Life has peaks and valleys, happiness and sadness, good and evil. In the course of a storied career, Italian cycling legend Gino Bartali pedaled through countless highs and lows, both physical and emotional, battling more than his fair share of evil along the way. 

Gino was born to Torello and Giulia Sizzi Bartali in 1914 in Ponte a Ema, a small Tuscan town just south of Firenze. Torello often collected mud for bricks as a day laborer, and Giulia took in hotel laundry and made lace. The Bartalis were devout Catholics, and young Gino would later marry Adriana Bani in a ceremony officiated by a priest who went on to become the Archbishop of Firenze.