Marco Pastonesi presents "Black Roads"

The Cuneo Bike Festival comes to Alba with a special event organized in collaboration with Scrittorincittà and the Municipality of Alba. On Tuesday, June 9th, at 6:00 pm, in the Cortile della Maddalena (Via Luigi Paruzza), Marco Pastonesi will present his new book, "Strade nere" (Ediciclo editore), in conversation with "cycle bookseller" Carlo Borgogno and "cyclonaut" Fulvio Silvestri. Admission is free, subject to availability. In case of inclement weather, the meeting will take place in the Sala Vittorio Riolfo.

A journalist for twenty-four years at the Gazzetta dello Sport, Pastonesi is one of the most recognizable writers in Italian sports writing. Dividing his time between rugby—he played in Serie A—and cycling, he has written a small bicycling library for Ediciclo, from "Gli angeli di Coppi" to "I diavoli di Bartali," including "La leggenda delle strade bianche" and "Spingi me ernò swearemmio. Storie di ultimi: maglie nere, lanterne rosse e fanalini di coda." He has edited volumes on Girardengo and Cavanna, won the CONI Prize with Fernanda Pessolano for "Attenzione cicli in giro" (Attention Cyclists in Giro), and assisted Alfredo Martini in writing his autobiography "La vita è una ruota" (Life is a Wheel).
For "La Rosea," Pistolesi covered twelve Giro d'Italias, nine Tours de France, and one Olympic Games, as well as two Tours of Rwanda and one of Burkina Faso. His latest literary work, "Black Roads," is a journey through Africa's cycling and its most surprising stories. Pastonesi traverses a land that, for the cyclist, is a test of both legs and stomach, amidst adventures of times past, humanity, and endless horizons. In this boundless theater, the great names that the African continent has touched or influenced return: Ottavio Bottecchia, who rode to earn his living, to the legendary Bartali and Coppi. Alongside historic monuments, figures seemingly straight out of an adventure novel pedal, from the man who mistook cognac for water in the 1950 Tour to the man who rode wearing a fez.
The Alba event is part of the Cuneo Bike Festival's off-season program, aiming to broaden the festival's reach.