Download or read book A Champion Cyclist Against the Nazis written by Alberto Toscano and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2020-05-30 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Italy, 1943. Although allied with Hitler, there were those who refused to accept the fascist policies of racial discrimination and deportation. Among them was Gino Bartali. A champion cyclist, he won the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) three times and the Tour de France twice. But these weren’t his only achievements. Deeply religious, Bartali never spoke about what he did during those dark years, when he agreed to work with the Resistance and pass messages from one end of the country to the other. Despite the dangers, Bartali used his training as a pretext to criss-cross Italy, hiding documents in the handlebars and saddle of his bicycle, all the while hoping that each time he was searched they wouldn't think to disassemble his machine. As a result of his bravery, 800 Jews — including numerous children — were saved from deportation. He died in Florence in 2000 and was recognized as one of the 'Righteous Among the Nations' in 2013. In this book, Alberto Toscano shares the incredible story of this great sportsman and recalls the dramatic moments in Italy and Europe in the twentieth century.
Download or read book A Champion Cyclist Against the Nazis written by Alberto Toscano and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2020-05-30 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of the Tour de France winner who cycled all over Mussolini’s Italy in a secret quest to rescue hundreds of Jewish lives. Cyclist Gino Bartali won the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) three times and the Tour de France twice. But these weren’t his only achievements. Deeply religious, Bartali quietly agreed during the dark years of fascist rule to work with the Resistance and pass messages and papers from one end of the country to the other. Despite the dangers, Bartali used his training as a pretext to criss-cross Italy, hiding documents in the handlebars and saddle of his bicycle, hoping each time he was searched that they wouldn’t think to disassemble his machine. As a result of his bravery, eight hundred Jews—including numerous children—were saved from deportation. In this book, Alberto Toscano shares the incredible story of this great sportsman, recognized as one of the “Righteous Among the Nations” by Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Memorial after his death in Florence in 2000, and recounts a story of humble heroism, real-life suspense, and twentieth-century European history. “An informative testament to the kinds of risks and sacrifices [of] the anti-Nazis in Mussolini’s Italy during World War II . . . an extraordinary story of an extraordinary man in extraordinary times.” —Midwest Book Review
Download or read book Road to Valour written by Aili McConnon and published by Phoenix. This book was released on 2013-06-20 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Italian SCHINDLER'S LIST, this is the inspirational story of Gino Bartali, who made the greatest comeback in Tour de France history and secretly aided the Italian Resistance during the Second World War. ROAD TO VALOUR is the inspiring, against-the-odds story of Gino Bartali, the cyclist who made the greatest comeback in Tour de France history and still holds the record for the longest gap between victories. Yet it was his actions during the Second World War, when he secretly aided the Resistance, rather than his remarkable exploits on a bike, that truly cemented his place in the hearts and minds of the Italian people. Based on nearly ten years of research, and including fascinating new interviews, this is the only book written that fully explores the scope of Bartali's wartime work. A breathtaking account of one man's unsung heroism and his resilience in the face of adversity, this is an epic tale of courage, comeback and redemption, and the untold story of one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century.
Download or read book The Brave Cyclist written by Amalia Hoffman and published by Capstone Editions. This book was released on 2019 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the story of Gino Bartali and how he rose to become a Tour de France champion and one of cycling's greatest stars. But when his country came under the grip of a brutal dictator and entered World War II, Bartali might have appeared a mere bystander to the harassment and hatred directed toward Italy's Jewish people, but secretly he accepted a role in a dangerous plan to help them. Putting his own life at risk, Bartali used his speed and endurance on a bike to deliver documents Jewish people needed to escape harm.
Download or read book Bartali s Bicycle written by Megan Hoyt and published by Quill Tree Books. This book was released on 2024-01-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 2021 National Jewish Book Award finalist by author Megan Hoyt and illustrator Iacopo Bruno brings to light the inspiring, true story of Gino Bartali, a beloved Italian cyclist and secret champion in the fight for Jewish lives during World War II. Gino Bartali pedaled across Italy for years, winning one cycling race after another, including the 1938 Tour de France. Gino became an international sports hero! But the next year, World War II began, and it changed everything. Soldiers marched into Italy. Tanks rolled down the cobbled streets of Florence. And powerful leaders declared that Jewish people should be arrested. To the entire world, Gino Bartali was merely a champion cyclist. But Gino's greatest achievement was something he never told a soul--that he secretly worked with the Italian resistance to save hundreds of Jewish men, women, and children, and others, from certain death, using the one thing no authority would question: his bicycle. This compelling nonfiction picture book for elementary-age readers offers a unique perspective on World War II history. It's a strong choice for units on the war and for biographies of lesser-known heroes in history and in sports.
