Professional cycling is deeply rooted in the written word. All three grand tours – Spain's Vuelta, the Giro in Italy and the Tour de France – were created to boost flagging sales of newspapers. 

In Italy it was La Gazzetta dello Sport that instigated the Giro d'Italia in 1908. John Foot, in Pedalare! Pedalare! A History of Italian Cycling, relies heavily on the contemporaneous writings of Gazzetta journalists and others – dubbed ‘the second peloton’ – to add context and colour. Tracing