ROAD TO VALOR BY: AILI and ANDRES McCONNON

A true story of World War II in Italy, The Nazis, and the Cyclist who inspired a nation

Gino Bartali, won the Tour de France in 1938, and again in 1948, after World War II. He was an Italian cyclist who loved his bike all his life and used it in many different ways, especially in World War II when he saved many lives by hiding a Jewish family in an apartment he paid for with his cycling winnings. He was also a Roman Catholic who used the church to help him smuggle counterfeit identity documents hidden in his bicycle past Fascist and Nazi check points because the soldiers recognizes him as a national hero in training.

The authors, Aili and Andres McConnon , based their book on ten years of research in Italy, France and Israel. They also interviewed Bartali’s family, former teammates, and a Holocaust survivor Bartali had saved.

Bartali also had to fight Mussolini’s Fascists who tried to use him for propaganda purposes. Bartali grew up in a poor and rural Tuscany, where he slowly saves enough money to buy a bicycle – and not a very good one!

The McConnons have written a non-fiction untold story of one of the great athletes of the 20th century. Aili McConnon has earned degrees from Princeton University, Cambridge, and Columbia University. Andres graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University and was a history major. They both have many credits writing and researching as journalists. While researching this book he lived in Paris, Florence and the Italian Riviera.

Road To Valor is the inspiring, against -the-odds story of Gino Bartali who made the greatest comeback in Tour de France history and aided the Italian Resistance during World War II.

Published: Crown Publishers an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group a division of Random House, Inc.,New York Copyright: © 2012 By: McConnon LLC Reviewed: 10/31/12 – 359 Copyright: © 2012 by Joan G. Smith 359