The (second) Giro of rebirth

Welcome to the first stage of Our Giro, a series of podcasts by Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe celebrating the best the Giro d’Italia and Italy have to offer.

With the Giro d’Italia postponed because of the coronavirus crisis, The Cycling Podcast is embarking on a virtual grand tour instead. Starting in Budapest and finishing in Milan, our route will more or less follow that of the real 2020 Giro but with a few diversions thrown in along the way.

Over the course of three weeks we will tell stories old and new about the Giro. We’ll have interviews and familiar voices and we’ll capture the flavour and sounds of Italy without leaving home. We hope it’ll have all the elements of our usual grand tour coverage, just without the racing.

In this first episode, we look back at the 1946 Giro, the first after the Second World War which saw the rivalry between Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi intensify, to see if there are any parallels between that race and the one that follows this coronavirus crisis. We speak to authors and historians John Dickie and John Foot, who also happened to be Daniel’s Italian professors.

There’s also the introduction of some of the regular features we’ll be bringing to you over the next few weeks. We hope you join us on this virtual journey and enjoy the ride.

The Cycling Podcast is supported by iwoca and Science In Sport.

FURTHER READING

Pedalare! Pedalare! by John Foot and Disastro! by John Dickie and John Foot

Dino Buzzati’s The Giro d’Italia: Coppi versus Bartali at the 1949 Tour of Italy (VeloPress)

COMING TOMORROW…

The Hungarians. Who is the only Hungarian to take part in the Tour de France? Meet two youngsters from the country who are hoping to make a splash in the World Tour and hear a rare interview with Istvan Varjas, one of the most controversial people in cycling.

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