Download or read book The Secret Race written by Tyler Hamilton and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2012-09-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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)

Download or read book The First Tour de France written by Peter Cossins and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Tour de Force written by Mark Cavendish and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From illness and mental health challenges to becoming the most successful British cyclist at the age of 22, Mark Cavendish shares his inspiring account of his record-breaking rise to the top of the world's biggest cycling stage at the 2021 Tour de France. Deep down, Mark Cavendish thought he was finished. After illness, setbacks and clinical depression, the once fastest man in the world had been written off by most. And at the age of 36, even he believed his explosive cycling career would fade out with a whimper. The Manxman hadn't won a single Grand Tour stage in Italy, Spain, or France since 2016. But then came his incredible resurrection at the 2021 Tour de France. Included on the Deceuninck Quick-Step team at the very last minute, only after Sam Bennett suffered an injury, Mark set about rewriting history. He claimed back the green jersey he first wore in 2011, and his four stage victories finally saw him matching Belgian legend Eddy Merckx's all-time record of 34 Tour de France stage wins. Cycling greats are never content, and Cavendish's dogged determination and inner strength had earned him the record that few believed he could ever achieve. This is his own intimate account of that race, right from the saddle of the miracle tour. Praise for Tour de Force: "The greatest comeback in sports history." —GQ magazine "A miracle." —Eddy Merckx

Download or read book Tour de France written by Christopher S. Thompson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2008-03-08 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this highly original history of the world's most famous bicycle race, Christopher S. Thompson, mining previously neglected sources and writing with infectious enthusiasm for his subject, tells the compelling story of the Tour de France from its creation in 1903 to the present. Weaving the words of racers, politicians, Tour organizers, and a host of other commentators together with a wide-ranging analysis of the culture surrounding the event including posters, songs, novels, films, and media coverage Thompson links the history of the Tour to key moments and themes in French history. Examining the enduring popularity of Tour racers, Thompson explores how their public images have changed over the past century. A new preface explores the long-standing problem of doping in light of recent scandals.

Download or read book The Science of the Tour de France written by James Witts and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-06-16 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to create a world-class cyclist. James Witts invites you into the world of marginal gains to discover the innovative training techniques, nutrition strategies and cutting-edge gear that are giving today's elite cyclists the competitive advantage. Find out why Formula One telemetry is key to more bike speed; how power meters dictate training sessions and race strategy; how mannequins, computational fluid dynamics and wind-tunnels are elevating aerodynamics to the next level; why fats and training on water alone are popular in the peloton; and why the future of cycling will involve transcranial brain stimulation and wearable technology. With contributions from the world's greatest riders, including Marcel Kittel, Peter Sagan and Bauke Mollema, and the teams that work alongside them: Etixx-Quick Step, Team Sky, Tinkoff, Movistar, BMC Racing, Trek-Segafredo and many more. Also meet the teams' sports scientists, coaches, nutritionists and chefs, who reveal the pioneering science that separates Contador and Cancellara from the recreational rider. To win the Tour de France takes stamina, speed, strength... and science.

Download or read book Pop up Tour de France written by Pamela Pease and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each July, nearly two hundred cyclists embark on a race which loops around the entire country of France. The Tour de France is one of the most exciting and challenging sports events in the world! Follow the ultimate cycling adventure in the pages of this book. Ride with Tour competitors through the French countryside, up dramatic Alpine mountains, then sprint to the finish line on the streets of Paris. Learn how riders train, strategize and collaborate in their quest for the Yellow Jersey.

Download or read book The Official History of The Tour De France written by Andy McGrath and published by Welbeck. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Official History of the Tour de France is a celebration of one of the greatest annual sporting events, and the premier competition in world cycling. Through more than 300 photographs, rarely-seen documents and items of memorabilia, this book covers more than a century of fascinating stories on the Tour and its iconic yellow jersey. This revised and updated edition includes an authoritative narrative account of each major era, up to and including the thrilling 2020 Tour - a dramatic contest completed against all the odds - and a preview of the 2021 event. There are features on superstar cyclists and memorable moments from each period of the event's rich history, and a foreword from legendary Tour de France champion Stephen Roche, all of which combines to form the definitive illustrated book on the Tour.

