Nothing too heavy. What's good?
French Revolutions is rather fun.
CFH is spot on.
'Riding High - Shadow cycling the Tour de France' by Paul Howard if you want to get an insight into what it takes for a club rider to ride le tour
+ 1 for french revolutions or Blazing Saddles by Matt Rendall.
Avoid anything with "Armstrong" in the title
Another 1+ for French Revolutions
I found Rough Ride by Paul Kimmage hard to get into at first but it was quite enlightening.
Read both Armstrong books the other week within a couple of days, I was left with the impression that there are two sides to every story and he was definately revealing only the smallest of detail about his life.
"Tomorrow, We Ride" by Jean Bobet.
If he doesn't make you want to ride, you have a heart of stone.
yet another for french revolutions - very funny.
I enjoyed its not about the bike (Armstrong)
But it is clearly let down by the I love my wife stuff.articularly as he goes on to dump her. But its still a good readf
l agree with blazing saddles, its great. Mad what some of them had to do in the early days
Two cycling books that reference the tdf but not necessarily about it:
the death of marco pantani by matt rendell, really captures the excitement of racing
and the rider by tim krabbe. Easy read but almost a mediation on riding. satisfying.
I really enjoyed "A Significant Other" by Matt Rendell and Victor Hugo Pena.
Not a TDF book but "A Dog in a Hat" by Joe Parkin is excellent.
Rough Ride by Kimmage, I didn't enjoy. The bitter whining of a nearly-man.
Another rec for French Revolutions.
avoid "the tour de france" by graham fife .... i ended up with it in a book swap from a hostel ...
good if you want a history text book !
French Revolutions.
Cavendish's one is a decent read. Well worth a pop.
Richard Moore's one on Chris Hoy/British Track Cycling and his one on Robert Millar were both good reads too although not TDF related.
But yeah French Revolutions was fun.
Re-reading French revolutions at the mo, recommend any of the other Tim Moore books too
'The Great Bike Race' by Geoffrey Nicholson
Chronicles Van Impes 1976 Tour win. I've read it many times gritty and inspirational, though it might be a book of an age, including mine 😐
Lot of good books recommended. I would add Boy Racer- Mark Cavendish Biog. I was a bit sceptical,but its very good- extremely current, great insight into how BC runs ( prob most interesting bit imo) and life as pro in the peleton, a lot about last years tour and well written as ghost written biogs go.
Another vote for [i]French Revolutions[/i] took it to France in 2003 while staying at my mothers.
My wife almost banned me from reading it in bed because I kept her awake with my helpless giggling but in the end she was so intrigued she read it in the 2nd week 😀
This year while in France I read Richard Moore's one on Chris Hoy/British Track Cycling which was also very good in a feel good about being British sort of way.
I read the Robert Millar one earlier this year and although it was good from my point of view as someone who was racing in the early 80's it was slightly like reading someone's training/race diary.
And yet another vote for French Revolutions 🙂
A
.
Limited choice. Ended up with 23 days in July.
Will hunt down a copy of French revolutions.
[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/French-Revolutions-Cycling-Tour-France/dp/0099433826 ]French-Revolutions[/url]
Bad Blood: The secret life of the tour de france (by Jeremy Whittle)
I enjoyed 23 Days in July, more a blow by blow account of the tour rather than anything else, but good.
French Revolutions is nothing short of fantastic.
The Vin Denson's book is good and all the better that its written by the rider who is still around
Obree's book is worth a read
Hinault did a book (out of print) which is good
for ethical reasons I'd avoid
the Whittle and the Pantani book personally as journo's making money out of doping is almost as bad as the doping its self, (Kimmage is allowed the Rough Ride but not the subsequent career on the back of it)
and
"In search of RM" outed a very private man unnecessarially don't buy/ read on principle
Rough Ride by Kimmage, I didn't enjoy. The bitter whining of a nearly-man.
The writings of a bloody hard man
Just finished Tour de Force and that was a good read, but haven't read anything like it before...
[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lance-Armstrong-Force-Dan-Coyle/dp/0007195281/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246088102&sr=1-3 ]Tour de Force[/url]
Much better than Armstrong's books and a good insight into him and other riders.
