RADIO CHOICE

THE Giro d’Italia of 1914 was pure torture. The epic bike race started in Milan with 81 riders. It ended back in Milan — after 1,965 punishing miles — with only eight men able to make it to the finish line, and Italian rider Alfonso Calzolari taking the title. In 2012, Tim Moore, on a 100-year-old bike and wearing period leather goggles and a woollen jersey, rode in the tyre tracks of the 1914 heroes. All this week, Stephen Mangan reads GIRONIMO! RIDING THE VERY TERRIBLE 1914 TOUR OF ITALY (RADIO 4 EXTRA, 2.45PM), Tim’s entertaining account of his gruelling recreation of the race.

LUCY WORSLEY (pictured) presents a new, ten-part series, ENCOUNTERS WITH VICTORIA (RADIO 4, 1.45PM), exploring Queen Victoria’s reign. She begins with a look at the Queen’s

relationship with the saturnine Lord Melbourne, who became besotted with the young monarch.

DRESSED in short jackets, briefs and boots, Mongolian wrestlers step out into the fierce sun and grapple for hours on end at Mongolia’s annual national competition. Herding animals in the fierce weather of the Mongolian steppe has made them strong, yet their way of life is under threat. JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME (RADIO 4, 11.30PM) hears from Irishman Peter Geoghegan, who travelled to Mongolia to train as a wrestler.