In the early hours of Saturday 10th May 1924, 90 riders assembled at the Porta Ticinese in Milan for the start of the 12th Giro d’Italia. Ahead lay 300km to Genoa, the first of 12 stages that would ultimately lead back to Milan after 3,613km of racing. The race was being filmed for broadcast in cinemas and as the apprehensive riders waited for the call to start, the camera settled on one in particular.
Some 80 years later, author Paolo Facchinetti would describe the scene as that rider smoothed their short hair over their forehead.
‘In a face contorted by tension, two determined eyes stood out above all else,’ Facchinetti writes. Those