"Push Yourself Just a Little Bit More" by Johnny Green. Yes Clash fans that Johnny Green.
Johnny gets Press Accreditation and follows the Tour from the inside.
"French Revolutions" and "A Significant Other" are also god reads.
+1 for French revolutins by Tim Moore. Its funny and you can relate to it as its an ordinary bloke riding the route rather than some kind of superman figure.
Reading French Revolutions earlier this year made me want to go touring which I did a few weeks ago. Would love to do a TdF route and wonder what year's one would be the best to do - one that is as close to a continuous loop as possible I suppose.
The Kimmage book is very good too and think it's good he continuous to do what he does.
Death of Pantani is another good one.
Mudshark- the most continuous loop? There is nearly 300 miles between Tarbes and Limoges and 400+ miles from mont ventoux to Paris, in what way is this a continous loop?.
Sorry mudshark I hadn't woken up, as you can gather not this years, recently, well probably last years, as Prudhomme made it a big part of the race that there were as few transfers as possible.
for ethical reasons I'd avoid
the Whittle and the Pantani book
eh? so you saying that either all the riders are clean or perhaps that maybe it should just be brushed under the carpet in a dont-spit-in-the-soup kinda way?
our 'heroes' have feet of clay. personally i haven't recovered my belief since finding out about mr sixty%'s jeux plane escapades being epo induced.
no, they are fraudsters and should face criminal trials. The UK and other countries should follow others examples and create the crime of "sporting fraud". Drug cheats steal the soul from sport.
Campaigning and truthful reportage across all sports is needed not the rubbish that goes on now.
the book writing journalists are just leeches writing what they want about a situation they knew about at the time, they too chose not to spit in the soup when it was happening. Therefore they are also culpable for what has happened to the sport.The holier than thou crap they spout in books as "revelations" is just exploitation
big-n-daft- its a bit early mate to be drinking, Im sure when you're sober you will realise your rant doesn't make sense "we need truthful reportage but journos who write books about drugs are leeches" WTF? :lol:.
I've just finished In Search of Tom Simpson, which was quite good.
Sorry to buck the trend, but I found "French Revolutions" a bit dull and "Push Yourself a Little Bit Harder" was just irritating. IMO.
the point is that during the era that doping was at it's height non of the journalists blew the whistle (probably because they would lose their accreditation)
example: coverage of the entire PDM team leaving the tour one year danced around the whole issue
they bothered to get out of the press room and find the real story and also expose the other sports that are doping systematically as well
the self same journalists wait for the climate to change to write their exposee's of the situation and to take a moral stance they never had at the time
leeches and cowards...
ahem, it "Put Me Back on My Bike (In search of Tom Simpson)" 🙂
Given the grief that Kimmage got at the time, and subsequently, from both the cycling establishment and shamefully, from cycling 'fans', it's no surprise that journalists whose careers depended on cycling were loathe to dig deeper.
The rubbish talked about Pantani before and after his death by those who blinded themselves to his obvious performance enhancement was a case in point; finding out your heroes have feet of clay and blood like syrup is a wake-up call...
The PDM fiasco was about the use (and incorrect storage, ie put it in the fridge...) of intravenous feeding, still perfectly legal today, so a bit of a red herring.
Rough Ride by Kimmage.
A Piepers Tale by Allan Pieper.
Bad Blood by Jeremy Whittle.
You should read both Bad Blood and Armstrongs books at the same time and make your own mind up :0)
Plenty of Journos and riders try and blow the whistle but get ignored, bullied and lose their livelihood.
See Italian National Champs team not making the Giro for the repucussions of what happened years ago.
French Revolutions by Tim Moore - one of the only books that made me laugh out loud.
Dog In A Hat by Joe Parkin - Good insight into what it takes to become a pro rider in Europe, and what they have to do to survive when they're not one of the Peleton's superstars.
In Search Of Robert Millar by Richard Moore - Very interesting book, about a very interesting character.
The Full Cycle by Vin Denson - Denson wasn't a superstar of the peleton, but he worked for some of the biggest names in the sport. Very interesting read.