Download or read book The Tour is Won on the Alpe written by Jean-Paul Vespini and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If there is one mountain climb that embodies the spirit and magic of the Tour de France, it is the Alpe d'Huez. Its twenty-one hairpin turns and average gradient of 8.1 percent over 13.1 kilometers have become legendary, changing the careers of Americans Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong, and nearly destroying Jan Ullrich and Marco Pantani. Here at last is the definitive history and unforgettable story of cycling's greatest challenge. In The Tour is Won on the Alpe: The Classic Battles of the Tour de France, cycling historian Jean-Paul Vespini tells the story of this celebrated climb and the mountain that so often acts as the ultimate arbiter for cycling's biggest prize. Each chapter covers one ascent, starting with Fausto Coppi's astonishing victory in 1952. Cycling's most famous names are all present and accounted for: Coppi, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Pedro Delgado, Miguel Indurain, Marco Pantani, and of course the American victors Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong. Jean-Paul Vespini's riveting descriptions of each battle to the top include candid interviews with riders, new insight into epic rivalries, and little-known but fascinating facts about the climb that has become a rite of passage for every rider in the peloton.

Download or read book The Tour According to G written by Geraint Thomas and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

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 Historical Dictionary of Cycling written by Jeroen Heijmans and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2011-10-16 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The nearly 150-year-old sport of cycling had its first competition in France in 1868. Soon afterward, the need arose for purpose-built cycling tracks because of poor road conditions at the time. Racing on blocked off pieces of street or grass soon evolvedinto racing on special tracks called velodromes. This development marked the split into what are still the two main forms of cycling competition: road racing and track racing. Initially, track cycling was more popular in terms of public attention and money to be earned by racers, but this gradually changed in favor of road racing, which has been the most popular form of cycling since at least the end of World War II. The Historical Dictionary of Cycling takes a closer look at the sport, as well asdiscussing the use of bicycles as a means of fitness, touring, and commuting. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, photos, a bibliography, and over 500 cross-referenced dictionary entries on cycling's two main disciplines—road and track—as well as brief overviews of the other forms of cycling. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about cycling.

Download or read book Geraint Thomas How a Welshman won the Tour de France written by Phil Stead and published by Y Lolfa. This book was released on 2018-12-19 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of a Welsh cycling fan's 25-year love affair with le Tour de France, culminating in the joy of witnessing Geraint Thomas' unexpected victory in summer 2018. Is this the greatest ever Welsh sporting achievement? How does an unassuming bloke from Whitchurch win le Tour de France? And what was it like to see Geraint win?

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 Field of Fire written by Jeff Connor and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-05-03 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1987, a British-based team competed in the Tour de France for the first time in almost two decades. The ANC-Halfords squad were decimated by the punishing pace, the manager walked out during one of the Alpine stages, five of the nine riders and some of the staff never made it to Paris, and most of the personnel went unpaid. ANC were the definitive innocents abroad and it became one of the great sporting misadventures of all time. If that wasn't bad enough for ANC, a tabloid journalist travelled with them for the full three weeks. Jeff Connor's account of the Tour, Wide-Eyed and Legless, became a classic and was later voted number one in Cycle Sport's list of the best cycling books of all time. Now, 25 years on, Connor revisits the scene of the crime, tracks down the participants and discovers exactly how their fortunes were changed, some irrevocably, by the '87 Tour. Field of Fire tells a moving tale of sporting disillusionment, heartbreak, anger - and humour.

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 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 P Is For Peloton written by Suze Clemitson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-08 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A perfect gift book for all cycling fans - the A-Z of cycling from Arrivée to Zoetemelk. Beautifully illustrated by renowned cycling artist Mark Fairhurst, P is for Peloton is packed with fun facts from the amazing to the bizarre, and stories about the greatest riders in the sport. Ever wanted to know the difference between your flamme rouge and your lanterne rouge? This is the book for you - or the cycling obsessive in your life.

