Madonna del Ghisallo - Patron Saint of Cyclists

In our car centered culture it can be hard to remember that we don't always carry around a protective carapace of 2 tons of steel. Everyone who rides a bike has stories of beer bottles pitched from pickups by yee-haw rednecks, or the just-learning-to-drive teenager squeezing them off the road.

I have never been the most devout person in the world but I do have my beliefs and feel that you can never have too much help or too many people looking out for you. For cyclists there is even a patron saint. Madonna del Ghisallo is the patron saint of cyclists (so decided by Pope Pius XII in 1949). The church and cycling museum of the Madonna del Ghisallo is located in Italy overlooking Lake Como. The museum contains bikes and jerseys donated by many pros thankful to the Madonna for looking out for them.

Besides my watch and wedding ring, my Madonna medallion is the only piece of jewelry I wear. So far, so good, I have not had a cycling incident since I started wearing it - even that time I took my hands off the bars in a downhill curving descent to get a GU gel... That particular piece of stupidity should have resulted in some oozing road rash.

Thank you Madonna del Ghisallo! I believe.


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