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** WINNER OF THE CYCLING BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE 2019 TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS** So how do you win a bike race? Riding as fast as you could for as long as you could was the main tactic in the early days of road racing when Grand Tours could be won by hours. Now a minute’s delay thanks to a puncture could ruin a rider’s chances over a three-week race and the sport is described as nothing less than chess on wheels. The intricacies and complexities of cycling are what makes it so appealing: an eye for opportunity and a quick mind are just as crucial to success as a 'big engine' or good form. How do you cope with crosswinds, cobbles, elbows-out sprints, weaving your way throu...
'Peter Cossins is an engaging writer whose conversational style makes this an effortless yet interesting read. The cosy tone delivers a great deal with a good balance of history and anecdotes. If you wish to explore cycling beyond the Grand Tours this is the book.' - Carlton Kirby An awe-inspiring history of the five most legendary 'classic' races in world cycling. The Tour de France may provide the most obvious fame and glory, but it is cycling's one-day tests that the professional riders really prize. Toughest, longest and dirtiest of all are the so-called 'Monuments', the five legendary races that are the sport's equivalent of golf's majors or the grand slams in tennis. Milan–Sanremo, t...
It has been called the Tour de France's 'Hollywood climb', and there is no doubt that Alpe d'Huez has played a starring role in cycling's history since its first encounter with the sport back in 1952 when the legendary Fausto Coppi triumphed on the summit. Re-introduced to the Tour in 1976, Alpe d'Huez has risen to mythical status, thanks initially to a string of victories by riders from Holland, whose exploits attracted tens of thousands of their compatriots to the climb, which has become known as 'Dutch mountain'.
The autobiography of cycling's Mr Clean who refused to dope or to remain silent about doping – and was exiled from the sport. Christophe Bassons is a former professional cyclist. His career was a successful one albeit never in the full glare of the media. That all changed when, in 1998, the Festina doping scandal broke and Bassons shot to fame as one of the handful of clean riders in the peloton - and as the only professional who dared to speak openly about the topic. Having been seen as a possible champion, his instinctive and stubborn refusal to dope saw him outstripped in physique, stamina and speed by men he'd once equalled or exceeded. His willingness to denounce the doping culture se...
From its inception, the 1903 Tour de France was a colorful affair. Full of adventure, mishaps and audacious attempts at cheating, it was a race to be remembered. Cyclists of the time weren't enthusiastic about participating in this "heroic" race on roads more suited to hooves than wheels, with bikes weighing up to thirty-five pounds, on a single fixed gear, for three full weeks. Assembling enough riders for the race meant paying unemployed amateurs from the suburbs of Paris, including a butcher, a chimney sweep and a circus acrobat. From Maurice "The White Bulldog" Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman whose parents were said to have swapped him for a round of cheese in order to smuggle him into ...
Le Tour 100 is a unique and stunning visual reference to the world's greatest race. With 100 computer-generated artworks detailing the routes of the greatest stages, it relates the most dramatic moments with an exhaustively researched array of facts, figures and stories to give the reader the ultimate Tour de France book. Published to celebrate the 100th race, the 100 seminal moments of the Tour have been chosen by the panel of authors and each has been given its double-page spread showing the route, the story of the stages, the topography, pictures from the race, statistics and features. A complete gazetteer section details every route the tour took and the winners of all the jerseys, while a front section profiles the key characters that were instrumental in the Tour's story. With a combination of stunning visuals, detailed facts and gripping stories, Le Tour 100 is a celebration of the Tour De France and 110 years of racing. No other book tells the history in such a unique and beautiful way.
From the winner of the Telegraph Sports Book Awards Cycling Book of the Year 2018 The first Tour de France in 1903 was a colourful affair full of adventure, mishaps and audacious attempts at cheating. Its riders included characters like Maurice Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman, said to have been swapped for a round of cheese by his parents in order to smuggle him into France to clean chimneys as a teenager, Hippolyte Aucouturier with his trademark handlebar moustache, and amateurs like Jean Dargassies, a blacksmith who had never raced before. Would this ramshackle pack of cyclists draw crowds to throng France's rutted roads and cheer the first Tour heroes? Surprisingly it did, and, all thanks to a marketing ruse dreamed up to revive struggling newspaper L'Auto, cycling would never be the same again. Peter Cossins takes us through the inaugural Tour de France, painting a nuanced portrait of France in the early 1900s, to see where the greatest sporting event of all began.
Published to mark the 100th anniversary of the world's most prestigious cycle race - the Tour de France - this is the definitive guide. Published to mark the 100th anniversary of what is widely recognized as the world's most grueling, fiercely contested and famous cycle race, this is a lavish and impressive guide. It contains comprehensive profiles of 100 of the Tour's most famous stages, each featuring unique, detailed computer-generated artworks of the route, along with key facts, figures and information that together produce a multitude of facts and stories. In other words, a complete and expert examination of the race through its most dramatic and striking moments. The book also presents 300 fascinating photographs that capture historic events, along with a comprehensive directory listing every jersey winner, and a narrative front section that explores the more bizarre stories and myths surrounding the race. A fitting celebration of a unique sporting event.
‘They’re all scared. Everybody’s afraid’ – Eddy Merckx ‘Nothing compares to the Ventoux’ – Lance Armstrong 'Heart-stirring and jaw-dropping in equal measure' – Tim Moore 'A really excellent book' – Richard Williams The French call Ventoux ‘the killer mountain’ and in 1967 it claimed its most famous victim, as former world champion Tom Simpson died near the summit during that year’s Tour de France. The terrible ascent of Ventoux’s south side encapsulates both the brutality and beauty of this cruel sport, but also highlights cycling’s ongoing battle to distance itself from its demons. Yet it was the legendary and extreme climb of Mont Ventoux that first inspired a...
Few British schoolchildren of the seventies can have been as obsessed with the Tour de France as William Fotheringham, who smuggled copies of Miroir du Cyclisme into lessons to read inside his books. He saw the Tour for the first time in 1984, avidly following that year's race on television in the Normandy village where he lived. Since joining the Guardian in 1989, William Fotheringham has been at the forefront of British cycling journalism. Here he reflects on the events of the last twenty-three years - the triumphs, the tragedies and the scandals that have engulfed the world's most demanding sport. Key articles from his career are annotated with notes and reflections. What would he have said if he'd known then what we all know now about Lance Armstrong? Which cyclists and teams were not all they seemed? And which victories still rank as the greatest of all time? This is the definitive collection of cycling reporting.