Corsa Rosa

Even before the 100th edition of the Giro d'Italia kicked off this year, we had already witnessed another race: who could be first to market with a book about the previous 99 editions. We now know that Colin O'Brien won that one with Giro d'Italia, but Brendan Gallagher was not far behind with Corsa Rosa.

With two books trying to cover broadly the same ground, one is tempted to look for similarities or differences. We already know that O'Brien's work focused in on a few themes in detail, which suits the nature of the Giro and the stories it has spawned.

Gallagher goes for a more linear approach, with each race covered in chronological order, backed up by fairly extensive lists of results and other key facts.

If I were to oversimplify things I would say that Gallagher gives the more comprehensive coverage and race reporting, albeit at the expense of depth and analysis – but O'Brien goes into more detail and explanation of the stories he has chosen to include. Neither approach is better or worse than the other, just different.

Gallagher acknowledges that the definitive reference work on the Giro is "Bill and Carol McGann's monumental The story of the Giro d'Italia, which offers up the final statistical word in terms of classification winners, results and timings on any given day over the last 99 editions of the race", spread over two volumes.

Actually, that number 99 needs some explanation because the McGanns' most recent book only takes us to the 94th edition of the race in 2011 – but their website covers the more recent races as well. 

Similar respect is accorded to Herbie Sykes' "splendid and all-encompassing Maglia Rosa" and John Foot's Pedalare! Pedalare!, although neither cover the last few years of racing – which leaves a gap that this year's crop of books are filling.

As Gallagher discovered, it was not easy to "piece together what actually happened in the early decades when much of the race took place away from the public gaze and record keeping was sometimes sketchy", so he relies heavily on all those books mentioned for his research. You won't find the race trying to avoid publicity these days!

There is a small selection of images from some of the main photo agencies, which are good but probably nothing that hasn't been seen before; this is no coffee table book, and the pictures are not the main attraction.

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With Corsa Rosa, Gallagher's aim was to cover the whole history of the race in a "broad sweep", trying not to "linger too long in any one era, no matter how tempting". The result will be sufficiently detailed but still eminently readable for the majority of people (a McGann-lite if you like), and it makes you realise how much more there is to discover about the race: "With the Italian love of drama and intrigue, it has also witnessed more than its fair share of low-life cheating, skulduggery and rank unsportsmanlike behaviour in the ruthless pursuit of glory, fame and financial gain."

Verdict

Contains little that has not been seen before, but presents it in a concise and accessible format