2014 Giro d'Italia stage 13

LOCAL HERO
The Canavese, north of Turin, was the epicentre of Italian cycling in the 1920s. Giuseppe Enrici won the mythical Giro of 1924, but the area also produced one of the most underrated Giro riders of all time. Giovanni Brunero won the thing in 1921, 1922 and 1926, and that explains why Costante Girardengo, the first campionissimo, didn't. And yet when Giro know-it-alls blather about the great champions, poor "Giuanin" always seems to be overlooked. Question is: Why?

Brunero's problem was (and still is) the fact that he was born at the wrong time. He was a pure climber, probably the best on the planet, at a time when there was no TV. Back then the stages invariably finished in big cities, and the public wanted to see the likes of Girardengo and Pietro Linari sprinting for the tape. Brunero's epic escapes saw him win in splendid isolation, denying the great unwashed the spectacle. Had he been born fifty years later we'd be feting him as a genius, right up there with Marco Pantani and Charly Gaul. Only he wasn't and therefore he isn't, but the fact is that neither matched his Giro record. So there.

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