CHRISTMAS PRESENT SUGGESTION
Books are a good bet when you are trying to pick presents for your cycling friends. Her's one that will inspire as well as entertain.
Road to Valour is the bestselling story of Gino Bartali, who became a household name in Italy after winning the Tour de France in 1938 and 1948, not to mention three Giri d'Italia. But what few people know is that during World War II, Bartali used his cycling fame to help Jews being persecuted by the Nazis and Fascists. Risking his own life, he secretly sheltered a Jewish family in an apartment that he financed with his cycling winnings and transported false identity documents, hidden in the frame of his bicycle, throughout Tuscany and Umbria to be used by Jews in hiding. You can see footage of Bartali and interviews with those he helped during World War II in the book's trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Road to Valour is the first book ever written in English about Bartali and the only book written in any language to explore fully Bartali's wartime work. Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has read the book and called Bartali's story a "moving example of moral courage." Christian Prudhomme, the director of the Tour de France, read it and called Bartali a "true hero."