The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman

The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman PDF Author: Harry Pearson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Sport
ISBN: 1472945042
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Cycling is wildly popular all over Belgium, but in the northern, Dutch-speaking half of the country it is part of the psyche. Tiny Flanders boasts a population of just 6 million, yet this small corner of northwest Europe has produced eight winners of the Tour de France, five times as many professional riders as Italy or Spain. Blending reportage, interviews, observation, biography, and history, and written with affectionate humor by a committed Belgophile, The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman tells the story of Flanders' neurotic love affair with bike racing, from tough early heroes such as Jules Vanhevel--wounded by mortar fire in World War I and leading the world championship road race until he collided with a cow--to latter-day ironmen such as Tom Boonen, three-times winner of the Tour of Flanders and owner of a pet donkey named Kamiel.

The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman

The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman PDF Author: Harry Pearson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Sport
ISBN: 1472945042
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Get Book Here

Book Description
Cycling is wildly popular all over Belgium, but in the northern, Dutch-speaking half of the country it is part of the psyche. Tiny Flanders boasts a population of just 6 million, yet this small corner of northwest Europe has produced eight winners of the Tour de France, five times as many professional riders as Italy or Spain. Blending reportage, interviews, observation, biography, and history, and written with affectionate humor by a committed Belgophile, The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman tells the story of Flanders' neurotic love affair with bike racing, from tough early heroes such as Jules Vanhevel--wounded by mortar fire in World War I and leading the world championship road race until he collided with a cow--to latter-day ironmen such as Tom Boonen, three-times winner of the Tour of Flanders and owner of a pet donkey named Kamiel.

The Monuments

The Monuments PDF Author: Peter Cossins
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408846829
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 469

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Book Description
'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, the Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Tour of Lombardy date back more than a century, and each of them is an anomaly in modern-day sport, the cycling equivalent of the Monaco Grand Prix. Time has changed them to a degree, but they remain as brutally testing as they ever have been. They provide the sport's outstanding one-day performers – the likes of Philippe Gilbert, Fabian Cancellara, Mark Cavendish, Tom Boonen, Peter Sagan and Thor Hushovd – with a chance to measure themselves against each other and their predecessors in the most challenging tests in world cycling. From the bone-shattering bowler-hat cobbles of the Paris–Roubaix (rumoured to be Bradley Wiggins' next challenge) to the insanely steep hellingen in the Tour of Flanders, each race is as unique as the riders who push themselves through extreme exhaustion to win them and enter their epic history. Over the course of a century, only Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck have won all five races. Yet victory in a single edition of a Monument guarantees a rider lasting fame. For some, that one victory has even more cachet than success in a grand tour. Each of the Monuments has a fascinating history, featuring tales of the finest and largest characters in the sport. In The Monuments, Peter Cossins tells the tumultuous history of these extraordinary races and the riders they have immortalised.

En Cyclo Pedia

En Cyclo Pedia PDF Author: Johan Tell
Publisher: Mitchell Beazley
ISBN: 178472565X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
In En Cyclo Pedia Johan Tell - award-winning Swedish writer and cycling obsessive - uncovers the very soul of cycling, exploring and explaining the many and varied stories that form the basis of cycling culture. Beautifully illustrated, with hundreds of entries ranging from Tour de France stages to illegal Alley Cat races, and cult heroes to cycling slang, Tell provides a personal insight into this complex world that only a cycling junkie can. From a pilgrimage to the Bianchi factory in Milan to scouring the streets of New York for the origins of the fixie, via the bicycle cafés of Barcelona and the cobblestones of Flanders, En Cyclo Pedia is a complete A to Z guide to the unique, indescribable character of global bike culture. Entries include: - Alley Cat Race - Bianchi - BMX - Brooks - Cafés - Campagnolo - Carbon Fibre - Drag - Environment - Films - Fixie - Grand Tours - Hand-built - Hipster - Lycra - Mountains - Nutrition - Oudenaarde - Paris-Roubaix - Quicksilver - Rouleur - Scalatore - Shaved Legs - Style - Tattoos - Ultracycling - Velodrome - XC - Zedler ...and many more

Riding in the Zone Rouge

Riding in the Zone Rouge PDF Author: Tom Isitt
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 9781409171157
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Circuit des Champs de Bataille (the Tour of the Battlefields) was held in 1919, less than six months after the end of the First World War. It covered 2,000 kilometres and was raced in appalling conditions across the battlefields of the Western Front, otherwise known as the Zone Rouge. The race was so tough that only 21 riders finished, and it was never staged again. With one of the most demanding routes ever to feature in a bicycle race, and plagued by appalling weather conditions, the Circuit des Champs de Bataille was beyond gruelling, but today its extraordinary story is largely forgotten. Many of the riders came to the event straight from the army and had to ride 18-hour stages through sleet and snow across the battlefields on which they had fought, and lost friends and family, only a few months before. But in addition to the hellish conditions there were moments of high comedy, even farce. The rediscovered story of the Circuit des Champs de Bataille is an epic tale of human endurance, suffering and triumph over extreme adversity.

