The Daily Telegraph Book of the Tour de France

The Daily Telegraph Book of the Tour de France PDF Author: Martin Smith
Publisher: Aurum
ISBN: 1781310351
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
A man, a bike and the open road. What could be simpler? Certainly not the Tour de France, the annual travelling circus which for more than a century has been the ultimate test of sporting endurance.There’s been pain. There’s been joy. There’s been death. There’s been derring-do of mythic proportions. There’s been cheating. There’ve been drugs. There’ve always been drugs. And there’s always been the Daily Telegraph. On the peaks of Mont Ventoux, Alpe D’Huez and Col du Galibier, in amongst the picnicking, partying crowds, whizzing through London in 2007’s wondrous opening stage, dropping in and out of the peloton, the Telegraph has been there for every turn of the wheel. The book features eyewitness accounts of cycling greats Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Lance Armstrong, along with details of the contest’s darker side – including the 1967 death of Tom Simpson and the stain of doping. Boasting contemporary, firsthand reports from leading cycling correspondents including J.B Wadley, David Saunders and Phil Liggett, this book captures the full drama of the tour. Chris Boardman and David Millar provide views from the saddle; James Cracknell swaps his boat for a bike on a pre-race reconnaissance mission; Paul Hayward catalogues the 1998 ‘Tour of Shame’; while Brendan Gallagher eulogises the colossi who bestrode the race, and searches for their modern-day successors. Together, they chronicle the greatest show on two wheels. Martin Smith was formerly assistant sports editor and sports writer at the Daily Telegraph, where he worked for more than twenty years. An enthusiastic cyclist in his youth, he graduated to the less arduous four wheels as soon as he was able.

The Daily Telegraph Book of the Tour de France

The Daily Telegraph Book of the Tour de France PDF Author: Martin Smith
Publisher: Aurum
ISBN: 1781310351
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description
A man, a bike and the open road. What could be simpler? Certainly not the Tour de France, the annual travelling circus which for more than a century has been the ultimate test of sporting endurance.There’s been pain. There’s been joy. There’s been death. There’s been derring-do of mythic proportions. There’s been cheating. There’ve been drugs. There’ve always been drugs. And there’s always been the Daily Telegraph. On the peaks of Mont Ventoux, Alpe D’Huez and Col du Galibier, in amongst the picnicking, partying crowds, whizzing through London in 2007’s wondrous opening stage, dropping in and out of the peloton, the Telegraph has been there for every turn of the wheel. The book features eyewitness accounts of cycling greats Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Lance Armstrong, along with details of the contest’s darker side – including the 1967 death of Tom Simpson and the stain of doping. Boasting contemporary, firsthand reports from leading cycling correspondents including J.B Wadley, David Saunders and Phil Liggett, this book captures the full drama of the tour. Chris Boardman and David Millar provide views from the saddle; James Cracknell swaps his boat for a bike on a pre-race reconnaissance mission; Paul Hayward catalogues the 1998 ‘Tour of Shame’; while Brendan Gallagher eulogises the colossi who bestrode the race, and searches for their modern-day successors. Together, they chronicle the greatest show on two wheels. Martin Smith was formerly assistant sports editor and sports writer at the Daily Telegraph, where he worked for more than twenty years. An enthusiastic cyclist in his youth, he graduated to the less arduous four wheels as soon as he was able.

The First Tour de France

The First Tour de France PDF Author: Peter Cossins
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568589859
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
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 France as a fourteen-year-old, to Hippolyte Aucouturier, who looked like a villain from a Buster Keaton movie with his jersey of horizontal stripes and handlebar moustache, the cyclists were a remarkable bunch. Starting in the Parisian suburb of Montgeron, the route took the intrepid cyclists through Lyon, over the hills to Marseille, then on to Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Nantes, ending with great fanfare at the Parc des Princes in Paris. There was no indication that this ramshackle cycling pack would draw crowds to throng France's rutted roads and cheer the first Tour heroes. But they did; and all thanks to a marketing ruse, cycling would never be the same again.

The Secret Race

The Secret Race PDF Author: Tyler Hamilton
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0345530438
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
“The holy grail for disillusioned cycling fans . . . The book’s power is in the collective details, all strung together in a story that is told with such clear-eyed conviction that you never doubt its veracity. . . . The Secret Race isn’t just a game changer for the Lance Armstrong myth. It’s the game ender.”—Outside NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD The Secret Race is the book that rocked the world of professional cycling—and exposed, at long last, the doping culture surrounding the sport and its most iconic rider, Lance Armstrong. Former Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton was once one of the world’s top-ranked cyclists—and a member of Lance Armstrong’s inner circle. Over the course of two years, New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle conducted more than two hundred hours of interviews with Hamilton and spoke with numerous teammates, rivals, and friends. The result is an explosive page-turner of a book that takes us deep inside a shadowy, fascinating, and surreal world of unscrupulous doctors, anything-goes team directors, and athletes so relentlessly driven to win that they would do almost anything to gain an edge. For the first time, Hamilton recounts his own battle with depression and tells the story of his complicated relationship with Lance Armstrong. This edition features a new Afterword, in which the authors reflect on the developments within the sport, and involving Armstrong, over the past year. The Secret Race is a courageous, groundbreaking act of witness from a man who is as determined to reveal the hard truth about his sport as he once was to win the Tour de France. With a new Afterword by the authors. “Loaded with bombshells and revelations.”—VeloNews “[An] often harrowing story . . . the broadest, most accessible look at cycling’s drug problems to date.”—The New York Times “ ‘If I cheated, how did I get away with it?’ That question, posed to SI by Lance Armstrong five years ago, has never been answered more definitively than it is in Tyler Hamilton’s new book.”—Sports Illustrated “Explosive.”—The Daily Telegraph (London)

