On Saturday 9th May the competitors in Italy’s most important cycle race set off from their starting point at  Lido di Venezia  in the north of Italy. Known as Il Giro d’Italia (The Tour of Italy) the race is broken into 21 stages, during the course of which the cyclists will cover 3,455.6 Km and pass through 3 countries: Italy, Austria and Switzerland, and 13 Italian regions. By the time they reach the finishing line in Roma 22 exhausting days later on Sunday 31st May, the intrepid cyclists will have had only 2 days of rest: the 18th and 26th of May. There will be 32 peaks to conquer, the last of which being the most ‘explosive’: Vesuvio, the famous volcano near Naples! This is a particularly important year for the Giro as it is celebrating its 100th anniversary, but it still looks as young as ever. The first Giro d’Italia took place in 1909, but although this is the 100th anniversary this year’s race is only the 92nd to take place due to the fact that it was suspended from 1915 to 1918 because of WWI, and once again between 1940 and 1945 because of WWII. Hmm, I thought these cyclist were meant to be tough, can’t they face a few bombs falling here and there!

The most prestigious prize awarded to the competitors is la Maglia Rosa (the Pink Shirt), which is worn by the winner of each stage (think of the Giro d’Italia as a series of 21 ‘shorter’ races all joined together into one big one), and of the race overall. So why award a namby pamby pink shirt to these tough male cyclist, is this yet another equal opportunities strategy? Well, in fact no, it’s because the competition was created by the sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, which is printed on pink paper. This year’s legendary Maglia Rosa has been designed by the famous Sicilian fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana. Well, we are Italian, world leaders in fashion, non e’ vero? so must keep up our bella figura (good appearance). This wasn’t always the case however as I’m looking at some old photos from the Giro’s archive, and it’s incredible to see how cycling gear and technology has changed over the years. Today’s cyclists look like immaculate fashion models with their super tight outfits and aerodynamic helmets. In old photos from the Twenties through to the Fifties I see that they used to wear just a normal polo shirt, no helmets (health and safety, cosa vuole dire? what does that mean?), and sported a ‘very fashionable’ spare inner tube wrapped around their shoulders!

But why is the Giro d’Italia so important, why is it so closely followed by thousands of Italians? Believe it or not, cycling is the most popular sport practiced in Italy. As soon as the weather gets a bit warmer in the spring it becomes almost impossible to drive along country lanes at weekends without the danger of running over (or being run over by) groups of cyclists dressed up in their multi colored, logo emblazoned ‘space suits’. We live near a main road that leads up from the town of Pontremoli, situated at 200 meters above sea level, to one of the main passes of the Appennino Tosco-Emiliano mountains at 1200 meters above sea level: 1000 meters difference in height! And I can assure you that almost every day during the spring-summer season we see small groups of mad people, with the leg muscles of grasshoppers, fighting their way up towards the pass on their bicycles.

My most memorable encounter with one of these lunatics took place last year, when me and my husband drove up to the pass (YES, we drive up to the pass, in a car!). We had enjoyed a beautiful walk through the woods and meadows of Monte Orsaro, with its 1830 meter peak, when, on the way back to the car, we met a guy all dressed up in tight Lycra shorts and shirt, cycling helmet and small back pack, carrying a camera on a tripod and clambering up the steep slope which we were descending. He had travelled by bicycle from Parma, the main town down on the plains on the other side of the Appennino mountains, had cycled up to the pass, left his bike at a little alpine chapel, and now he was going for a walk up the mountain to take a few pictures before cycling back down to Parma. He told us that it was only 50 Km each way! Yes, only fifty Km, that’s a total of 100 km, at least 50 km of which was up hill! You’d never catch me doing something like that.

P.S. I’ve just been reading on the Giro d’Italia website that they have modified the race for the 27th of May. Due to the long cold winter and adverse weather conditions there is still a lot of snow in the mountains, and therefore the cyclists won’t reach the top of the Blockaus mountain at 2,064 meters, but will instead stop 5,5 Km before the summit, at 1,631 meters, huh, what wimps! The curious thing is that this mountain which has a very Germanic name is not, as you might expect, up in the Alps, but in the Majella range, which is located in the southern Italian region of Abruzzo! If you want to find out more about the Giro d’Italia you can have a look at the following websites:

http://www.steephill.tv/giro-d-italia/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Giro_d’Italia