The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman

The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman PDF Author: Harry Pearson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472945034
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
SHORTLISTED FOR THE TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2020 – CYCLING BOOK OF THE YEAR LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 'A joy.' – Ned Boulting Every nation shapes sport to test the character traits it most admires. In The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman, committed Belgophile and road cycling obsessive Harry Pearson takes you on a journey across Flanders, through the lumpy horizontal rain, up the elbow juddering cobbled inclines, past the fans dressed as chickens and the shop window displays of constipation medicines, as he follows races big, small and even smaller through one glorious, muddy spring. Ranging over 500 years of Flemish and European history, across windswept polders, along back roads and through an awful lot of beer cafes, Pearson examines the characters, the myths and rivalries that make Flanders a place where cycling is a religion and the riders its lycra-clad priests.

The Beautiful Race

The Beautiful Race PDF Author: Colin O'Brien
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1681777193
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
Born of tumult in 1909, the Giro d'Italia helped unite a nation. Since then, it has reflected it's home country—the Giro's capricious and unpredictable nature matches the passions and extremes of Italy itself.A desperately hard race through a beautiful country, the Giro has bred characters and stories that dramatize the shifting culture and society of its home. There was Alfonsina Strada, who cropped her hair and raced against the men in 1924, or Ottavio Bottecchia, expected to challenge for the winner's "Maglia Rosa," the famed pink jersey, in 1928, until he was killed on a training ride—most likely by Mussolini's Black Shirts. And what would a book about the Giro d'Italia be without Fausto Coppi, the metropolitan playboy with amphetamines in his veins, guided by a mystic blind masseur, who seemed to glide up the peaks. But let us not forget his arch rival Gino Bartali—humble, pious and brave. It recently emerged that he smuggled papers for persecuted Jewish Italians. Then there is the Giro's most tragic hero, Marco Pantani, born to climb but fated to lose.Halted only by World Wars, the Giro has been contested for over a century, and The Beautiful Race is a richly written celebration of this legendary race.

In Praise of the Bicycle

In Praise of the Bicycle PDF Author: Marc Augé
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1789141710
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
Witness the French anthropologist as we have never seen him before. Marc Augé coined the term “non-place” to describe the ubiquitous airports, hotels, and motorways filled with anonymous individuals. In this new book, he casts his anthropologist’s eye on a subject close to his heart: cycling. With In Praise of the Bicycle, Augé takes us on a two-wheeled ride around our cities and on a personal journey into ourselves. We all remember the thrill of riding a bike for the first time and the joys of cycling. Here he reminds us that these memories are not just personal, but rooted in a time and a place, in a history that is shared with millions of others. Part memoir, part manifesto, Augé’s book celebrates cycling as a way of reconnecting with the places in which we live, and, ultimately, as a necessary alternative to our disconnected world.

It's All About the Bike

It's All About the Bike PDF Author: Robert Penn
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608195767
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Robert Penn has saddled up nearly every day of his adult life. In his late twenties, he pedaled 25,000 miles around the world. Today he rides to get to work, sometimes for work, to bathe in air and sunshine, to travel, to go shopping, to stay sane, and to skip bath time with his kids. He's no Sunday pedal pusher. So when the time came for a new bike, he decided to pull out all the stops. He would build his dream bike, the bike he would ride for the rest of his life; a customized machine that reflects the joy of cycling. It's All About the Bike follows Penn's journey, but this book is more than the story of his hunt for two-wheel perfection. En route, Penn brilliantly explores the culture, science, and history of the bicycle. From artisanal frame shops in the United Kingdom to California, where he finds the perfect wheels, via Portland, Milan, and points in between, his trek follows the serpentine path of our love affair with cycling. It explains why we ride. It's All About the Bike is, like Penn's dream bike, a tale greater than the sum of its parts. An enthusiastic and charming tour guide, Penn uses each component of the bike as a starting point for illuminating excursions into the rich history of cycling. Just like a long ride on a lovely day, It's All About the Bike is pure joy- enriching, exhilarating, and unforgettable.

One More Croissant for the Road

One More Croissant for the Road PDF Author: Felicity Cloake
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0008304947
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
‘Joyful, life-affirming, greedy. I loved it’ – DIANA HENRY ‘Whether you are an avid cyclist, a Francophile, a greedy gut, or simply an appreciator of impeccable writing – this book will get you hooked’ – YOTAM OTTOLENGHI

Lanterne Rouge

Lanterne Rouge PDF Author: Max Leonard
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1605987875
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
Froome, Wiggins, Mercks—we know the winners of the Tour de France, but Lanterne Rouge tells the forgotten, often inspirational and occasionally absurd stories of the last-placed rider. We learn of stage winners and former yellow jerseys who tasted life at the other end of the bunch; the breakaway leader who stopped for a bottle of wine and then took a wrong turn; the doper whose drug cocktail accidentally slowed him down and the rider who was recognized as the most combative despite finishing at the back. Max Leonard flips the Tour de France on its head and examines what these stories tell us about ourselves, the 99% who don't win the trophy, and forces us to re-examine the meaning of success, failure and the very nature of sport.