Italy’s cycling fans have a passion and pride that makes them stand out from the crowd.
Stephen Roche’s experience of the tifosi was wildly different from my own. Around the same time as he was being punched, abused and spat at by fans as he raced to victory in the 1987 Giro, I was being blown kisses by a bikini-clad beauty riding pillion on a Vespa as it overtook me on a coast road near La Spezia.
Roche’s crime was to take the pink jersey from his Carrera teammate, national hero and defending champion Roberto Visentini. I’d been merely riding my pannier-laden touring bike at a sedate pace in the direction of Sicily. A few weeks later, as I toiled up a climb in the Apennines in the heat of the midday sun, a clapped-out Fiat pulled up alongside me and the grubby-vested farm labourer in the passenger seat handed me a brick-sized sandwich through the window. With cheery shouts of ‘Ciao, Coppi!’ the van lurched forwards, leaving me at the roadside to enjoy the best salami panini of my life.
The tifosi mirror everything that is scary and wonderful about Italy, from the chaos and clamour of its politics to the peace and serenity of its landscapes via the pomp and ceremony of its Catholicism. They reflect the traits of a nation that only became unified in 1861 and that has been ruled by a succession of monarchs, dictators, socialists, liberals and dysfunctional coalitions ever since.
Denne historien er fra June 2017-utgaven av Cyclist.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra June 2017-utgaven av Cyclist.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Best of both worlds
The new Trek Madone blends the speed of the brand's quickest superbike with the lightness of its mountain-crushing Émonda to become the ultimate race bike
Eddy Merckx Pévèle Carbon
A versatile design that shows the pros and cons of flexible build options
Gravel ride: Girona Welcome to Cycling Central
Girona in Catalonia has become one of Europe's most popular cycling venues thanks to its weather, roads and culture. But it's still possible to leave the hordes behind by going off-tarmac
Revolutions and evolutions
The wheel may be a 5,000-year-old invention but designers are still finding ways to make it lighter, faster, safer and more stable.
Kitzbüheler Horn
The Austrian climb that dishes out pain
Cycling history in six items
In the first of a series on cyling's historical artefacts, Cyclist visits the KOERS Museum in Belgium to discover the pick of the exhibits.
Different times
What was the cycling world like 75 years ago? Now in his midnineties, Scottish former champion Ramsay Mackay remembers those times like they were yesterday
Big Ride: Alpe d'Huez - Climb and a half
No climb is as emblematic of the Tour de France as Alpe d'Huez. Ahead of its first appearance at the women's Tour, Cyclist takes a ride around it and up it. And then up it again
This Olympic Road Race might actually be worth watching
A punchy finale around Paris's Butte de Montmartre will bring the excitement usually missing from the Olympic Road Race, says Felix Lowe
Beryl Burton wins her first road Worlds
Beryl Burton claimed the first of two World Championships Road Race titles in 1960, becoming the first rider to win pursuit and road world titles in the same year
