Archive for the “Books (Bicycle Racing)” Category
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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.
Heft on Wheels: A Field Guide to Doing a 180
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“After forty years of study on the subject, I can with some confidence say Bill and Carol McGann’s The Story of the Tour de France is the finest such work ever produced in the English language, and perhaps in any.”
-From the preface by Owen Mulholland, author of Uphill Battle
“Besides towering over all bicycle races, the Tour de France endures for its unique Gaulic character, like Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. The McGann’s passionate and insightful writing evokes the raucous cast of riders, promoters, and journalists thrusting through highs and lows worthy of opera. This volume stands out as a must-read book for anyone seeking to appreciate cycling’s race of races.”
-Peter Joffre Nye, author of The Six-Day Bicycle Races: America’s Jazz Age Sport and Hearts of Lions
“There are LOTS of books on the Tour de France. An increasing number of them are actually written in English. However, of those, none educates Americans about this grand spectacle’s rich past. The Tour de France has a history as fascinating and sordid as Rome’s and it is high time someone undertook to explain this to our American sensibility. Our guide for the trip is a man with a ravenous appetite for both world history and bicycle racing, just the sort of person to paint a Tour champion with the dramatic grandiosity befitting Hannibal himself.”
-Pat Brady, Editor, Asphalt Magazine
At the dawn of the 20th Century, French newspapers used bicycle races as promotions to build readership. Until 1903 these were one-day events. Looking to deliver a coup de grace in a vicious circulation war, Henri Desgrange—editor of the Parisian sports magazine L’Auto—took the suggestion of one of his writers to organize a race that would last several days longer than anything else, like the 6-day races on the track, but on the road.
That’s exactly what happened. For almost 3 weeks the riders in the first Tour de France rode over dirt roads and cobblestones in a grand circumnavigation of France. The race was an electrifying success. Held annually (suspended only during the 2 World Wars), the Tour grew longer and more complex with an ever-changing set of rules, as Desgrange kept tinkering with the Tour, looking for the perfect formula for his race.
Each year a new cast of riders would assemble to contest what has now become the greatest sporting event in the world.
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“After forty years of study on the subject, I can with some confidence say Bill and Carol McGann’s The Story of the Tour de France is the finest such work ever produced in the English language, and perhaps in any.”
-From the preface by Owen Mulholland, author of Uphill Battle
“Besides towering over all bicycle races, the Tour de France endures for its unique Gaulic character, like Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. The McGann’s passionate and insightful writing evokes the raucous cast of riders, promoters, and journalists thrusting through highs and lows worthy of opera. This volume stands out as a must-read book for anyone seeking to appreciate cycling’s race of races.”
-Peter Joffre Nye, author of The Six-Day Bicycle Races: America’s Jazz Age Sport and Hearts of Lions
“There are LOTS of books on the Tour de France. An increasing number of them are actually written in English. However, of those, none educates Americans about this grand spectacle’s rich past. The Tour de France has a history as fascinating and sordid as Rome’s and it is high time someone undertook to explain this to our American sensibility. Our guide for the trip is a man with a ravenous appetite for both world history and bicycle racing, just the sort of person to paint a Tour champion with the dramatic grandiosity befitting Hannibal himself.”
-Pat Brady, Editor, Asphalt Magazine
At the dawn of the 20th Century, French newspapers used bicycle races as promotions to build readership. Until 1903 these were one-day events. Looking to deliver a coup de grace in a vicious circulation war, Henri Desgrange—editor of the Parisian sports magazine L’Auto—took the suggestion of one of his writers to organize a race that would last several days longer than anything else, like the 6-day races on the track, but on the road.
That’s exactly what happened. For almost 3 weeks the riders in the first Tour de France rode over dirt roads and cobblestones in a grand circumnavigation of France. The race was an electrifying success. Held annually (suspended only during the 2 World Wars), the Tour grew longer and more complex with an ever-changing set of rules, as Desgrange kept tinkering with the Tour, looking for the perfect formula for his race.
Each year a new cast of riders would assemble to contest what has now become the greatest sporting event in the world.
