Favourite Cycling Books

[2volvos]

While I've been cycling to varying degrees of seriousness pretty much all of my life, I've only in the last couple of years got into the culture and history of cycling and cycle racing. I've been amazed about the quality and breadth of cycling books out there. After spending a life of reading about the history of motorsport, from the likes of Nigel Roebuck, Richard Williams, Doug Nye, LJK Setright and Jenks, I reckon the body of cycling literature is up there in terms of human endeavour, social history, politics, geography, national pride, bloody mindedness, teamwork, craftsmaship.

Here are some of my favourites...

Tim Hilton - One More Kilometre and We're in the Showers
John Foot - Pedalare! Pedalare!
Graeme Fife - Tour de France
Robert Penn - It's All About the Bike

Any more recommendations?

[Lord Pikey]

I am mainly consuming cycle touring books at the moment.

Just finished Cycling home from siberia, very good even if its a little god-bothery.
Read the first of Mark Beaumonts books about his world record breaking global cycle. Its worth a read as well.

I am now starting Moods and future joys which is kinda the partner book to cycling home from siberia. The Pher Neilski who is currently on his own trans world cycle recomended it to me (i think, i had, had a couple of beers).

If you are reading on a kindle there are quite a few self published books in the store for free or pennies

[anonymous-user]

Two good recent ones

David Millar - Racing through the dark
Ned Boulting - How I won the yellow jumper ( a good read just before the tour starts)

[anonymous-user]

Laurent Fignon's "We were young and carefree" is excellent, definatley the best cuyclingbook i have read in the last few years bar Millars.

Jean Bobet's "Tomorrow we ride" is good for nostalgic tour stories and William Fotheringham's "Put me back on my bike" about Tom Simpson is very good and an interesting insight into British Cycling, the Sixties and drug use

[ewenm]

Tim Krabbe - The Rider

Edit: A journalist and club rider chasing that elusive road race win. Really interesting insight into the psychology and neuroses of riders during the race, without being an "elite" rider.

Edited by ewenm on Thursday 14th June 11:06

[anonymous-user]

Matt Rendalls "The Death of Marco Pantini" is good too, tragic but still worth reading. Il Pirate was a bit of a hero of me so reading it was hard as his halo was fading.

Fotheringham also wrote a good bio of Fausto Coppi called "Fallen Angel" which is a similar style to the Simpson book and also recommended.

finally, every cyclist should own Simon Warrens "100 greatest cyling climbs"...

[Rouleur]

Slaying The Badger about the 1986 Tour's Hinault vs Lemond showdown. Just brilliant.

Paris - Roubaix: A Journey Through Hell is one of those books that you keep flicking through over the years to admire the pictures, and a lot of the text is good too.

[Lastinclass]

Wide eyed and legless is a good read. It's about the ANC Halfords team entry in the 1988 (?) Tour de France

[Sebo]

pablo said:

Matt Rendalls "The Death of Marco Pantini" is good too, tragic but still worth reading.

I would agree with this

[Rouleur]

Lastinclass said:

Wide eyed and legless is a good read. It's about the ANC Halfords team entry in the 1988 (?) Tour de France

S'funny - I seem to be the only person who doesn't like it. With all the hype around it I expected it be be great but I found it to be pretty poorly written and it didn't grab me at all.

[2volvos]

Ah - I forgot about Slaying the Badger - yes that is excellent.

Thanks for the other suggestions.... they should kep me going for a while. I'll definitely look out for those. My brother also reckons French Revolutions is a good laugh too.

Looks like there are some good dvds (and YoutTubes) of period films too, but maybe that's another topic...

[Captain Beaky]

el stovey said:

Two good recent ones

David Millar - Racing through the dark
Ned Boulting - How I won the yellow jumper ( a good read just before the tour starts)

Yes, I enjoyed both of those.

"The Hour" by Michael Hutchinson is a good read, as is Cav's "Boy Racer".

"Unsurpassed" by Godfrey Barlow is about Tommy Godwin, who cycled over 75,000 miles in a year (1939). The style is not to my taste but the scale of the achievement shines through.

Both of Simon Warren's 100 Climbs books should be on any cycling reading list.

I seem to have read quite a lot of cycling books recently, while watching the rain fall...

[Jimbo.]

Sebo said:

pablo said:

Matt Rendalls "The Death of Marco Pantini" is good too, tragic but still worth reading.

I would agree with this

Cheers for the recommendation! I'll get this next time I'm in town.

Racing through the Dark is well worth a read, as is A Dog in a Hat. The latter pulls no punches WRT doping, double-crossing etc. in the pro circuit!

[Highway Star]

pablo said:

Matt Rendalls "The Death of Marco Pantini" is good too, tragic but still worth reading. Il Pirate was a bit of a hero of me so reading it was hard as his halo was fading.

Fotheringham also wrote a good bio of Fausto Coppi called "Fallen Angel" which is a similar style to the Simpson book and also recommended.

finally, every cyclist should own Simon Warrens "100 greatest cyling climbs"...

Both "The Death of Marco Pantani" and "Fallen Angel" are very good. "A Dog in a Hat" is quite short and perhaps a lighter style, but is still well worth a look.

"Viva la Vuelta" is written in a strict chronological order and is very factual, but is still interesting to see how the race changed through the years especially against the background of social and political change in SPain.

[langy]

French Revolutions - Tim Moore

[Johnny]

Good thread, will have to look at some of these suggestions.

[2volvos]

It occurs to me that a long stage race, or even a Classic like the Paris Roubais, just gives a backdrop to fantastic stories and drama, ripe for the picking.

To someone for who a 30-miler is an achievement, the thought of hundreds of kilometres, up and down thousands of metres of Alp, perhaps alone with your demons, perhaps shoulder to shoulder with an arch rival is riveting. And then doing it all again the next day and the next. No wonder cycling has generated such good writing.

[JuniorD]

Fignon's We Were Young and Carefree is a wonderful book and beautifully written.

For touring, i really like a book called "why dont you fly" by an English chap who cycled to Beijing.

[PHmember]

Put Me Back On My Bike: In Search of Tom Simpson.

[AndrewM]

[quote=pablo]Laurent Fignon's "We were young and carefree" is excellent, definatley the best cuyclingbook i have read in the last few years bar Millars.

I've recently finished this book - it seems to start at the end, but really well written and a fascinating account of a much misunderstood character - I'm sure Fignon "indulged" more than he let on though!