Book Review-Road to Valor

Review of "The Road to Valor" by Aili McConnon & Andres McConnon

I have love cycling, a fact you should be aware of if you intend to stick around here. Coupled with my love for history, as evident from my college degree, this book was destined to find its way into my reading list.

"The Road to Valor" delves into the life of Gino Bartali, one of the great Italian road racers. Bartali's claim to fame lies in winning two Tours de France with a remarkable decade between them (1938 and 1948). The intervening years, explored in the book, are packed with more drama than your average feature film.

The narrative touches on Bartali's formative years, marked by parental opposition to his passion for cycling, and extensively covers the rise of fascism in Italy. His family, staunch liberals, found themselves at odds with the growing fascist influence, especially as it began to interfere with his cycling career.

The book vividly portrays how crucial athletic prowess became for the fascists, with government officials faking achievements and engaging in scenes that feel eerily reminiscent of propaganda, such as riding shirtless on horses through the woods.

The WWII period becomes a focal point, revealing Bartali's involvement in aiding a network that smuggled Jews out of Italy. His "training" rides transform into covert missions to transport forged documents, all hidden ingeniously within his bicycle frame. He would even sign autographs with soldiers who should have been inspecting him for contraband, all while keeping his family and friends oblivious to his clandestine activities.

While not the most dialogue-heavy biography, the book is well-written and thoroughly enjoyable. It's surprising that it hasn't been adapted into a movie yet, considering the abundance of drama it encompasses.

Towards the end, the book features a poignant quote from Gino Bartali, "Life is like a giro d’italia, which seems never ending, but at a certain point you reach the final stage, and perhaps you don’t expect it. Now, I am beginning to expect it. Yes, I’ll soon be called and I’ll go up there. Heaven should be a happy place. Like those green summits of the Dolomite mountains after you’ve rounded a hundred curves pedaling all the way."

Bartali's significance during Italy's post-WWII struggles is emphasized, as one of his fans expresses in the epilogue, "When we were poor and weary, he gave us back our honor."

If you have an interest in cycling and history, "The Road to Valor" is a compelling read.

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