Tours of the World: Paolo Pellizzari. 5 Continents
Editions, 2004. 164 pages hardback, large format, £29.95. ISBN88-7439-169-2
MAGNIFICENTLY-PRODUCED COLLECTION of
photos by Pellizzari, illustrating eighteen of the world's professional
stage races, many of them little-known to your average fan: Guatemala,
Qinghai Lake, Qatar, Japan, Burkina Faso (where Coppi caught malaria),
the Canadian Tour de Beauce, Langkawi, Ireland (fine picture of the
Mamore Gap), Bolivia, Martinique, and the Golan, as well as France,
Spain and Italy - though not the Scandinavian or Swiss tours.
The pictures are all in wide, panoramic format: sometimes 4" x
10" on a single page, sometimes 7"x 18" across two pages
- the book is landscape in format. Within the limits of this format
the variety is enormous: entire fields on a stretch of coast or desert,
bunches or individuals climbing well-known cols, the pattern of hundreds
of bikes in a bike park, cyclists glimpsed through the girders of a
bridge, spectators in the African bush, a naff Australian roadside 'decoration
contest, time-triallists, curious shadows, riders resting after the
stage in a school dormitory, a storm over the Altiplano
The translation of the text (a 25-page intro) into English, presumably
from the original Italian, is a bit creaky, as are the captions: Africans
begging at a team-car window are described as 'a riot to receive presents'.
But it's of little consequence alongside the stunning pictures. Published
three years ago, the book is still available from Amazon.
Ramin Minovi