Non­fic­tion

Road To Val­or: A True Sto­ry of WWII Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation

Aili and Andres McConnon
  • From the Publisher
April 23, 2012
Gino Bar­tali is best known as an Ital­ian cycling leg­end: the man who not only won the Tour de France twice, but to this day holds the record for the longest time span between vic­to­ries. Dur­ing the ten years that sep­a­rat­ed his hard-won tri­umphs in 1938 and 1948, his actions, both on and off the race­course, ensured him a per­ma­nent place in Ital­ian his­to­ry. How­ev­er, there is anoth­er thread to Bartali’s epic sto­ry — his efforts to help save more than 800 Jews dur­ing the Ital­ian Holo­caust and Ger­man occu­pa­tion — the full details of which have not been revealed until now. Set against the tur­bu­lent back­drop of an unfor­giv­ing sport and threat­en­ing pol­i­tics, Road To Val­or is the breath­tak­ing true account of one man’s unsung hero­ism and his resilience in the face of adver­si­ty. Based on near­ly ten years of research in Italy, France, and Israel, includ­ing inter­views with Bartali’s fam­i­ly, for­mer team­mates, a Holo­caust sur­vivor Bar­tali saved, and oth­ers, it is the first book ever writ­ten about Bar­tali in Eng­lish and the only book writ­ten in any lan­guage to ful­ly explore the scope of his wartime work.

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