Download or read book Two Wheels and a Will written by Colin Hunter and published by . This book was released on 2021-12-16 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever dreamed of climbing a mountain, running a marathon, racing in the Tour de France, competing in an Ironman, or just taking your bike for a multi-day ride away from it all?Cyclists, endurance athletes, travelers, and vicarious adventurers alike will love Two Wheels and a Will. This compelling introduction to ultra-endurance cycling and bikepacking follows five cyclists with varying experience as they attempt to complete a daunting multi-day race across the breathtaking yet intimidating French Pyrenees.But this book is about more than the race itself: it's a travel adventure, a self-discovery quest, and an informative dive into local French geography, history, culture, and cuisine.Most importantly, it's about the inspiring mindset of those who show up on the start line even when they aren't sure they'll succeed. Those who know that you don't have to cross the finish line to be rewarded with an immense feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction. As in life, it's what you experience during your journey, when you explore your physical and mental limits, that will transform and enlighten you.Between these pages:cyclists of all levels and disciplines will gain insight into preparing for their first (or hundredth) mountain ride;Tour de France fans will recognize many of the race's legendary climbs as they cheer on the five ultra-endurance participants; andarmchair thrill-seekers and virtual travelers will marvel at the rich details of new destinations steeped in old-world charm.After reading Two Wheels and a Will, you will never watch the Tour de France, travel to the Pyrenees, or view a cyclist in the same light. Let these five unique competitors-their courage, determination, failure, and success-inspire you.Are you ready? The adventure starts now?
Download or read book Hell on Two Wheels written by Amy Snyder and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2011-06 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contestants have died, been maimed, and spiraled down into the nightmarish realm of madness. Half of them don't finish--in fact, only 200 racers have ever made it to the end. "Outside" magazine calls it "the toughest test of endurance in the world." RAAM (the Race Across America) is a bicycle race like no other. This epic race is the most brutal organized sporting event you've never heard of and one of the best-kept secrets in the sports world. Author Amy Snyder follows a handful of athletes before, during, and after the 2009 event, the closest and most controversial in history. "Hell on Two Wheels" is a thrilling and remarkably detailed account of their ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies. By experiencing the race from the perspective of the racers themselves, "Hell on Two Wheels" breaks new ground in helping us appreciate how such a grueling effort can be so cleansing and self-revelatory. This is more than just a race; it's a monster, a crucible, an unforgettable allegory about the human experience of pain and joy and self-discovery.
Download or read book Two Wheels Good written by Jody Rosen and published by Crown. This book was released on 2023-06-13 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A panoramic revisionist portrait of the nineteenth-century invention that is transforming the twenty-first-century world “Excellent . . . calls to mind Bill Bryson, John McPhee, Rebecca Solnit.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker The bicycle is a vestige of the Victorian era, seemingly at odds with our age of smartphones and ride-sharing apps and driverless cars. Yet we live on a bicycle planet. Across the world, more people travel by bicycle than any other form of transportation. Almost anyone can learn to ride a bike—and nearly everyone does. In Two Wheels Good, journalist and critic Jody Rosen reshapes our understanding of this ubiquitous machine, an ever-present force in humanity’s life and dream life—and a flash point in culture wars—for more than two hundred years. Combining history, reportage, travelogue, and memoir, Rosen’s book sweeps across centuries and around the globe, unfolding the bicycle’s saga from its invention in 1817 to its present-day renaissance as a “green machine,” an emblem of sustainability in a world afflicted by pandemic and climate change. Readers meet unforgettable characters: feminist rebels who steered bikes to the barricades in the 1890s, a prospector who pedaled across the frozen Yukon to join the Klondike gold rush, a Bhutanese king who races mountain bikes in the Himalayas, a cycle-rickshaw driver who navigates the seething streets of the world’s fastest-growing megacity, astronauts who ride a floating bicycle in zero gravity aboard the International Space Station. Two Wheels Good examines the bicycle’s past and peers into its future, challenging myths and clichés while uncovering cycling’s connection to colonial conquest and the gentrification of cities. But the book is also a love letter: a reflection on the sensual and spiritual pleasures of bike riding and an ode to an engineering marvel—a wondrous vehicle whose passenger is also its engine.