The Story of the Tour de France Volume 1: 1903 – 1964
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Posted by Blogmaster in Books (Bicycle Racing), tags: About, Competition, Cycling, cyclocross, every, From, Know, Need, photographs, Racing, shown, timetrialling, Track, Triathlon, type
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Describes the techniques and rules of bicycle motocross – a fast race on a track with hills, turns, and jumps.
Bicycle Motocross
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In this arrestingly candid memoir, which he wrote himself, world-class cyclist, Tour de France stage winner, and time trial specialist David Millar offers a vivid portrait of his life in professional cycling—including his soul-searing detour into performance-enhancing drugs, dramatic arrest and two-year ban, and his ultimate decision to return to the sport he loves to race clean. As a young Scottish expat living in Hong Kong with his father after his parents’ divorce, Millar fell in love with mountain biking and BMX. Two wise local cyclists took him under their wings, encouraging him in the direction of road racing. Millar proved a ready convert and soon fell in love with the notion of becoming a pro cyclist one day. Racing Through the Dark offers the winning account of his climb through the ranks—first as an amateur and then as a pro, riding for the French team Cofidis. From the moment Millar turned pro, he began to see glimmers of the great unspoken measures that many—maybe most—of the other pros were taking in order to race at the very tops of their games…and beyond. For a long time, Millar felt that he was immune from temptation, and that he could win clean. But the ugly pervasiveness of performance-enhancing drugs and the seemingly universal attitude that condoned it began to corrode his willpower. Racing Through the Dark details his eventual reliance on banned drugs, his subsequent arrest and two-year ban from cycling, and his remarkable comeback as a very vocal, clean cyclist who is now doing his utmost to keep performance-enhancing drugs out of the sport he so loves. Filled with thrilling descriptions of the world’s most spectacular courses, Racing Through the Dark also captures the pure joy of cycling and includes some of the most vivid depictions of racing ever written by a true insider.
Racing Through the Dark: Crash. Burn. Coming Clean. Coming Back.
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- The first complete history of America’s first professional bike racing team
- Released in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the team’s formation
- Written with the enthusiastic cooperation of the team’s founder and riders
- By Geoff Drake with Jim Ochowicz, forwords by Eric Heiden and Eddy Merckx
- Hardcover, 320 pages, 6 1/2 x 9 1/2″
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7-Eleven: America’s Greatest Cycling Team is the first book to tell the full story of America’s first and greatest pro cycling team.
Founded in 1981 by Jim Ochowicz and Olympic medalist Eric Heiden and sponsored by the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores, the team rounded up the best amateur cyclists in North America and formed them into a cohesive, European-style cycling team. As amateurs, they dominated the American race scene and won seven medals at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. As professionals, beginning in 1985, the team went to Europe and soon received invitations to the Tour of Italy and then the Tour de France, putting Americans on the podium in landmark victories that would change the face of American cycling forever.
Prepared with the enthusiastic cooperation of the team members and co-authored by the team’s founder, Jim Ochowicz, 7-Eleven is not only the most important missing piece in the story of American cycling, but the book that American cyclists have been waiting for ever since the 7-Eleven cowboys snagged that first yellow jersey.
Team 7-Eleven: How an Unsung Band of American Cyclists Took on the World – and Won
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This is the story of what it takes for young Americans to make it in professional cycling. Only thirty-six Americans have competed in the Tour de France since the world’s greatest bicycle race began in 1903. That’s not too many more than the twelve Americans who have walked on the moon. It’s far fewer than the hundreds of Americans who have reached the summit of Mount Everest.
But rising stars such as Lawson Craddock of Texas, Benjamin King of
Virginia, Taylor Phinney of Colorado, Daniel Holloway of California, and Tyler Farrar of Washington state are doing just that as they endure crashes, cold rain, cobblestones, crosswinds, and culture shock on their road to cycling
stardom, which starts in Belgium.
This is the story of the next generation—of riders not yet tainted by drug scandals, of riders still bursting with hope and potential. This is the story American cycling fans need right now.
——————-
“People, get ready for great stories written well. The Belgian Hammer captures cycling culture.”
—Benjamin King, 2010 U.S. Pro Road Racing Champion
“The Belgian Hammer is the unique story of professional cycling that hasn’t yet been told until now. Daniel Lee has revealed the road map for the next generation of Americans hoping to become successful in Europe, where cycling is king.”