Download or read book The World s Fastest Man written by Michael Kranish and published by Scribner. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of The Boys in the Boat and Seabiscuit, a fascinating portrait of a groundbreaking but forgotten figure—the remarkable Major Taylor, the black man who broke racial barriers by becoming the world’s fastest and most famous bicyclist at the height of the Jim Crow era. In the 1890s, the nation’s promise of equality had failed spectacularly. While slavery had ended with the Civil War, the Jim Crow laws still separated blacks from whites, and the excesses of the Gilded Age created an elite upper class. Amidst this world arrived Major Taylor, a young black man who wanted to compete in the nation’s most popular and mostly white man’s sport, cycling. Birdie Munger, a white cyclist who once was the world’s fastest man, declared that he could help turn the young black athlete into a champion. Twelve years before boxer Jack Johnson and fifty years before baseball player Jackie Robinson, Taylor faced racism at nearly every turn—especially by whites who feared he would disprove their stereotypes of blacks. In The World’s Fastest Man, years in the writing, investigative journalist Michael Kranish reveals new information about Major Taylor based on a rare interview with his daughter and other never-before-uncovered details from Taylor’s life. Kranish shows how Taylor indeed became a world champion, traveled the world, was the toast of Paris, and was one of the most chronicled black men of his day. From a moment in time just before the arrival of the automobile when bicycles were king, the populace was booming with immigrants, and enormous societal changes were about to take place, The World’s Fastest Man shines a light on a dramatic moment in American history—the gateway to the twentieth century.
Download or read book Beneath a Scarlet Sky written by Mark Sullivan and published by Lake Union Publishing. This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A teenage boy in 1940s Italy becomes part of an underground railroad that helps Jews escape through the Alps, but when he is recruited to be the personal driver for a powerful Third Reich commander, he begins to spy for the Allies.
Download or read book Major Taylor written by Conrad Kerber and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 565 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of the Tour de France’s fallen heroes, the story of one of history’s most legendary cyclists provides a much-needed antidote. In 1907 the world’s most popular athlete was not Cy Young or Ty Cobb. Rather, he was a black bicycle racer named “Major” Taylor. In his day, Taylor became a spiritual and athletic idol. He was the fastest man in America and a champion who prevailed over unspeakable cruelty. The men who aided him were among the most colorful to emerge from the era. When hotel and restaurant operators denied Taylor food and lodgings, forcing him to sleep in horse stables and to race hungry, there was a benevolent racer-turned-trainer named Birdie Munger, who took Taylor under his wing and into his home. Then along came Arthur Zimmerman, an internationally famous bike racer, who gently mentored Taylor when some riders drew the color line and refused to race against him. Taylor’s manager, pugnacious Irishman and famed Broadway producer William Brady, stood up for him when track owners tried barring him from competition. From the Old World came a rakishly handsome, mustachioed sports promoter named Victor Breyer, who lured Taylor overseas for a dramatic, Seabiscuit versus War Admiral–like match race that would be widely remembered a quarter century later. With a foreword by World Champion and three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, this spellbinding saga of fortitude, grace, forgiveness, and a man’s unyielding will to win against the greatest of odds is sure to become a classic that will be enjoyed by everyone. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. In addition to books on popular team sports, we also publish books for a wide variety of athletes and sports enthusiasts, including books on running, cycling, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, martial arts, golf, camping, hiking, aviation, boating, and so much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Download or read book The First Tour de France written by Peter Cossins and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From its inception, the 1903 Tour de France was a colorful affair. Full of adventure, mishaps and audacious attempts at cheating, it was a race to be remembered. Cyclists of the time weren't enthusiastic about participating in this "heroic" race on roads more suited to hooves than wheels, with bikes weighing up to thirty-five pounds, on a single fixed gear, for three full weeks. Assembling enough riders for the race meant paying unemployed amateurs from the suburbs of Paris, including a butcher, a chimney sweep and a circus acrobat. From Maurice "The White Bulldog" Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman whose parents were said to have swapped him for a round of cheese in order to smuggle him into France as a fourteen-year-old, to Hippolyte Aucouturier, who looked like a villain from a Buster Keaton movie with his jersey of horizontal stripes and handlebar moustache, the cyclists were a remarkable bunch. Starting in the Parisian suburb of Montgeron, the route took the intrepid cyclists through Lyon, over the hills to Marseille, then on to Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Nantes, ending with great fanfare at the Parc des Princes in Paris. There was no indication that this ramshackle cycling pack would draw crowds to throng France's rutted roads and cheer the first Tour heroes. But they did; and all thanks to a marketing ruse, cycling would never be the same again.
