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Book of the Week

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Stephen Mangan

Tim Moore

Libby Spurrier

Joanna Green

Book of the Week: Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy: Episode 4

Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy

Episode 4

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy, Episode 4

Tim stops overnight in Montecorvino Rovella and finds himself in a rather strange hotel.

Stopping overnight on his epic cycle in the town of Montecorvino Rovella, Tim Moore stays in a rather strange hotel. From 2014.

Now well in to his epic cycle around Italy, Tim stops for an overnight in the town of Montecorvino Rovella and finds himself in a rather strange hotel

It's 12 years since Tim Moore, the ultimate amateur, slogged around the route of the Tour de France. At 48 years old, and distraught by those riders who are despoiling the heroic image of cycling, he decides it's time to reacquaint his feet with cleats and show these soft modern-day cyclists what a real challenge is.

A brief internet search later, he discovers the 1914 Giro d'Italia, the hardest bike race in history. Eighty-one riders started and only eight finished, after enduring cataclysmic storms, roads strewn with nails and even the loss of an eye by one competitor.

Undeterred, Tim sets off to cycle all 3,200km of it. For authenticity, he decides to do it on a 100-year-old bike, which, unburdened by relevant experience, he opts to build himself. Wearing period leather goggles, a woollen jersey, and with an account of the 1914 Giro as his trusty companion, Tim sets off to tell the story of this historic race, as well as the travails of a middle-aged man cycling up a lot of large mountains on a mainly wooden bicycle.

Tim Moore's Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy - abridged in five-parts by Libby Spurrier

Reader: Stephen Mangan

Producer: Joanna Green
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2014.

Book of the Week: Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Tim Moore retraces the route and tells the story of the 1914 Giro d'Italia bicycle race.

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