Gironimo!: Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy

Tim Moore — the brilliantly unhinged mind behind French Revolutions — is back in the saddle, and this time he’s taking on Italy. His mission? To ride the entire 1914 Giro d’Italia route, all 3,162 gruelling kilometres of it… on a century‑old wooden bike he rebuilt from a pile of rusty parts found in a Breton farmer’s barn.

The original 1914 Giro was pure mayhem: riders set off at midnight, battled storms, sabotage, roads littered with nails and, in one horrific case, a lost eye. Out of 81 starters, only eight made it to the finish. Naturally, Tim — who hadn’t done any serious cycling in over a decade — thought this sounded like the perfect challenge.

Fuelled by Chianti, kitted out in wool, leather goggles and stubborn optimism, and guided by the diary of the race’s original winner, he pedals across Italy’s mountains and madness. What follows is part travelogue, part history lesson, and part hilarious tale of a middle‑aged man trying to survive on a bike that probably belongs in a museum.