Download or read book Revolutions written by Hannah Ross and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history and celebration of women's cycling—beginning with its origins as a political statement, beloved pastime, and early feminist act—that shares the stories of notable cyclists and groups around the world More than a century after they first entered the mainstream, bicycles and the culture around them are as accessible as ever—but for women, that progress has always been a struggle to achieve, and even now the culture remains overwhelmingly male. In Revolutions, author Hannah Ross highlights the stories of extraordinary women cyclists and all-female cycling groups over time and around the world, and demonstrates both the feminist power of cycling and its present-day issues. A cyclist herself, Ross puts a spotlight on the many incredible women and girls on bicycles from then to now—many of whom had to endure great opposition to do so, beginning in the 1880s, when the first women began setting distance records, racing competitively, and using bicycles to spread the word about women’s suffrage. Revolutions also celebrates women setting records and demanding equality in competitive cycling, as well as cyclists in countries including Afghanistan, India, and Saudi Arabia who are inspiring women to take up space on the road, trails, and elsewhere. Both a history of women's cycling and an impassioned manifesto, Revolutions challenges a male-dominated narrative that has long prevailed in cycling and celebrates the excellence of women in the culture.
Download or read book Around The World On Two Wheels written by Peter Zheutlin and published by Kensington Publishing Corp.. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peter Zheutlin's thoroughly researched account will make you wish you'd been around to catch a glimpse of the extraordinary woman as she went wheeling by. --Bill Littlefield, National Public Radio's Only A Game Until 1894 there were no female sport stars, no product endorsement deals, and no young mothers with the chutzpah to circle the globe on a bicycle. Annie Londonderry changed all of that. When Annie left Boston in June of that year, she was a brash young lady with a 42-pound bicycle, a revolver, a change of underwear, and a dream of freedom. She was also a feisty mother of three who had become the center of what one newspaper called "one of the most novel wagers ever made": a high-stakes bet between two wealthy merchants that a woman could not ride around the world on a bicycle. The epic journey that followed took the connection between athletics and commercialism to dizzying new heights, and turned Annie Londonderry into a symbol of women's equality. A vastly entertaining blend of social history, high adventure, and maverick marketing, Around the World on Two Wheels is an unforgettable portrait of courage, imagination, and tenacity. "Annie was a remarkable woman and well worth getting to know." --Booklist "A wonderful telling of one of the most intriguing, offbeat, and until now, lost chapters in the history of cycling." --David Herlihy, author of Bicycle: The History "A pleasant, affectionate portrait of a free spirit who pedaled her way out of Victorian constraints." --Kirkus Reviews "[A] charming and informative book." --Cape Cod Times "[An] incredible story. . .[a] fascinating book." --NextReads "[A] stirring tale. . .not only a must read, but a must have." --Western Writers of America Roundup Magazine "[A] remarkable saga." --The Winston-Salem (NC) Journal "[R]ead[s]. . .like a novel." --The Columbia (SC) State "[M]eticulously researched. . .illuminat[es] the feeling of a bygone era." --The Portsmouth (NH) Wire Peter Zheutlin has been chasing the story of his great-grandaunt Annie Londonderry for more than four years. He is an avid cyclist and a freelance journalist whose work appears regularly in the Boston Globe and the Christian Science Monitor. He has also written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, AARP Magazine, Bicycling, the New England Quarterly, and other publications. He lives in Needham, Massachusetts.
Download or read book Two Wheels written by Greg Moody and published by . This book was released on 1998-06-19 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A murder mystery set in the world of European professional cycling.