Download or read book The Cyclist s Bucket List written by Ian Dille and published by Rodale. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The smell of lavender at a roadside picnic, waiting for the Tour de France to race past. The Pacific Ocean view from the 10,000-foot summit of Hawaii's Haleakalaā volcanic crater (after 5 hours of uphill riding). A fresh Fat Tire ale hitting your lips at the new Belgium brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado. These, and a wide-ranging variety of other experiences, all rooted to a specific location or event, comprise The Cyclist's Bucket List. The book will definitively catalog both the iconic and little known--the accessible and aspirational--sensory and emotional experiences that instill cyclists with a deep passion for the sport. In this book, Ian Dille compiles and showcases the world's quintessential cycling experiences through extensive research and interviews with expert sources, vivid storytelling, stunning photography, and compelling design. The format includes lengthy in-depth descriptions as well as much shorter, easy to consume write-ups, ranging from locations such as Italy and Belgium to Nova Scotia and Texas. The Cyclist's Bucket List will serve as an indispensible, lifelong guide for every cyclist.

Download or read book Slaying the Badger written by Moore Richard and published by VeloPress. This book was released on 2012-06-11 with total page 471 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bernard Hinault is "Le Blaireau," the Badger. Tough as old boots, he is the old warrior of the French peloton, as revered as he is feared for his ferocious attacks. He has won 5 Tours de France, marking his name into the history books as a member of cycling's most exclusive club. Yet as the 1986 Tour de France ascends into the mountains, a boyish and friendly young American named Greg LeMond threatens the Badger--and France's entire cycling heritage. The stakes are high. Winning for Hinault means capping his long cycling career by becoming the first man to win the Tour six times. For LeMond, a win will bring America its first Tour de France victory. So why does their rivalry shock the world? LeMond and Hinault ride for the same team. Asked by a reporter why he attacked his own teammate, the Badger replies, "Because I felt like it." and "If he doesn't buckle, that means he's a champion and deserves to win the race. I did it for his own good." LeMond becomes paranoid, taking other riders' feed bags in the feed zone and blaming crashes on sabotage. Through it all, with the help of his American teammate Andy Hampsten, LeMond rides like a champion and becomes the first American to win the Tour de France. His win signals the passing of cycling's last hide-bound generation and the birth of a new breed of riders. In Slaying the Badger, award-winning author Richard Moore traces each story line to its source through innumerable interviews--not only with LeMond and Hinault in their own homes but also with teammates, rivals, race directors, journalists, sponsors, and promoters. Told from these many perspectives, the alliances, tirades, and broken promises divulged in Slaying the Badger build to the stunning climax of the 1986 Tour de France. Slaying the Badger is an incomparably detailed and highly revealing tale of cycling's most extraordinary rivalry.

Download or read book Pedalare Pedalare written by John Foot and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-05-03 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Italian cycling is the story of Italy in the twentieth century.

Download or read book Runner s World The Runner s Body written by Ross Tucker and published by Rodale Books. This book was released on 2009-05-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every day scientists learn more about how the body adapts to the stress of running—and how various body systems contribute to running performance. Leading the charge is a fresh generation of brilliant young exercise physiologists including Ross Tucker and Jonathan Dugas, whose work has demolished many long-standing beliefs about running. Now Tucker and Dugas, whose blog, Science of Sport, has already created a devoted readership, join with esteemed fitness author Matt Fitzgerald to provide a captivating tour of the human body from the runner's perspective. Focusing on how runners at all levels can improve their health and performance, Runner's World The Runner's Body offers in a friendly, accessible tone, the newest, most surprising, and most helpful scientific discoveries about every aspect of the sport—from how best to nourish the runner's body to safe and legal ways to increase oxygen delivery to the muscles. Full of surprising facts, practical sidebars, and graphical elements, The Runner's Body is a must-have resource for anyone who wants to become a better—and healthier—runner.

