Tour de France: The History. The Legend. The Riders.

by Graeme Fife

Overview

An updated edition sets the 2013 race in the context of the event's remarkable history, stretching back to July 1903

Combining meticulous research with a fast-paced narrative style, Graeme Fife penetrates the mystique of the Tour de France and paints a colorful picture of the men whose exploits have given the Tour enduring universal appeal. The momentous 100th anniversary competition fully lived up to expectations and was the most exciting race in years. Mountains loomed large in one of the toughest routes since World War II, including a double ascent of the iconic l'Alpe d'Huez in just one day. Laced with tales of great solo rides, amazing fortitude, terrible misfortune, and triumph, Tour de France is the definitive account of this extraordinary competition. Named one of the top-five sports books of the year by both the Independent and the Times, it is the essential guide to the Tour.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780576251
Publisher:	Mainstream Publishing Company, Limited
Publication date:	04/01/2014
Edition description:	15th edition
Pages:	560
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.00(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Graeme Fife is a full-time writer who has worked in radio and written a number of books, including The Beautiful Machine and Inside the Peloton. A keen cyclist, he has ridden all the celebrated Cols of Tour legends.

Table of Contents

Author's Note     7
Foreword     9
Preface     10
Jerseys of the Tour de France     29
L'Alpe d'Huez: Fear, Moral Strength and Eddy Merckx     31
Col du Glandon: Hinault and Fighting Spirit     51
Col du Telegraphe: Tours of the 1920s     78
Col du Galibier: The 1930s     104
Col d'Izoard: Coppi and the Modern Era     129
Col de Vars: Drugs in the Sport     151
Mont Ventoux: The British Riders     180
Tour '98: The Tour is Dead, Long Live the Tour     201
1999: The Tour of Renewal     211
2000: Answering the Cynics     227
2001: Armstrong v. Ullrich     241
2002: Armstrong's Four-Square Triumph     259
The Centenary     279
2004: A Historic Sixth     300
2005: Seventh Heaven: Armstrong's Last Tour     322
2006: The Crazy 'Bottle of Ink' Tour     346
2007: Sunshine in London ... Squalls into Paris     373
Afterword and Mythology     400
Index     412