{"id":138,"date":"2009-05-16T10:40:44","date_gmt":"2009-05-16T14:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=138"},"modified":"2009-05-16T10:40:44","modified_gmt":"2009-05-16T14:40:44","slug":"il-giro-d%e2%80%99italia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/il-giro-d%e2%80%99italia\/","title":{"rendered":"Il Giro d\u2019Italia"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday 9th May the competitors in\u00a0Italy\u2019s most important\u00a0cycle race\u00a0set off from their starting point at\u00a0\u00a0Lido di Venezia<\/strong>\u00a0 in the north of Italy. Known as\u00a0Il Giro d\u2019Italia<\/strong>\u00a0(The Tour of Italy) the race\u00a0is broken into\u00a021 stages,\u00a0during the course of which the cyclists will\u00a0cover 3,455.6 Km\u00a0and pass through\u00a03 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\u00a0of which\u00a0being the most \u2018explosive\u2019: Vesuvio<\/strong>, the famous volcano near Naples! This is a particularly important year for the\u00a0Giro<\/strong> as it is celebrating its 100th anniversary, but it still looks as young as ever. The first Giro d\u2019Italia<\/strong>\u00a0took place\u00a0in\u00a01909,\u00a0but although this is the 100th anniversary this year’s\u00a0race is\u00a0only the 92nd\u00a0to take place\u00a0due to the fact that\u00a0it was suspended from 1915 to 1918 because of WWI, and once again\u00a0between 1940\u00a0and 1945 because of WWII. Hmm, I thought these cyclist were meant to be tough, can\u2019t they face a few bombs falling here and there!<\/span><\/p>\n

The most\u00a0prestigious prize awarded\u00a0to the competitors is la<\/strong> Maglia Rosa<\/strong> (the Pink Shirt), which is worn by the winner of each stage (think of the Giro d\u2019Italia<\/strong> as a series of 21 \u2018shorter\u2019 races all joined together into one big one),\u00a0and of the race overall.\u00a0So why award a namby pamby pink<\/span> shirt to these tough male cyclist, is this yet another\u00a0equal opportunities strategy?\u00a0Well, in fact no, it\u2019s\u00a0because the competition was created by the sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport<\/strong>, which is printed on pink paper. This year\u2019s legendary Maglia Rosa<\/strong> has been designed by the famous Sicilian fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana<\/strong>. Well, we are Italian, world leaders in fashion, non e\u2019 vero?\u00a0<\/strong>so must keep up our bella figura<\/strong> (good appearance). This wasn\u2019t always the case however as\u00a0I\u2019m looking at some old photos from the Giro<\/strong>\u2019s archive, and it\u2019s incredible to see how cycling gear and technology has changed over the years. Today\u2019s 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\u00a0they used to wear just a normal polo shirt, no helmets (health and safety, cosa vuole dire?<\/strong> what does\u00a0that mean?), and sported a \u2018very fashionable\u2019\u00a0spare inner tube wrapped around their shoulders!<\/span><\/p>\n

But why is the Giro d\u2019Italia<\/strong> so important, why is it so closely followed by thousands of\u00a0Italians? Believe it or not, cycling is the most popular sport practiced\u00a0in Italy. As soon as the weather gets a bit\u00a0warmer 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\u00a0\u2018space suits\u2019. We live near a main road that leads up from the town of Pontremoli, situated at 200 meters\u00a0above sea level, to\u00a0one of the\u00a0main passes\u00a0of the Appennino Tosco-Emiliano<\/strong> mountains\u00a0at 1200 meters above sea level: 1000 meters difference in height! And I can assure you that almost every day\u00a0during the spring-summer season we see\u00a0small groups of\u00a0mad people, with the leg muscles of grasshoppers,\u00a0fighting their way up towards\u00a0the pass\u00a0on their bicycles.<\/span><\/p>\n

My most\u00a0memorable encounter with one of these lunatics\u00a0took place\u00a0last year, when me and my husband drove up to the pass (YES, we drive up to the pass, in a car!). We had\u00a0enjoyed a beautiful walk\u00a0through the woods and meadows of Monte Orsaro<\/strong>,\u00a0with its\u00a01830 meter peak,\u00a0when, on the way back to the car, we met a guy\u00a0all dressed up in tight Lycra shorts and shirt,\u00a0cycling helmet and\u00a0small back pack,\u00a0carrying\u00a0a 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,\u00a0had cycled\u00a0up to the pass,\u00a0left his bike\u00a0at\u00a0a little alpine chapel, and now\u00a0he was going for a walk up the mountain to take\u00a0a few pictures before cycling back down to Parma. He told us that it was only<\/span> 50 Km each way! Yes, only fifty Km, that\u2019s a total of\u00a0100 km, at least 50 km of which was up hill! You\u2019d never\u00a0catch me doing something like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

P.S. I\u2019ve just been reading\u00a0on the Giro d\u2019Italia<\/strong> 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\u2019t 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\u00a0is that this mountain which has a\u00a0very Germanic name is not, as you might expect, up in the Alps,\u00a0but\u00a0in the Majella range, which is located in the southern Italian region of Abruzzo! If you want to find out more about the Giro d\u2019Italia<\/strong> you can have a look at the following websites: <\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.steephill.tv\/giro-d-italia\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2009_Giro_d’Italia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday 9th May the competitors in\u00a0Italy\u2019s most important\u00a0cycle race\u00a0set off from their starting point at\u00a0\u00a0Lido di Venezia\u00a0 in the north of Italy. Known as\u00a0Il Giro d\u2019Italia\u00a0(The Tour of Italy) the race\u00a0is broken into\u00a021 stages,\u00a0during the course of which the cyclists will\u00a0cover 3,455.6 Km\u00a0and pass through\u00a03 countries: Italy, Austria and Switzerland, and 13 Italian regions…<\/p>\n

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