Le Tour

Le Tour PDF Author: Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0743449924
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
When Henri Desgrange began a new bicycle road race in 1903, he saw it as little more than a temporary publicity stunt to promote his newspaper. The 60 cyclists who left Paris to ride through the night to Lyons that first July had little idea they were pioneers of the most famous of all bike races, which would reach its centenary as one of the greatest sporting events on earth. Geoffrey Wheatcroft's masterly history of the Tour de France's first hundred years is not just a hugely entertaining canter through some great Tour stories; nor is it merely a homage to the riders whose names—Coppi, Simpson, Mercx, Armstrong—are synonymous with the event's folly and glory. Focusing too on the race's role in French cultural life, it provides a unique and fascinating insight into Europe's 20th century.

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.

The Tour According to G

The Tour According to G PDF Author: Geraint Thomas
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1787479048
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
The inspirational inside story from the 2018 Tour de France and Sports Personality of the Year winner "This year G was the strongest rider, and he finally had Lady Luck on his side. An unstoppable combination" Chris Froome "I understood what Geraint's win meant: for him, for me, for the team, and for Wales, too" Dave Brailsford "Wow!" Thierry Henry For years Geraint Thomas appeared blessed with extraordinary talent but jinxed at the greatest bike race in the world: twice an Olympic gold medallist on the track, Commonwealth champion, yet at the Tour de France a victim of crashes, bad luck and his willingness to sacrifice himself for his team-mates. In the summer of 2018, that curse was blown away in spectacular fashion - from the cobbles of the north and the iconic mountain climbs of the Alps to the brutal slopes of the Pyrenees and, finally, the Champs-Elysees in Paris. As a boy, G had run home from school on summer afternoons to watch the Tour on television. This July, across twenty-one stages and three weeks, and under constant attack from his rivals, he made the race his own. With insight from the key characters around Geraint, this is the inside story of one of the most thrilling and heart-warming tales in sport. Not only can nice guys come first - they can win the biggest prize of all.

Magic Spanner

Magic Spanner PDF Author: Carlton Kirby
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472959868
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
"Mr Cycling," Eurosport commentator Carlton Kirby, offers an expert, behind-the-scenes view of the world's greatest cycling races, including the Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana, Giro d'Italia and the classics. Written with a candid and amusing authority that comes from over 25 years of sports commentary with Eurosport, Carlton Kirby gives an insider's view of competitive cycling delivered in the inimitable, humorous, and at times outspoken style for which he has become globally famous. Peppered with hilarious anecdotes of life on the road with Tour legend Sean Kelly, Kirby indulges in some soap-box moments to lambast his various bugbears, from crazy spectators in mankinis and lazy Italian monks to the more serious issues of rider safety, team strategies and questionable ethics. With his mix of expert opinion and trademark wit, Carlton covers the funny, the serious, the heartbreaking, and the more bizarre moments of professional cycling.

French Revolutions

French Revolutions PDF Author: Tim Moore
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312316129
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
French Revolutions gives us a hilariously unforgettable account of Moore's attempt to conquer the Tour de France.

We Were Young and Carefree

We Were Young and Carefree PDF Author: Laurent Fignon
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1407075217
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
'Ah, I remember you: you're the guy who lost the Tour de France by eight seconds!' 'No monsieur, I'm the guy who won the Tour twice. The international bestselling autobiography of the legendary French cyclist Laurent Fignon Two-time winner of the Tour de France in the early eighties, Laurent Fignon became the star for a new generation. In the 1989 tour, he lost out to his American arch-rival, Greg LeMond, by an agonising eight seconds. In this revealing account, the former champion spares nobody, not even himself, and pulls back the curtain on what really went on behind the scenes of this epic sport - the friendships, the rivalries, the betrayals, the parties, the girls and, of course, the performance-enhancing drugs. Fignon's story bestrides a golden age in cycling: a time when the headlines spoke of heroes, not doping, and a time when cyclists were afraid of nothing. ‘Sports book of the year: He's ruthlessly honest, about himself and about cycling, and he provides a gripping insight into an unrelenting hard world’ Independent

Boy Racer

Boy Racer PDF Author: Mark Cavendish
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0091932777
Category : Cyclists
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Now contains a brand new chapter detailing Mark's record breaking 2009 TourBoy Racer steps behind the scenes of the Tour de France. It unmasks the exotic, contradictory, hysterical and brutal world of professional cycling from the c