In Italy, rosa is not only the color of baby girls. Rosa means Giro d’Italia, the cycling competition we love the most. As precise as a Swiss clock, our Giro comes every May, its colorful, happy caravan traveling across the country to give us all a little taste of sport history. And then, if you ask any Italian, they’ll tell you the Giro is more than sport, it’s poetry. Because cycling is strenuous, it’s hard work, and you’re on your own, there on a bike, riding away along the roads of the world: sounds a bit like life, doesn’t it?

Just like life, this is a sport that hurts, and where nothing beautiful comes for free. And just like life, sometimes, you don’t get to win, never mind how much effort you put into the race. Just like life, though, cycling can reward you for everything you lost and invested, for all the sweat and the aching muscles, in the space of a second: that’s how much you need to win the race.