The story of the longest consistently run cycling grand tour for women. Now known as the Giro Rosa, the Giro D'Italia Femminile was first raced in 1988. The race featured a total of nine stages with an average of 87km per day. The winner was Italian Maria Canins. When she started cycling, she was nicknamed ‘Mama Volante’ – ‘The Flying Mother’ – as she was a 32-year-old mother who was originally an accomplished cross country skier. She tells Tom Whalley about that first race. A TBone production.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testimony. Sporting Witness is for those fascinated by sporting history. We take you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable victories and agonising defeats from all over the world. You’ll hear from people who have achieved sporting immortality, or those who were there as incredible sporting moments unfolded.

Recent episodes explore the forgotten football Women’s World Cup, the plasterer who fought a boxing legend, international football’s biggest ever beating and the man who swam the Amazon river. We look at the lives of some of the most famous F1 drivers, tennis players and athletes as well as people who’ve had ground-breaking impact in their chosen sporting field, including: the most decorated Paralympian, the woman who was the number 1 squash player in the world for nine years, and the first figure skater to wear a hijab. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the tennis player who escaped the Nazis, how a man finally beat a horse in a race, and how the FIFA computer game was created.

(Photo: Maria Canins in the 1986 Tour de France Feminin. Credit: Rene Boulay/ Creative Commons)