Download or read book Fallen Angel written by William Fotheringham and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Voted the most popular Italian sportsman of the twentieth century, Fausto Angelo Coppi was the campionissimo champion of champions. The greatest cyclist of the immediate post-war years, he was the first man to win cycling s great double, the Tour
Download or read book Illustrated Bikes on Stamps by Steve Malone written by Steve Malone and published by Steve Malone. This book was released on 1995-12-31 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Half Man Half Bike written by William Fotheringham and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in Great Britain in 2012 as Merckx, half man, half bike by Yellow Jersey Press"--T.p. verso.
Download or read book The Official History of The Tour De France written by Andy McGrath and published by Welbeck. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Official History of the Tour de France is a celebration of one of the greatest annual sporting events, and the premier competition in world cycling. Through more than 300 photographs, rarely-seen documents and items of memorabilia, this book covers more than a century of fascinating stories on the Tour and its iconic yellow jersey. This revised and updated edition includes an authoritative narrative account of each major era, up to and including the thrilling 2020 Tour - a dramatic contest completed against all the odds - and a preview of the 2021 event. There are features on superstar cyclists and memorable moments from each period of the event's rich history, and a foreword from legendary Tour de France champion Stephen Roche, all of which combines to form the definitive illustrated book on the Tour.
Download or read book The Monuments written by Peter Cossins and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-03-13 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Peter Cossins is an engaging writer whose conversational style makes this an effortless yet interesting read. The cosy tone delivers a great deal with a good balance of history and anecdotes. If you wish to explore cycling beyond the Grand Tours this is the book.' - Carlton Kirby An awe-inspiring history of the five most legendary 'classic' races in world cycling. The Tour de France may provide the most obvious fame and glory, but it is cycling's one-day tests that the professional riders really prize. Toughest, longest and dirtiest of all are the so-called 'Monuments', the five legendary races that are the sport's equivalent of golf's majors or the grand slams in tennis. Milan–Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Tour of Lombardy date back more than a century, and each of them is an anomaly in modern-day sport, the cycling equivalent of the Monaco Grand Prix. Time has changed them to a degree, but they remain as brutally testing as they ever have been. They provide the sport's outstanding one-day performers – the likes of Philippe Gilbert, Fabian Cancellara, Mark Cavendish, Tom Boonen, Peter Sagan and Thor Hushovd – with a chance to measure themselves against each other and their predecessors in the most challenging tests in world cycling. From the bone-shattering bowler-hat cobbles of the Paris–Roubaix (rumoured to be Bradley Wiggins' next challenge) to the insanely steep hellingen in the Tour of Flanders, each race is as unique as the riders who push themselves through extreme exhaustion to win them and enter their epic history. Over the course of a century, only Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck have won all five races. Yet victory in a single edition of a Monument guarantees a rider lasting fame. For some, that one victory has even more cachet than success in a grand tour. Each of the Monuments has a fascinating history, featuring tales of the finest and largest characters in the sport. In The Monuments, Peter Cossins tells the tumultuous history of these extraordinary races and the riders they have immortalised.
Download or read book The Boxer s Story written by Nathan Shapow and published by Biteback Publishing. This book was released on 2012-07-11 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before 1940, Nathan Shapow, a young Latvian, had nothing more on his mind than enjoying his teenage years and becoming a champion boxer. But the Nazis' systematic extermination of the Jews quickly put paid to his dreams. Soon he was to face a different sort of fight, where the prize for victory would be his life. Escaping certain death time and time again, Shapow saw his youth disappear in the terror of the Ghettos and the horror of the camps. Fighting for his very existence for the simple reason of being Jewish, remarkably, he survived, fell in love and forged a new life in what was then British-controlled Palestine. There, he joined an underground military organisation and quickly became involved in the struggle to create a Jewish state. Extraordinary and powerful, The Boxer's Story is the inspiring true story of one man's enduring fortitude.
Download or read book Church of Spies written by Mark Riebling and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2015-09-29 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The heart-pounding history of how Pope Pius XII -- often labeled "Hitler's Pope" -- was in fact an anti-Nazi spymaster, plotting against the Third Reich during World War II. The Vatican's silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope." But a key part of the story has remained untold. Pope Pius in fact ran the world's largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Saintly but secretive, he sent birthday cards to Hitler -- while secretly plotting to kill him. He skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis. Under his leadership the Vatican spy ring actively plotted against the Third Reich. Told with heart-pounding suspense and drawing on secret transcripts and unsealed files by an acclaimed author, Church of Spies throws open the Vatican's doors to reveal some of the most astonishing events in the history of the papacy. Riebling reveals here how the world's greatest moral institution met the greatest moral crisis in history.
Download or read book Merckx written by William Fotheringham and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eddy Merckx is to cycling what Muhammad Ali is to boxing or Pele to football: quite simply, the best there has ever been. Throughout his professional career Merckx amassed an astonishing 445 victories. This title presents his story.
