Pietro Fasoli, the first Bergamo native (from Vertova) at the Giro d'Italia (year 1912), so poor that he participates in races only because an enthusiast procures him a bicycle and pays his entry fee, but also so ingenious that, after retiring from racing, he invents the tachometer for aircraft, fog lights, hydraulic shock absorbers and a questionable self-heating suit for motorcyclists thanks to the recycling of exhaust gases.

Tone Pesenti, the first Bergamo native (from Zogno) in the pink jersey and later winner of the Giro (year 1932), a closed and taciturn mountain man, in the portrait by Bruno Roghi in the "Gazzetta dello Sport" capable of "bursting out in the hardest stage and hitting hard", "polishing off a frittata as big as a newspaper sheet", so much so that "granite and not clay was perhaps used to model his angular body".

Luigi Tramontini, the first Bergamo native (from Borgo Santa Caterina, although born in Milan) to "stake out" by bicycle the Milan headquarters of the "Gazzetta dello Sport" (year 1932) to register for the Giro in place of someone who declares forfeit, at midnight they tell him yes, by bicycle he returns home to Bergamo, sleeps a couple of hours, then ties his suitcase behind the saddle, pedals to Milan and presents himself at the start.

Ildo Serantoni has written "The Giro and Bergamo – a great love" (Bolis, 150 pages, 16 euros) lived between starts and finishes, passes and mountains, champions and domestiques, victories and podiums, stars and supporting actors, breakaways and sprints, dreams and disappointments. A great love beginning with Felice Gimondi (three triumphs) to Ivan Gotti (two) and Paolo Savoldelli (two), the two second places of Tista Baronchelli, the second place of Flavio Giupponi, the two third places of Beppe Guerini… A great love – a great historical, geographical, competitive, spiritual love - also that of the author for the bicycle and cycling, when there is pedaling to do, stories to listen to, to tell, to write, to discover, to pass down round stories.

Like the story of Bergamo native Giuseppe Cividini, who at the 1924 Giro races alongside Alfonsina Strada, isolated, at the back of the group, until the final arrival in Milan, even if out of classification, and who will later dedicate himself to football, Atalanta, masseur and warehouse keeper. Like the story of Bergamo native Giuseppe Medolago called Pì, witness (from behind, from afar) of the overwhelming power of Alfredo Binda who in 1927 wins 12 of the 15 stages. Like the story of the Bergamo native (from Comenduno) Vittorio Bendoni, boy of '99 (1899) directed by his parents toward religious life, then converted to the bicycle and cycling, finally struck down by a car accident. Like the story of the Bergamo native (from Valle d'Imagna) Fausto Masnada, who at the 2019 Giro is the architect of his own miracle, in Puglia, at San Giovanni Rotondo, in front of the basilica where Father Pio is buried. But Serantoni's great love, to whom he has already dedicated two books (in 2005 for Sep, in 2020 for Bolis), is for Gimondi, "the Great Bergamo": three "roses", three chapters, three novels. And there is also glory for Amilcare Perico, who challenges William Cody – Buffalo Bill -, Perico on bike, Cody on horseback, the first time in 1894, the second 12 years later, always winning the retired colonel of the American army, until Perico, dismounting from his bike, specializes as a decorator, becomes a tenor and once performs "Carmen" at the Donizetti Theater.

Serantoni pedals on the keyboard with historical present tense. Inside him, eyes and heart, rider and journalist, every day you go out and race, every day you write and remember, an infinite stage race, an eternal Giro d'Italia: Armando Pellegrini and Franco Cortinovis, Egidio Marangoni and Gelsomino Locatelli, Bruno Zanoni and Marco Pinotti, the Chiorda brothers and the Algeri brothers, without age, without statistics, without rankings, all together, like a single team, more than that, like a family.

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"The Giro and Bergamo – a great love" will be presented by the author at the Ubik Bookstore, via Borgo Santa Caterina 19/c, in Bergamo, Friday, May 8 at 6:30 PM.