i am not at all familiar with the styles of writing concerning other forms of activity and sports, i would find it hard to believe that the very best of the rest could compare with that surrounding the art of riding very quickly on a bicycle. what makes this all the more exciting is that such a trend, if indeed it is such, shows no signs of abating. in fact, if anything, the literature surrounding our favoured obsession seemingly improves with every new publication. the recently reviewed brian robinson by graeme fife, tomorrow we ride by jean bobet and the same author's paean to octave lapize, ten points by bill strickland, books by matt seaton and joe parkin, richard moore's in search of robert millar, barry and mcmillan's le metier joined equally by herbie sykes' the eagle of the canavese. in fact, taking a look through thewashingmachinepost bookcase, it is hard to believe that one minority sport has elicited such an incredible wealth of exceptionally well written books on a multiplicity of aspects pertaining to cycling.

maglia rosa

it is hard to believe, as a witness to all of the above, that the quality could be raised much further, but i assure you that's exactly what has happened with herbie's book two: maglia rosa. triumph and tragedy at the giro d'italia.

eagle of the canavese had, as its principal subject, franco balmamion, an italian winner of two successive giros in the 60s who, if we're all totally honest, most of us had never heard of. it's a book that caught me somewhat off-guard; having never heard of mr sykes previously, the style of writing was a considerable surprise; fluid, descriptive, witty and at times, bordering on the eccentric. all highly commendable traits according to my opinion.

herbie has had many a following year ('eagle' was published in early 2008) to hone his style through regular articles in procycling and rouleur, the combined results of which are laid bare in this massive tome. if we collectively agree that, for us, the bicycle is an obsession, sykes has added a large measure of additional obsessiveness with all things italian. despite being from lincolnshire, he now lives near turin. it is, to a large degree, this predilection with the social history of his adopted country that has turned a good book about the giro d'italia into a veritable masterpiece. john donne is on record as pointing out that 'no man is an island'; changing context only slightly, a national three week cycle race such as the giro d'italia could not possibly exist in a vacuum.

maglia rosa

in a recent interview on the post, when asked "can the giro be separated from italian social and political history?" herbie replied "It doesn't, and never did, exist in a vacuum. Obviously, though, it's far less significant a sport than it was, and in general people are much less politicised than ever before. Italy declared war the day after the 1940 edition, no mere accident of timing.". throughout maglia rosa, sykes confidently places the event in context. if i may be allowed to quote from the opening gambit of chapter 19: "The economic miracle of the 1960s had seen Italy, for a century the financial basket case of the major Western European nations, finally begin to realise her potential. Manufacturing output (and by extension personal wealth), driven by the great industrialists of Lombardia and Piedmont, soared to unprecedented levels as the burgeoning northern cities filled with ÔmigrantÕ workers from the surrounding countryside and the economic wastelands of the south. As the factory floors grew, so in turn did the student and Trade Union movements, giving rise to a resurgence of extreme left wing political doctrine.".

over its many years of existence, the giro has 'suffered' almost equally from intense rivalries between combatants such as coppi and bartali and moser and saronni, and years of italian drought, when riders such as merckx, anquetil, hinault and indurain have wrested the race from indigenous would-be victors, leading to italian disaffection with the event, and even severely restricted television coverage from the national broadcaster. while a lack of local success is a factor that has also afflicted the tour de france, its brash internationalism seems better able to accept persistent defeat of local teams and riders. this situation however, has often stretched the organisers of the giro to design routes that made life hard for those intent on denying an italian victory, leading, perhaps to increased interest and competition, if not an eventual tricolour atop the podium.

maglia rosa

but the history of the maglia rosa has also been well documented by others, either in piecemeal fashion across the monthlies, or indeed in preceding published volumes. what is it that makes this book any different? well, perhaps its finest achievement is in its storytelling; i have read this book as both manuscript and finished article, the latter replete with its fascinating photographs and chapter opening quotes from gino bartali. through all, i have yet to accept that i am having other than a conversation with the author. sykes' style is chatty, often irreverent and downright idiosyncratic; the word formulaic is particularly conspicuous by its absence. unlike rock band status quo, he has stayed well away from a chapter one pattern repeated ad finitum across the subsequent 26 chapters.

the pinnacle of involving the reader so fully in the story unfolding across the book's 312 pages, is the chapter entitled the new fausto coppi. it opens thus: "i'd been acquainted with him for some time, though i couldn't claim to know him." over the subsequent 22 pages, we get to know of whom he speaks very well indeed, but his name is never confided either through text or photo caption until the last sentence. it is an intriguing ploy, but not one that unduly draws attention to itself. of course, you will want, nay need, to read till the end to discover the protagonist's identity, but sykes has not made it a conceit; it is but a means to an end beautifully executed.

he has also stayed well away from a straightforward chronological treatise of the race, varying the light and shade by dealing with specific issues and specific riders in often humourous manner. a two page photograph of early competitors, including galetti and cuniolo shows a third rider, wearing what looks like a monty python handkerchief on his head, a bizarrely checked shirt and shorts that appear to have been ripped from a passing wildebeest. the caption ends with 'not sure what pavesi's come as'.

an undertaking of this magnitude - the race is over 100 years old - is not something you dash off before breakfast. the depth of content is far too complex to be assimilated at one sitting. as i averred above, this is my third reading of the text, though the first in its final, sumptuous format, and i have struggled manfully with this review. not, you understand, because the book has manifest failings, quite the contrary; like a classic joni mitchell album, something new becomes apparent on each pass, and as a reviewer trying to pin that down in pixels is like trying to stab mercury. the giro has always occupied a more favoured place in the twmp psyche, because despite its encroaching and necessitous commercialism, it seems to have remained more of a cycle race and less of an international spectacle as seems to have befallen le tour.

maglia rosa

it takes a special kind of obsession coupled with an extraordinary literary style to produce a book like maglia rosa, immediately accessible to fans and acolytes of the pink jersey, yet simultaneously raising or equaling the standard carried by many others with similar love of prose and the written word.

my only criticism, and i hope designer jonathan briggs will forgive me, is the peppering of the chapters with pull quotes which, in this context, seem somewhat superfluous. (in this, i do not mean the italian/english quotes of gino bartali which announce each chapter.) however, dare to remove the jacket from its hardcover and delight in a pink with silver print and an embossed map of italy, perhaps the most tangible evidence of a book full of hidden secrets.

truly a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

herbie sykes' maglia rosa, with foreward by andy hampsten is published by, and available from rouleur books at a cost of £29 plus p+p.rouleur books

posted tuesday 5 april 2011

twmp

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