A Champion Cyclist Against the Nazis: The Incredible Life of Gino Bartali (Hardback)

Discover the unbelievable true story of Gino Bartali — the legendary Italian cyclist who didn’t just win races, he helped save lives.

Italy, 1943: while the country was under fascist rule and aligned with Nazi Germany, Bartali quietly refused to play along. Already a national hero with three Giro d’Italia wins and two Tour de France victories, he used his fame as the perfect cover for something far more dangerous.

Pretending he was simply training, Bartali rode thousands of miles across Italy with secret documents hidden inside his bike frame — messages and forged papers that would help protect Jewish families from deportation. Every ride was a risk. Every checkpoint could have been the end. But he kept going.

Thanks to his courage, around 800 Jews — many of them children — survived the war. Bartali never bragged about it; in fact, he barely spoke of it at all. Only years later was he honoured as one of the Righteous Among the Nations.