Bartolomeo Aimo

Bartolomeo Aimo (sometimes written Bartolomeo Aymo (Virle Piemonte, 24 September 1889 — Turin, 1 December 1970) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer. He finished on the podium of the Giro d'Italia four times (1921, 1922, 1923, 1928) and on the podium of the Tour de France two times (1925, 1926) but never won a grand tour.

Aimo was the inspiration for a character in Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway, who served as an ambulance driver on the Italian-Austrian front during World War I, was known for incorporating real-life figures into his fiction, and Aimo was one of them.

Hemingway had a lifelong obsession with sports and physical activities, always striving to master them. He became an expert in bullfighting in Spain in the 1920s, developed a passion for big-game fishing in the 1930s in Key West, and pursued boxing, shooting, and hunting throughout his life. It is perhaps no surprise that during his time in Europe, he also developed a detailed knowledge of cycling. His friend and fellow writer John Dos Passos once remarked:

"Hem knew all the statistics and the names and lives of the riders."

While the fictional Aimo dies tragically as a young soldier, the real Bartolomeo Aimo lived a long life, dying in Turin on December 1, 1970, at the age of 81.

Major results

1921 Giro d'Italia: 3rd place overall classification Tour des Alpes Apuanes 1922 Giro d'Italia: Winner stages 5 and 9 2nd place overall classification 1923 Giro d'Italia: Winner stage 2 3rd place overall classification Giro del Piemonte 1924 Giro d'Italia: Winner stage 1 Tour de France: 4th place overall classification 1925 Tour de France: Winner stage 13 3rd place overall classification 1926 Tour de France: Winner stage 14 3rd place overall classification 1928 Giro d'Italia: 3rd place overall classification