Download or read book Shut Up Legs written by Jens Voigt and published by Rodale. This book was released on 2016-05-03 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beloved German cyclist Jens Voigt isn't a superstar in the traditional sense of the word. Although he won three stages of the Tour De France--and wore the yellow jersey twice--Voigt never claimed an overall victory. He became a star because he embodies qualities that go beyond winning and losing: sacrifice, selflessness, reliability, and devotion. European and American crowds were drawn to his aggressive riding style, outgoing nature, and refreshing realness. Voigt adopted a tireless work ethic that he carried throughout his career. In Shut Up, Legs! (a legendary Jensism), Voigt reflects upon his childhood in East Germany, juggling life as a professional cyclist and a father of six, and how he remained competitive without doping. Shut Up, Legs! offers a rare glimpse inside his heart and mind.

Download or read book Great Adventures written by Lonely Planet and published by Lonely Planet. This book was released on 2014-06-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This beautiful hardback takes the reader on 75 of the most amazing adventures on the planet. From the ultimate challenge of climbing Mount Everest to less strenuous but equally inspiring experiences like kayaking with orcas in Canada and cycling Vietnam's backroads, this is the definitive companion to the world's most spectacular adventures. With stunning photographs, sumptuous descriptions and practical information, this inspirational coffee table book will delight armchair explorers and bone fide adventurers alike. 'While it is lovely to linger over the stunning photos, there is a lot more to this sumptuously designed title - a follow-up to Great Journeys - than meets the eye? This is a perfect gift for the traveller in your life who might be tempted to ride the Tour de France's high passes or paraglide from Mont Blanc's pearly summit.' Sydney Morning Herald 'Whether you're active or just love reading about action, there's something here for everyone.' Australian Associated Press 'If you liked Lonely Planet's Great Journeys, you'll love the next in the series - Great Adventures? Even if you're not planning a trip it's great for armchair travelling.' The Times About Lonely Planet: Started in 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel guide publisher with guidebooks to every destination on the planet, as well as an award-winning website, a suite of mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet's mission is to enable curious travellers to experience the world and to truly get to the heart of the places they find themselves in. TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice Awards 2012 winner in Favorite Travel Guide category 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves; it's in every traveller's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia) Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.

Download or read book The Monuments written by Peter Cossins and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-03-13 with total page 469 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Peter Cossins is an engaging writer whose conversational style makes this an effortless yet interesting read. The cosy tone delivers a great deal with a good balance of history and anecdotes. If you wish to explore cycling beyond the Grand Tours this is the book.' - Carlton Kirby An awe-inspiring history of the five most legendary 'classic' races in world cycling. The Tour de France may provide the most obvious fame and glory, but it is cycling's one-day tests that the professional riders really prize. Toughest, longest and dirtiest of all are the so-called 'Monuments', the five legendary races that are the sport's equivalent of golf's majors or the grand slams in tennis. Milan–Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Tour of Lombardy date back more than a century, and each of them is an anomaly in modern-day sport, the cycling equivalent of the Monaco Grand Prix. Time has changed them to a degree, but they remain as brutally testing as they ever have been. They provide the sport's outstanding one-day performers – the likes of Philippe Gilbert, Fabian Cancellara, Mark Cavendish, Tom Boonen, Peter Sagan and Thor Hushovd – with a chance to measure themselves against each other and their predecessors in the most challenging tests in world cycling. From the bone-shattering bowler-hat cobbles of the Paris–Roubaix (rumoured to be Bradley Wiggins' next challenge) to the insanely steep hellingen in the Tour of Flanders, each race is as unique as the riders who push themselves through extreme exhaustion to win them and enter their epic history. Over the course of a century, only Rik Van Looy, Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck have won all five races. Yet victory in a single edition of a Monument guarantees a rider lasting fame. For some, that one victory has even more cachet than success in a grand tour. Each of the Monuments has a fascinating history, featuring tales of the finest and largest characters in the sport. In The Monuments, Peter Cossins tells the tumultuous history of these extraordinary races and the riders they have immortalised.