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+1 of The Road to Valor. Also, My Italian Secret is viewable on a few sites, I think to have watched it on Youtube.

As for the OP and first image, if you zoom in or find a better photo, the bike Bartali is on additionally has a Campagnolo direct lever front changer.

Thanks for sharing, I wasn't aware of this part of cycling history, and the real struggle underneath the pedaling, this man did for the Italian resistance, during those terrible times in WW2.

Another +1 to Road to Valor. Quick, well-written book. I learned a lot, not only about Bartali's feats and bravery, but also about professional cycling in general during the 30's and 40's. I also learned much about the relationship between Italy and German during this period, the courting of Hitler by Mussolini, and the politicizing of sport.

Minor correction about the comment that Bartali was smuggling documents when this photo was taken. My recollection is that the smuggling happened while on duty as a messenger for the Italian government during the war years, but not while actually racing. Not that it takes away from his legacy, but I don't believe he would have been smuggling any documents when this photo was taken.

Quote:

Originally Posted by John E (Post 19439810)

Thanks for the tip on "My Italian Secret" -- my wife and I just watched it on Netflix. Even though I am a cycling enthusiast who grew up in largely Jewish neighborhoods in west Los Angeles and bought my first house in the Pico-Robertson district, where the languages most often heard on the street were Yiddish, German, and Russian, I am embarrassed to say that I did not know about Bartali's role in WWII. What a Mensch!

Probably not such a mensch John, according to the linked BBC story, Bartali made his son swear not to speak about the actions during the war to help the Jewish from annihilation by the Fascist government in Italy. And, he didn't believe in talking about actions to help others.

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 "When I asked my father why I couldn't tell anyone, he said, 'You must  do good, but you must not talk about it. If you talk about it you're  taking advantage of others misfortunes' for your own gain.'"

(excerpted from on-line BBC Belfast, 9 March 2014, Peter Crutchley.) Amazing that his story remained a secret for so many years.

The article mentioned one thing I didn't know, makes me a mensch too I suppose, Gino Bartali was proclaimed a Righteous Among Nations, by Yad Vashem.

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Last September he was posthumously awarded with the honour Righteous  Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and education  centre in Jerusalem.

(citation ibid)

Not very many gentiles have been accorded with this honor, one that comes to mind is Oscar Schindler.

Bartali's risking his very life hits close to home in my family, my uncle, 1LT Honson Owen, USAAC, was shot down over Holland on a bombing run and hidden by the Dutch underground resistance for a long period. Eventually a turn coat went to the Nazi gestapo and ratted the family hiding him out. He was taken prisoner of war. The brave family that hid him was executed, in whole, for their actions.

Another link:
A Ride for Cyclist and Holocaust Hero Gino Bartali | Bicycling

"Good is something you do, not something you talk about." —Gino Bartali
This reminds me of John Wesley's, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Neither is love content with barely working no evil to our neighbour. It continually incites us to do good: as we have time, and opportunity, to do good in every possible kind, and in every possible degree to all men."