Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Finish Line Voices: Tour de France vs. Giro d'Italia

The famous finish line commentator's voice heard at the Tour de France belongs to Daniel Mangeas. His broadcasting for the Tour began in 1974. He is a talking cycling encyclopedia, never using notes, working entirely through improvisation.

The finish line voice for the Giro d'Italia is Barbara Pedrotti. With sheer determination, toughness, and intelligence she recenty became the first female voice of the Giro. As a young girl she dreamed of becoming Miss Italy. Then, she fell in love with the world of cycling. Pedrotti explains, "I love cycling. Seeing the old families along the roadsides awaiting the arrival of their champions. Grandparents, mothers, fathers, sons and grandchildren, as a celebration of the country, with panini and salami ... it's beautiful, is it not?".
I think we are due for a Barbara Predotti special edition in the future...

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,600 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog. There is also an Italian weather widget along the right side and a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page. What I'm riding.

2 comments:

  1. Anyone who's heard this lady knows she's more than the typical "pretty face". While probably not quite as knowledgeable as her French counterpart, she knows her stuff and comes across as a true fan of cycling.

    ReplyDelete
  2. She wins, Hands Down!

    ReplyDelete