A tribute to the seven Italian cyclists who won the Tour de France through a selection of historical pictures, archive films and vintage objects.
The exhibition tells the socio-cultural context of the 20th century that contributed to create the collective imaginary around the famous race through a selection of 37 photos from the archives of the newspaper L'Équipe (from 1946 to today) and from the photographic fonds of Excelsior (1910-1940) and Le Miroir des Sports (1920-1945), in a journey that portrays the seven Italian champions of the Grande Boucle from 1924 to 2014.
The exhibition is sponsored by Città Metropolitana di Firenze and is part of the initiatives linked to the Grand Départ of the Tour de France which, for the first time in its history, starts from the Tuscan capital.
Alongside photos that tell the story of the winners through portraits, landscapes, effort, sociality and victory, the exhibition is enriched by objects from the Ottavio Bottecchia Museum, such as the jersey, goggles and watch of the Automoto team, and others from the Gino Bartali Cycling Museum, such as the finish cup from 1948 and the bicycle from the last victory in 1954. A selection of historical films from the Archives Gaumont-Pathé and the Archivio Luce also complete the exhibition, showing the first three champions 'in motion' during their respective victories: Ottavio Bottecchia (1924, 1925), Gino Bartali (1938, 1948) and the Champion Fausto Coppi (1949, 1952).
Finally, the champions of the second half of the century, with the transition to colour and then digital photography, portraying the exploits of Gastone Nencini (1960), Felice Gimondi (1965) who won the Tour as a rookie, up to the present day, with images of the pirate Marco Pantani (1998) and the shark Vincenzo Nibali (2014).
