“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”Hamlet, Act III So wrote Shakespeare and today the phrase has entered common use as an example of someone over-compensating to make up for a mistake. Rid us of this troublesome prosecutor! A good example will be this Saturday when the riders on the start line of the Tour … Read more
He’s the red hot favourite for Saturday’s Giro di Lombardia. But cycling is a very open sport where favourites only find the odds mildly in their favour. As we saw in the World Championships, you can be the strongest but not get a result: Gilbert tried but ultimately tried too hard. But give the Belgian … Read more
The European road racing season is about to draw to a close and there are three main events left on the calendar, all in Italy. First is the Milan-Turin, then comes the Giro del Piemonte and finally the Tour of Lombardy next Saturday. All three races take place in north-western Italy and are conveniently timed … Read more
I’ve sometimes wondered about Aldo Sassi. He’s an Italian sports scientist who today runs the Mapei Sport centre, a training service offered to pros and amateurs alike. He’s hung around with some suspicious types in the past but today he’s seen at the forefront of clean sport. He makes a virtue of coaching riders … Read more
Towers of strength Etorre Torre is the chief prosectutor for the Italian national Olympic commission. The fact that the Olympics organisation has its own chief prosecutor should tell us enough. Torri is their anti-doping terrier. Here’s American writer Sam Abt on the man: Italy, for the past two decades the hub of doping scandals and … Read more
Italy can be a vibrant country where even small conversations are animated with big hand gestures and proud boasts. Yet by contrast Italian press releases are in a world of their own. Riders make announcements to the world that seem only to express a state of total tranquillity and calm. For example, speaking after winning … Read more
I walked into a bike shop in June for some spares and noticed a display on the sales counter for Power Balance bracelets. I instantly took them for nonsense, they are made from silicone and neoprene bands and are supposed to “work with your body’s natural energy field“. Yeah, right. Only come July I saw … Read more
I see this morning that pro squad Ceramica Flaminia is offering contracts to the best riders in the baby Giro or Girobio. This race is a mini Tour of Italy for riders aged under 27 and its list of winners includes many who went on to star in the real Giro d’Italia. Only this offer … Read more
Some people have labelled this week as “drugs week” because so many previous winners of the Amstel, Flèche Walloone and Liège Bastogne-Liège have been busted for doping. But in the same week we have the Giro di Trentino and yesterday’s opening stage was a festival for riders on the comeback and today’s proved the same … Read more
As part of the series on the 1980s, here are five items related to Italian cycling. 1. Insularity Italy enjoyed a vibrant cycling scene in the 1980s but it was often confined to the Italian peninsula, teams did not venture abroad as much as they do today. A lot of strong Italian riders therefore didn’t … Read more