Download or read book It s All About the Bike written by Robert Penn and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-04-26 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book One Way Ticket written by Jonathan Vaughters and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new memoir tracing story of cycling since the 1980s, through the eyes of Jonathan Vaughters, founder of team Education First and one of the sport's most towering figures. Jonathan Vaughters' story is the story of modern cycling. From his early years as a keen cyclist in his hometown in Colorado to his unflinching rite of passage as a professional rider with US Postal to his elevation as one of cycling's most resilient, ethical and intelligent team bosses, the highs and lows of his career have mirrored those of the sport itself. Vaughters has had a front-row seat for most of the major events in cycling over the past three decades. He was both a former teammate of Lance and a leading witness against him. And he went on to renounce doping and start the first pro cycling team to dedicate itself to clean riding, which has grown into one of the most successful teams competing today and started a movement that has swept across the sport. This is also not simply a story of races won and lost: Vaughters shows readers how he navigated the complex, international business of building Slipstream into a world-class cycling team. Over the past decade, he has led the sport out of the scandal-plagued Armstrong era. By presenting the world with a team made of talented racers built around a rigorous approach to clean racing, he set a new standard within cycling that has since spread across the peloton. Written from the unique perspective of both a racer and a team manager, One-Way Ticket gives the complete story of what it takes to build a winning team and repair the reputation of a sport.
Download or read book France on Two Wheels written by Adam Ruck and published by Short Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Adam Ruck, France and cycling go together like a rich Camembert and a heady glass of Bordeaux.
Download or read book Re Cyclists written by Michael Hutchinson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-03-23 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'As if Bill Bryson had taken to two wheels' - FT Somewhere in a German forest 200 years ago, during the darkest, wettest summer for centuries, the story of cycling began. The calls to ban it were more or less immediate. Re:Cyclists is the tale of the following two centuries. It tells how cycling became a kinky vaudeville act for Parisians, how it was the basis of an American business empire to rival Henry Ford's, and how it found a unique home in the British Isles. The Victorian love of cycling started with penny-farthing riders, who explored lonely roads that had been left abandoned by the coming of the railways. Then high-society took to it - in the 1980s the glittering parties of the London Season featured bicycles dancing in the ballroom, and every member of the House of Lords rode a bike. Twentieth-century cycling was very different, and even more popular. It became the sport and the pastime of millions of ordinary people who wanted to escape the city smog, or to experience the excitement of a weekend's racing. Cycling offered adventure and independence in the good times, and consolation during the war years and the Great Depression. Re:Cyclists tells the story of cycling's glories and also of its despairs, of how it only just avoided extinction in the motoring boom of the 1960s. And finally, at the dawn of the 21st century, it celebrates how cycling rose again - a little different, a lot more fashionable, but still about the same simple pleasures that it always has been: the wind in your face and the thrill of two-wheeled freedom.
Download or read book Two Wheels North written by Evelyn McDaniel Gibb and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A captivating account of a journey in 1909 that today we can only dream about--one that finds two boys on the road not only to Seattle, but also to manhood.
Download or read book How to Be a Cyclist written by John Deering and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2014-09-04 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two experts offer this comprehensive guide to modern-day bicycling. No bicycle repair was ever made easier by turning your bike upside down. White shorts are for other people. A helmet perched on the back of your head is perfect if you ride your bike backwards—These and a host of other handy pointers jostle for attention within this A to Z guide to being a cyclist. It’s an essential manual and source of wisdom for those who would be kings of the road. Many pitfalls await the unwary middle-aged-man-in-Lycra, but fear not, for the Guide is here to steer you through choppy waters. No more passing out halfway up a hill. No more ridicule in the workplace. No more hurty knee. And no more sock crimes. Pearls of wisdom are scattered throughout this book like rose petals before a princess on her wedding day. For instance, who could deny that life is too short to drink bad coffee? That a noisy bike is marginally more annoying than a whiney toddler? Or that style should ever be sacrificed for speed? Written by experts who know everything there is to know about cycling, yet never forget that there is nothing funnier than a rabbit playing a trumpet, How to be a Cyclist is mandatory reading for all bike riders. “Prepare to have your wanderlust stoked.” —The Herald (UK)
Download or read book One Man and His Bike written by Mike Carter and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-06-02 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would happen if you were cycling to the office and just kept on pedalling? Needing a change, Mike Carter did just that. Following the Thames to the sea he embarked on an epic 5,000 mile ride around the entire British coastline - the equivalent of London to Calcutta. He encountered drunken priests, drag queens and gnome sanctuaries. He met fellow travellers and people building for a different type of future. He also found a spirit of unbelievable kindness and generosity that convinced him that Britain is anything but broken. This is the inspiring and very funny tale of the five months Mike spent cycling the byways of the nation.