Download or read book Lanterne Rouge written by Max Leonard and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

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 Tomorrow We Ride written by Jean Bobet and published by Mousehold Press for Basque Children of '37 Association UK. This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the lives of the Bobet brothers - Louison, triple Tour de France winner and Jean who gave up an academic career to ride in the service of his brother. This story brings alive the romance of the great races and star riders of those post war days whose exploits lifted the public spirit after years of conflict and economic hardship.

Download or read book The Comeback written by Daniel de Visé and published by Atlantic Monthly Press. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Greg LeMond was Lance Armstrong before Lance Armstrong . . . the story of a true hero . . . This is a must read if you believe in miracles.”―John Feinstein, New York Times–bestselling author In July 1986, Greg LeMond stunned the sporting world by becoming the first American to win the Tour de France, the world’s pre-eminent bicycle race, defeating French cycling legend Bernard Hinault. Nine months later, LeMond lay in a hospital bed, his life in peril after a hunting accident, his career as a bicycle racer seemingly over. And yet, barely two years after this crisis, LeMond mounted a comeback almost without parallel in professional sports. In summer 1989, he again won the Tour—arguably the world’s most grueling athletic contest—by the almost impossibly narrow margin of 8 seconds over another French legend, Laurent Fignon. It remains the closest Tour de France in history. “[A] blend of chaos, kindness and cruelty typifies the scenes that journalist de Visé brings to life in this sympathetic-verging-on-reverential retelling of LeMond’s trailblazing career (first American to enter the tour, first to win it) . . . As an author in quest of his protagonist’s motivation, [de Visé] subjects it to extreme torque.”—The Washington Post “A great book . . . Well written and thoroughly researched . . . Engrossing and hard to put down. If you’re a Greg LeMond fan, The Comeback is a must read because it’s a detailed accounting of his career and―more importantly―his life and person off the bike. It’s also an important reminder that American cycling did not begin and end with Lance Armstrong.”—PEZ

Download or read book An Intimate Portrait of the Tour de France written by Philippe Brunel and published by . This book was released on 1996-12-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sprinting Through No Man s Land written by Adin Dobkin and published by Little A. This book was released on 2021-07 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiring, heart-pumping true story of soldiers turned cyclists and the historic 1919 Tour de France that helped to restore a war-torn country and its people. On June 29, 1919, one day after the Treaty of Versailles brought about the end of World War I, nearly seventy cyclists embarked on the thirteenth Tour de France. From Paris, the war-weary men rode down the western coast on a race that would trace the country's border, through seaside towns and mountains to the ghostly western front. Traversing a cratered postwar landscape, the cyclists faced near-impossible odds and the psychological scars of war. Most of the athletes had arrived straight from the front, where so many fellow countrymen had suffered or died. The cyclists' perseverance and tolerance for pain would be tested in a grueling, monthlong competition. An inspiring true story of human endurance, Sprinting Through No Man's Land explores how the cyclists united a country that had been torn apart by unprecedented desolation and tragedy. It shows how devastated countrymen and women can come together to celebrate the adventure of a lifetime and discover renewed fortitude, purpose, and national identity in the streets of their towns.

Download or read book Inside the Peloton written by Nicolas Roche and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: cycling.

Download or read book Le Tour written by Geoffrey Wheatcroft and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Selling the Yellow Jersey written by Eric Reed and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-01-07 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eric Reed examines the Tour de France's development as well as the event's global athletic, cultural, and commercial influences. He explores the behind-the-scenes growth of the Tour, while simultaneously chronicling France's role as a dynamic force in the global arena.

Download or read book A Race for Madmen written by Chris Sidwells and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2010 with total page 21 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No sporting event has had its past and present, its highs and lows so intricately entwined with those of a country like the Tour has with France.