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giro 100 by herbie sykes. rapha/blue train publishing softback 224pp illus. £25

giro 100 - herbie sykes

"From the beginning, I dreamed of becoming a professional cyclist. It's taken hold of me, and there's nothing I can do about it." filippo ghiron.

as of march this year, thewashingmachinepost became 21 years old, the age at which any youthful individual would normally receive the keys to the door. sadly, i failed even to be offered a one-year professional contract with top bonk schleppers, thus consigning my daily scribblings to glorious obscurity. those twenty-one years have pretty much flown by, with the realisation that i've indulged in the daily chore for more years than simon mottram has been making the case for sportwool. in the light of this salient moment in cycling history, i now consider myself to be one of its elder statesmen.

happily, gone are the days when the residents of bowmore village would cross the road rather than be engaged in earnest conversation that was almost always bound to involve cycling in one form or another. prince bradley's much-vaunted bubble has made the velocipedinal way considerably more acceptable in polite company and there have even been occasions when someone has stopped me to converse about the way of the bicycle.

changed days indeed.

but then, days of cycling have changed for pretty much everyone this side of the bike shed. we have moved on from steel downtube friction shifting to electronic wires encased in shiny carbon fibre. there are those racing at the top level who have never had to flip a gear lever in anger and never once experienced the joys of riding competitively with the wind in their hair. as a sport, it has become measurably more popular, but also measurably more commercial and commerce has its own set of demands that do not always coincide with the sporting milieu.

yet commerce is at the heart of the sport's two most popular grand tours; those three weeks in july exist at the behest of l'auto, while italy's giro began life as a means of promoting sales of the pink newsprint of la gazzetta dello sport, a race commencing its 100th edition in sardinia tomorrow. i have already reviewed two books related to this historical edition and it may seem a tad unnecessary to offer praise for yet another. but giro 100 by italian-based writer, herbie sykes, could hardly be described as your normal paean to italy's grand tour.

rather than offer us a history of the giro d'italia according to herbie sykes, in conjunction with rapha editions and guy andrews' blue train publishing he has let others do the speaking. this in itself may not at first appear to be a happenstance designed for unfettered admiration and quite possibly would have remained so, had the speakers been drawn from the upper echelons of the sport. but almost all of those interviewed by herbie for this superb compendium of stories are drawn from the ranks of the gregari, those who frequently took the opportunities that presented themselves and sneaked in a worthy stage victory or, in rarer cases, the maglia rosa.

"There was a summit finish at Monte Trebbio in the Apennines that year, and I decided I really wanted to give it a go." giancarlo bellini.

my twenty-one years in the business (so to speak) have led to a modified perspective on the sport, but i very much doubt i'm alone in that. aside from discovering that the more you know, the more you don't know, there is no doubt that on occasion i've found out stuff that i'd have preferred not to have learned. and continued exposure to the vicissitudes of the marketing machine have brought one or two dawning realisations that, while hardly iniquitous in and of themselves, they have occasionally contrived to alter my enthusiasm and not always for the better. i therefore do not think it too much of an overstatement to mention that giro 100 has made me realise that this really is the very best sport in the world.

"I wasn't one of those who was going to become some sort of 'gregario di lusso', and if I'm honest, I probably wasn't good enough to do anything much on my own." matteo cravero.

however, if the chapters are merely the transcripts of countless interviews with giro participants, should i truly be praising mr sykes for anything other than an enviable level of stamina? in truth, there is far more here than mere presentation. it would be naive to think that across 224 pages, we have been presented with the full length of each interlocution. according to herbie, around 75% had need of falling on the cutting room floor prior to publication. and following each interview, herbie has placed the preceding words in acute and accurate perspective.

"Malabrocca was born in Tortona, a stone's throw from Fausto Coppi's Castellania. The two men had raced together as juniors, but while poor, fragile Coppi was condemned to become 'Il Campionissimo', Malabrocca enjoyed life as his alter ego.

i am guilty of having described many a review copy as 'compulsive reading', perhaps because that's the way i approach many published works on cycling. even though my perspective may have been summarily altered over the last two decades, i am no less of an enthusiast nowadays, a situation that benefited enormously from reading giro 100. it is compulsive reading (i managed two and a half hours at one sitting without realising how much time had passed) and a major testament to the continuing importance and relevance of herbie sykes to the world of cycling commentary, particularly that pertaining to italy.

"Of late, it's all become a bit too clichéd, a bit too self-reverential. Cycling is about the mountains and about suffering, but it's also about so much more besides. [...] I make no apology for the fact that there are no sweeping Stelvio panoramas, no 'dramatic' snow-capped Gavias. Been there and done that, and arrogantly I assumed that you might, just for once, like something a little bit other."

and something else living under the category of 'something a little bit other' is the nature of the book's illustrations. as herbie has stated above, there are no sweeping stelvio panoramas or snow-capped gavias. all the photographs throughout the 100 interviews were supplied by the riders themselves, picturing them as youngsters, with family and friends, the lucky ones surrounded by podium girls, or crossing the line, arms aloft and just occasionally, portrayed in their sunday best.

almost to a man or woman, their self-effacing humility is admirable and often surprising. though we as mere mortals are often guilty of placing even the more mediocre of professionals on a pedestal, the view from the inside looking out often appreciatively discards such reverence. it may be one of the world's more exotic means of employment, but ultimately, it's a job that pays the bills.

there's insufficient time to order and read your own copy of giro 100 prior to the off in sardinia tomorrow, but that should not be taken as an obstacle; if anything, it's more of an opportunity, one that could satisfactorily fill the gaps between each day's highlights on eurosport or itv4.

the very best of the very best and compelling reason to wear pink.

"The Giro was 24 hours a day in our house, 11 months of the year. It conditioned our childhoods 100 percent, for better or worse." gianni torriani.

rapha editions giro 100

thursday 4 may 2017

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