Download or read book Holy Spokes written by Everett, Laura E. and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2017 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After Laura Everett's car died on the highway one rainy night, she made the utterly practical decision to start riding her bicycle to work through the streets of Boston. Seven years later, she's never looked back. Holy Spokes tells the story of Everett's unlikely conversion to urban cycling. As she pedaled her way into a new way of life, Everett discovered that her year-round bicycle commuting wasn't just benefiting her body, her wallet, and her environment. It was enriching her soul. Ride along with Everett through Holy Spokes as she explores the history of cycling, makes friends with a diverse and joyful community of fellow cyclists, gets up close and personal with the city she loves--and begins to develop a deep, robust, and distinctly urban spirituality.
Download or read book Two Wheels South written by Matias Corea and published by Die Gestalten Verlag-DGV. This book was released on 2019-04-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Go on the trip of a lifetime. Two Wheels South shows you how to realize your own journey. Two friends take the motorcycle trip of their life--From Brooklyn to Patagonia. Matias Corea shares his insights on how to prepare, choose the right motorcycle, what to pack, how to plan the route, where to camp and last but not least: How to prepare your mind. Setbacks and breaking down are part of the adventure, but preparation and being on the road teach you the confidence to tackle any problem. Follow Matias Corea and his friend Joel through the American South, Central America over the Darien Gap and beyond, over wooden cracking jungle bridges in Colombia and to dry lake high plateaus in Argentina. Feel the character of the roads and the smell of nature: Riding a motorcycle is one of the purest forms of traveling. After 7 months and 13 countries Matias and Joel have learned a lot while riding down south on their trusty BMW air-cooled G / S overland haulers and are ready to share their experience. Two Wheels South invites you on the experience of a lifetime.
Download or read book Heft on Wheels written by Mike Magnuson and published by Crown. This book was released on 2005-05-24 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take one very large guy. Add booze, cigarettes, and an extreme amount of junk food. Mix in a wry, self-effacing wit. Throw in a bike. The result? Heft on Wheels, a potently funny look at turning your life around, one insanely unrealistic goal at a time. Not that long ago, Mike Magnuson was a self-described lummox with a bicycle. In the space of three months, he lost seventy-five pounds, quit smoking, stopped drinking, and morphed from the big guy at the back of the pack into a lean, mean cycling machine. Today, Mike is a 175-pound athlete competing in some of the most difficult one-day racing events in America. This irreverent and inspiring memoir charts every hilarious detail of his transformation, from the horrors of skin-tight XXL biking shorts to the miseries of nicotine withdrawal. Heft on Wheels is an unforgettable book about getting from one place to another, in more ways than one.
Download or read book America on Two Wheels written by David King and published by . This book was released on 2022-03-09 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2015, 36-year-old Chicago resident David King finds himself at a personal and professional crossroads. Feeling bored and restless, he longs to strike out on a crazy journey in a quest for beauty, kindness, and inspiration as to where his life should go from here. Having taken up biking as a hobby, he consults a map of the United States and, in a spur-of-the-moment decision, vows to ride across the country - from San Diego to Miami. Over the course of four months, "America on Two Wheels: Biking Coast to Coast in Search of Human Stories" follows David's journey as he pedals more than 3,000 miles across mountains, desert, bayou, and tropical flatlands, overcoming physical and mental challenges in pursuit of a destination he's not sure he'll even reach. Painting a tableau of adventure and a world of possibility in the vein of Jack Kerouac or Paul Theroux, he introduces readers to an unforgettable cast of characters and their unsung acts of kindness. David invites the reader to join him on a journey through fear, doubt, patience, and discovery - not just across a continent, but toward a profound lesson of gratitude. Part travelogue, part memoir, part spiritual journey, "America on Two Wheels" is an ode to pursuing the open road with an open heart.
