Sex, corruption and a magic bicycle will restore Visconti Velos failing fortunes. And Alfredo Tomba, the star of his generation, Italys hero, will return after years of exile in the classic single-day Geneve-Genova road race. But has the revolutionary bicycle a flaw? English journalist David Steele, in Italy to try to kick-start his failing career and who wants to write about the truth of sport, finds that the fatal charms of femme fatal Chiara and the money of Visconti Velo are more than he can manage. The race will decide all their fortunes, on and off the bike. But just who will be a hero may not be so easy to say.