Road Bikes Reviews: The Giro D’italia Is The Italy’s Answer To The Tour De France

cycling

The Giro d’Italia has a fine history behind it, like the Tour de France it was started to publicise a newspaper, just like the Tour de France the organisers made the leaders jersey the same colour as the paper, yellow in France from the L’Auto newspaper and pink in Italy from the La Gazzetta dello Sport. The first Giro was in 1909 and was 2448 kilometres long (the shortest), split into 8 stages and was won by the Italian rider Luigi Ganna, 127 riders started in Milan, but by the finish, also in Milan, there was only 49 left, this was not the worst edition, in 1914 only 8 out of the 81 starters managed the full distance.

The winners.

Just like the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espaٌa, the Giro d’Italia always has a deserving winner, three riders have won it five times, Alfredo Binda and Fausto Coppi of Italy and the great Belgian, Eddy Merckx, Merckx of course also won the Tour de France five times and the Vuelta once. There have been many other “stars” who have won the Giro over the years, French heroes Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault and from Spain Miguel Indurain have all one 5 Tours de France and the Giro more than once. The home riders have obviously been the big winners, Felice Gimondi, Gino Bartoli, Ivan Gotti, Gilberto Simoni and Paolo Savoldelli have all shown there winning ways, but the battles between Giuseppe Saronni and Francesco Moser in the 80’s are epic. The strangest rider to have taken part in the Giro d’Italia would be Alfonsina Morini Strada who is the only woman to have ridden the race, and finish!

The race itself.

The Giro has started outside of Italy on eight occasions, the furthest away being either Belgium, Greece or possibly the Dutch town of Groningen, which hosted the opening individual time trial in 2002. When the race is on Italian soil the main difficulties are usually the Alps, Dolomites and the Apennines, the Giro is in May so the big climbs can get dreadful weather, snow, rain and cold temperatures can shape the race and determine the winner.

The future of the Giro d’Italia.

The future of the Giro d’Italia looks good, since the UCI (cycling’s governing body) brought in the Pro-Tour all the top 20 teams have to ride the race, before they would only get all the Italian teams and a few foreign teams with sponsor interests in Italy, now the race is also shown free on television, where as before it could only be seen on a private station. The 2005 edition was one of the best for years, top teams, top riders and a hard course brought the race to life, for years the Giro had become a procession until the last hour, then the sprinters took over. The climbers had some good hard stages and the team leaders would do there work for the overall on the hills or the time trial, and that was it, now its one of the most exciting stage races there is from begging to end.

Bicycle Rims And Wheels, Your Bike Cant Go Anywhere Without Them

bicycle wheels

The first bicycle wheels were from a horse drawn cart, made of wood with a metal band round the bicycle rim, very hard and very uncomfortable to ride. Then a man called Dunlop (Scottish) invented the pneumatic tire, this along with Macadam (another Scot) inventing the tar road surface made cycling a lot more comfortable.

The bicycle rim, like the bicycle frame hasn’t changed much in design, its still round and always will be. From the first wooden rims the next were made of steel, then alloy and now if you can afford it, carbon. Of all bicycle parts the bicycle rim can make a big difference to how your bike handles. First the weight of your rim affects your sprinting and climbing as the weight will low you down, for a long, flat effort the weight isn’t so important as when you get the wheels rolling the weight can help to keep them going. The shape of the rim can be important also, a flat rim is best for climbing as aerodynamics are not so important on a hill, a deep section, aero, rim will help you cut through the air, but in a cross wind could cause you handling problems.

Bicycle Rims Materials

The different materials used for rims are very important also, steel is heavy and if damaged can be difficult to pull back into shape, but because its so strong it is quite difficult to bend in the first place and steel is cheaper than all the other materials. Alloy is probably the most popular rim, it can be made in any shape and profile, flat or aero, but not too deep as it would then weigh too much, most deep section rims are of a alloy braking section nearest the tire which is then mounted to a carbon deep section for lightness and aerodynamics and a very beautiful looking bicycle rim. As with most things if money is no problem you can go for the best, this would be an all carbon rim, strong and very light, but there are a few problems with these rims, first they don’t brake so well in wet conditions and you must use special brake blocks for carbon and they can be expensive, also the rim has to be perfectly round and not have any bulges in the rim wall as this will make braking quite erratic, carbon is a difficult material to work with and must be well looked after.

Types Of Rim To Consider

There are also two types of rim to consider and this depends on which kind of tire you want to use, first there are tubular tires these are glued on to the bicycle rim, cost more and are difficult to repair after a puncture, but for racing they feel and ride wonderfully. Clincher tires have improved a lot recently and are nearly as good as tubulars for performance and are easily repairable and more reasonably priced. Most manufacturers make all styles in both systems.

So which should I buy? Not an easy answer, as there is so much to choose from, years ago you went to your local bike shop, picked out which hubs, spokes and rims you wanted and he would build your wheels, but now most rim makers also manufacture there own wheel sets, Mavic, Shimano and Campagnolo are probably the best known, check out there web-sites for all there new goodies, there are other brands and if you go to your local cycle shop or look in the bike magazines you’ll find them. There is a lot to choose form, but they are all round.