One title, two volumes, a thousand pages and more, the stories, well... they can't even be counted: "150 YEARS OF BRESCIAN CYCLING CHRONICLES - From Alfonso Pastori to Sonny Colbrelli" is much more than a book. And it's more than an encyclopedia because it contains the soul of the person who collected and told this story, the excellent colleague Angiolino Massolini, and those who lived these stories.

And it's no coincidence that Beppe Conti, in the incipit of his introduction, compares this book to a journey: "Here's a book that allows us to take a long journey. We start at the end of the nineteenth century and arrive in the third millennium. Chasing the champions of great cycling, the history of the bicycle, an endless series of duels and stories that fascinate people, yesterday and the day before yesterday, as today and we are sure will happen tomorrow. How many adventures around the Brescians, lands prodigal who knows why, of extraordinary characters, of immense talents, of creative and brilliant people. In everyday life and therefore also in the challenges of great cycling, a sport that sinks its roots into the territory as if it were a magic."

And last night in Ospitaletto, there were indeed many two-wheeled travelers who became champions and above all protagonists of these stories: Guido Bontempi, Roberto Visentini, Ferruccio Manza, Mino Denti, Davide Boifava, Pierino, Mattia and Nicola Gavazzi, Orfeo and Claudio Pizzoferrato, Fausto Bertoglio, Pierino Palini, Cristian Giordano, Fabrizio Bontempi, Giuseppe Martinelli, Anna Zugno (wm chronometer 2002) and numerous other former cyclists. With Sonny Colbrelli acting as a book testimonial, a link between generations, a... host.

THE BOOK. A truly enormous editorial effort by Angiolino Massolini, who dug, collected, organized, compiled, read and re-read, interviewed and compared until closing a work that is now contained in more than 1,000 pages, with the first volume reaching up to 1990 and the second accompanying us to the present day. A patient research work started in 2018 and continued uninterruptedly, with the forced COVID pause, until today. A work worthy of applause.

On the back cover, one reads what is the manifesto of the work: "...We are at the end of the 1800s, bicycle sport has become adult. More than thirty years have passed since that famous day when Paris baptized the first cycling race in history, and after so much time, it is still the French metropolis that finds itself at the center of the international cycling movement. After the 1899 world championships in Montreal, in 1900 it was Paris's turn to organize the great world event at the Vélodrome Parc des Princes, which for many years was one of the most important in the world.

And in the transalpine land, Gianfernando Tommaselli from Salò wins the world title in tandem with the Dutchman Harry Meyers. After the stunning performance of Alfonso Pastori, protagonist in 1877 of the Brescia-Rome-Brescia, the Lioness rises to the top of the world. Everything started on August 12, 1900, in Paris. Since then, our home's winning tiles have formed a very rich puzzle displayed by: Benedetto Pola, Beppe Ogna, Renato Bongioni, Antonio Tagliani, Ferruccio Manza, Mino Denti, Pierfranco Vianelli, Mary Cressari, Marco Velo, Chiara Mariani, Anna Zugno, Simona Frapporti, Fausto Bertoglio, Roberto Visentini, Michele Dancelli, Guido Bontempi, Pierino Gavazzi, Sonny Colbrelli, and many others. And the story continues..."

The book is available at the Marchetti bookstore-newsstand at Via Vittorio Veneto 1 in Ospitaletto and in the coming days will be distributed in some bookstores in Brescia

Those interested can contact the publishing house directly: Compagnia della Stampa - Masetti Rodella Editori - info@lacompagniamassetti.it