The Italian RENAISSANCE

PEOPLE KEEP SAYING ITALIAN CYCLING ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE. THAT'S ACTUALLY NOT A BAD THING.

- WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES STARTT

Italy calls itself the Bel Paese, the beautiful country And few would argue. It's a title earned not just through a rich cultural history, but through the everyday poetry of the place: terraced olive orchards, cypress-lined roads meandering past vineyards, the quiet hum of life in medieval villages untouched by time. For cyclists, it's where landscape, style, and soul converge, where a bicycle ride becomes more than motion and something closer to art.

"Italy is the best place in the world to ride bikes," says Pier Bergonzi, editor of Sportweek, the weekly magazine of La Gazzetta dello Sport. "There are big climbs everywhere. From Sicily to Sardinia to Puglia, everywhere you go, you can find amazing roads to ride."

Beyond the landscape and terrain, Italy has long been one of the sport's spiritual homes. Historic races like Milan-San Remo, Il Lombardia, and the Giro d'Italia have provided iconic backdrops to countless rivalries and exploits, while Italian bikes and equipment were long considered the pinnacle of cycling performance and design. Put simply, Italian cycling has shaped the sport as we know it.

But what about now? Italy no longer boasts a single men's team at the sport's highest level, the World Tour. Its last men's Grand Tour winner, Vincenzo Nibali, retired in 2022. Meanwhile, iconic Italian brands like Campagnolo struggle to compete alongside rivals like SRAM and Shimano. It would be easy to assume the heartland of cycling is little more than a shell of its former self. But is this truly a downswing, or is it the beginning of a reinvention?

Antonio Colombo, in his Milan office in 2019, pushed the link between artistic freedom and bicycle design. He purchased this Keith Haring painting after the artist's first show in Milan in 1984.