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The Road To Valour: A True Story Of A Tuscan Cyclist And Secret World War II Hero (2012)

by Aili and Andres McConnon(Favorite Author)

3.93 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0385669488 (ISBN13: 9780385669481)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Doubleday Canada

review 1: This story tells the story of Gino Bartali a pre-WWII Tour De France winner. Dictated to by Mussolini and the fascists before the war during the aar he helped catholic priests and moks smuggle fake papers to help jewish families in Italy survive under the guise of training runs. Given up as too old during the 1948 Tour De France he launched two memorable attacks in the mountains to win the Tour for a second time. Excellent read that even a non cycling fan will enjoy.
review 2: In recent years I have loved several books on sporting topics: " The Boys Of Summer", "The Blind Side", "Friday Night Lights" and more recently "Into The Silence". What they all share with each other and with "Road To Valour" is their attempt to deal with sport as an integral part of ... morelife. The narrative of the various sporting events is part of a much wider context and the personalities involved are presented with the skill of the most consumate writer. We all know the story, but we want to hear it all over again, told by skilful writers. "The Boys Of Summer" is about breaking the race barrier in baseball and a father son relationship, "The Blind Side" deals with the issue of how to help talent bloom in an unequal society. "Friday Night Lights" offers us a very muted and humane version of the American Dream through the fortunes and misfortunes of a high school football team in a boom and bust Texas town. "Into The Silence" places the the first attempts to climb Mount Everest in a geopolitical context, plus the very personal one of a generation scarred by the Great War, taking to the mountains in an attempt to clear minds and hearts. "Road To Valour" tells the story of cycling champion Gino Bartali, who, having reached the peak of his career by winning the Tour the France in 1938, risks everything in order to help persecuted Italian Jews escape from Nazi-occupied Italy. Gino Bartali became a "legend", when ten years after his first win, he triumphed again in "La Grande Boucle", the largest gap between wins, at the age of 34. As if this was not enough, his second win happened at the time of an attempted asassination of the Italian Communist leader, which was about to precipitate Italy into civil war. Needless to say, in a country which was desperate for good news, he was credited with helping avert a tragedy, when political enemies found common ground in celebrating Bartali's victory. Needless to say, the legend grew and grew. Sixty-five years later it is still growing thanks largely to this kind of book, but mostly to the need we all have for Bartali's type of sporting hero: sincere to the point of being brash, a clean and idealistic athlete who rather smoked Tuscan cigars and drank Chianti than taking banned substances. His captivating personality emerges throughout the book and explains why he took the risks he did, with the people that put everything on the line with him. As a devout Catholic, he never accepted the ideology of Fascism and his refusal to dedicate his victories to Mussolini or even to do the "Roman Salute" when awarded prizes put him on a collision course with the regime long before he took his momentous decision to use his celebrity as a cover to carry forged papers between Florence and Assisi. Very little was known of this until after his death on 5 May 2000, thanks to the silence of all the people involved. Bartali was always known for his loquacity and a sharp tongue which never spared whoever fooled with him, but his silence on his war mission was always complete. All it took for me to decide I had to read this book, is contained in the breath-taking prologue narrating the greatest race of his life, in the snow, in the French Alps, in the Tour de France of 1948. less

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