Balmamion
Balmamion
by Herbie Sykes
Franco Balmamion remains the last Italian to have won successive editions of the Giro d’Italia. In capturing the 1962 edition, aged just 22, the “Eagle of the Canavese” overcame the mutiny and skullduggery of a more famous, more celebrated teammate. His was a story of extraordinary mental and physical courage, and yet for over half a century its secrets remained untold.
Herbie Sykes eventually invited Balmamion and his contemporaries to evoke a truly astonishing grand tour. Their stories, by turns heroic, life-affirming and heartbreaking, are as immediate today as they were back then.
“A gem of a book”
“Sykes writes with passion, love and respect. A proper warts-and-all appreciation of our sport”
“Herbie Sykes’ The Eagle of the Canavese was the first cycling book I had come across that I felt could be appreciated as both literature and history. Nothing about this [new] Balmamion edition undermines those thoughts. But this time round, it’s immeasurably better”
“Last year [1962] they said I was lucky, that I won by chance. They said, time and again, that it was simply because the circumstances worked in my favour. That was fine...
“This year [1963] everyone was waiting for me and nobody, with the exception of my team mates of course, gave me any help whatsoever. Everyone was riding openly and admittedly against me. That was fine as well.
“They stated that they wanted me on the back foot, that fortune had favoured me once, but that it wouldn’t favour me again. I didn’t complain when things went against me, when I was ill, when I was suffering, when I’d to grit my teeth and chase down the attacks. I just rode...”
– Franco Balmamion, Winner, 1962 and 1963 Giro d’Italia
Author biography
Award-winning author Herbie Sykes (“Coppi”; “Maglia Rosa”; “The Race Against the Stasi”; “The Eagle of the Canavese”) marked the centenary of the Giro d’Italia with “Giro 100”, his unique – and uniquely personal – evocation of the corsa rosa also published by Rapha Editions and Bluetrain Publishing in 2017. His next book Juve! will be published in October 2020.
Herbie on Franco
“Franco will be 80 by the time you read this book, and almost 60 years have passed since he did what he did. Other, more talented riders have come and gone, and I’ve interviewed hundreds of them. He’s still my favourite though. He’s the most intelligent bike rider I’ve ever met, but there’s more to being a champion bike rider than riding a bike.”
Specification
| Dimensions | 220 x 170mm |
| Pagination | 240pp on bulky matt 135gsm paper |
| Images and text | 4 colour with photographs |
| Cover | Flexi-bound, round spine, H&T bands |
| Endpapers | Printed 2/2 on white offset 140gsm |
| Published | 2020 by Rapha Editions |
| ISBN | 978-1-912164-14-1 |