30th is coming up shortly and I was thinking of dropping a few ideas to the gf to give her some options for a smaller gift (she’s already got me a main present).

Quite fancy some cycling related reading material, perhaps TDF related. Any suggestions for a good read? 🙂

Not TDF, but worth reading

http://www.cycleuktochina.com/

David Millar’s Autobiography?
Wiggo’s is interesting
Anything by Matt Seaton

This is really interesting…

The story of rise and rise of Team GB from hopelessly amateurish also-rans (remarkably recently!) to, well… did you watch them last night? 😯

“It’s not about the bike” Lance’s fight against cancer.

Thoroughly recommend “Bike Snob”- very funny!

I didn’t much like his 2nd book “the enlightened cyclist”- bit preachy and a bit too serious.

The Rider for some racing fiction. David Millar for some all too real non-fiction.

The Death of Marco Pantani
Racing Through the Dark – The Fall and Rise of David Millar
We Were Young and Carefree (Laurent Fignon)
The Rider – Tim Krabbe
Bad Blood – Jeremy Whittle
Rough Ride – Paul Kimmage

Cycling Home From Siberia by Rob Lilwall

T

Tomorrow We Ride – Jean Bobet.

+1 for ‘The Death of Marco Pantani’ by Matt Rendell. It’s as bleak as Coatbridge, but very nicely written. Excellent race accounts; also enjoyed the very vivid descriptions of the riders’ differing styles.

Second the “racing through the darkness” David millar. Pretty frank and really comes across well.

“How I won the Yellow Jumper” by Matt Rendall. Very funny, and a good insight into the machine of the TDF

French Revolutions. Fantastic!

Google shows the STW love for the book!

I enjoyed this

Dog in a hat review

Yellow Jumper is Ned Boulting.

I’ve read all of the books mentioned. The Rider, French Revolutions, Dog in a Hat, Pantani are the ones that leap to mind.

The Bobet and Fignon books already mentioned are very good.

Fausto Coppi – Fallen Angel
Sex Lies and handlebar Tape – Jacques Anquetil

Thoroughly recommend “Bike Snob”- very funny!

+1 for ‘Bike Snob’.

Also

Not a fan of the ghost written ‘autos’ I’m afraid, but Lance Armstrong: Tour de Force by Daniel Coyle, an interesting insite. Another thumbs up to Ned Boulting’s How I won the yellow jumper, Matt Seaton’s The Escape Artist (both very well written) and The Flying Scotsman: The Graeme Obree story. (which may well fall into the first category but is very entertaining).

Merckx: Half man, Half Bike (William Fotheringham) quality bio.

In search of Robert Millar for an interesting read about the UK’s 3rd ‘best’ Tour de France rider and anything by Graham Watson for the coffee table

+1 for Dog in a Hat, French Revolutions and How I won the yellow jumper.

Also The Hour by Dr. Hutch is pretty good.

Mud, Sweat and Gears – a good read about two friends riding LEJOG …. and drinking beer!

Bicycle Diaries – David Byrne (yes, he of Road to nowhere!)

French Revolutions and Yellow Jumper are both, as already mentioned, very good too.

As above. French Revolutions is fantastic.

Chris Hoy,

on tour with Bradley Wiggins, basicly a very good picture book of his 2011 tour

Bradley Wiggins autobiography,in pursuit of glory,

Skys the limit, about how Sky set up a cycling team,

Mark Cvendish , Boy Racer,

Stephen ROche,new book,

Cyclecraft,

How Cav Won the Green Jersey, Ned Boulting’s brief roundup of last year’s Tour follows on well from How I won the Yellow Jumper. looking forward to this year’s book.
The Bicycle Book, Bella Bathhurst (for the alliteration if nothing else)
A Race for Madmen, Chris Sidwells – not bad, the conversational writing style got on my nerves a bit, but it does a good job of covering 90-odd years of the Tour.
I wanted to like David Byrne’s Bicycle Diaries, but just found it a bit dull.
Bike Art published by Ginko Press is very nice to look at…

As mentioned;

How I won the yellow jumper

Also;

Wide Eyed & Legless – now re-released (just after I paid £30 for an original copy!!)
Nicholas Roche
David Millar
Slaying The Badger
Mark Cavendish
On Tour with Wiggo

I hate to say it but Lance Armstrong……

Avoid:

Marco Pantani – boring, boring, boring. The guy was a mess, and Matt Rendall writes as interesting as he presents on ITV4 – yawn, yawn, yawn.

It’s All About The Bike – watch the programme instead.

Oops, forgot to mention:

Flying Scotsman

This is a very good book and he’s from Sheffield.

Enjoying this at the moment:

IMAG0809 by pten2106, on Flickr

Also just finished Alistair Humphrey’s two books about his ride around the world, “Moods of future joys” & “Thunder & sunshine”.
“Backdoor to Bejing” by Chris Smith is good also.

Some good food for thought there, thanks all 🙂