—Jim Ochowicz, President/General Manager of the BMC Racing Team.
“All of us who left our tire prints on the European circuits remember how
racing there shaped us forever. With passion, Daniel Lee gives substance and perspective to the experience of young Americans trying to make it in
Europe; and bicycle racing is illuminated by his craft.”
—John Howard, three-time Olympic cyclist, who set a bicycle speed record of 152.2 mph in 1985
“For those who admire images of cyclists flashing with arms spread wide in triumph over the finish line on blue-sky days, Daniel Lee gives us an insightful, forceful, and gritty account of the rigorous―and frequently perilous―route that cyclists take to force their way up the ranks and develop skills to win. A former racer himself, Dan Lee puts his passion for the sport into his newspaper reporter experience and writing talent. In The Belgian Hammer he follows Taylor Phinney, Benjamin King, Daniel Holloway, and other legends in the making on the USA Cycling national team living in Belgium, where the young bloods from around the world go to test themselves against the best of their generation. They compete in tight packs exceeding 150 riders pumping over narrow wind-blown roads slick from rain while threading through the countryside at unrelenting speed. To spectators cycling matches the grace of ballet. Daniel Lee reveals its uncompromising demands and brutality and heroics.”
―Peter Joffre Nye, author of The Six-Day Bicycle Races: America’s Jazz Age Sport and a Trustee of the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame
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This is the story of what it takes for young Americans to make it in professional cycling. Only thirty-six Americans have competed in the Tour de France since the world’s greatest bicycle race began in 1903. That’s not too many more than the twelve Americans who have walked on the moon. It’s far fewer than the hundreds of Americans who have reached the summit of Mount Everest.
But rising stars such as Lawson Craddock of Texas, Benjamin King of
Virginia, Taylor Phinney of Colorado, Daniel Holloway of California, and Tyler Farrar of Washington state are doing just that as they endure crashes, cold rain, cobblestones, crosswinds, and culture shock on their road to cycling
stardom, which starts in Belgium.
This is the story of the next generation—of riders not yet tainted by drug scandals, of riders still bursting with hope and potential. This is the story American cycling fans need right now.
——————-
“People, get ready for great stories written well. The Belgian Hammer captures cycling culture.”
—Benjamin King, 2010 U.S. Pro Road Racing Champion
“The Belgian Hammer is the unique story of professional cycling that hasn’t yet been told until now. Daniel Lee has revealed the road map for the next generation of Americans hoping to become successful in Europe, where cycling is king.”
—Jim Ochowicz, President/General Manager of the BMC Racing Team.
“All of us who left our tire prints on the European circuits remember how
racing there shaped us forever. With passion, Daniel Lee gives substance and perspective to the experience of young Americans trying to make it in
Europe; and bicycle racing is illuminated by his craft.”
—John Howard, three-time Olympic cyclist, who set a bicycle speed record of 152.2 mph in 1985
“For those who admire images of cyclists flashing with arms spread wide in triumph over the finish line on blue-sky days, Daniel Lee gives us an insightful, forceful, and gritty account of the rigorous―and frequently perilous―route that cyclists take to force their way up the ranks and develop skills to win. A former racer himself, Dan Lee puts his passion for the sport into his newspaper reporter experience and writing talent. In The Belgian Hammer he follows Taylor Phinney, Benjamin King, Daniel Holloway, and other legends in the making on the USA Cycling national team living in Belgium, where the young bloods from around the world go to test themselves against the best of their generation. They compete in tight packs exceeding 150 riders pumping over narrow wind-blown roads slick from rain while threading through the countryside at unrelenting speed. To spectators cycling matches the grace of ballet. Daniel Lee reveals its uncompromising demands and brutality and heroics.”
―Peter Joffre Nye, author of The Six-Day Bicycle Races: America’s Jazz Age Sport and a Trustee of the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame
The Belgian Hammer: Forging Young Americans into Professional Cyclists
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Racing cyclists all ride the same frail machine and all are equal before the demands of the road, but what is it that makes a winner? What special attributes do winners need to give them that extra edge? To find out, Fife analyses and illustrates the moral strength, intelligence, racing nous, cunning, tactical acumen, and superior mental resilience of the champion racing cyclist. Drawing on interviews and personal acquaintance with some of the best riders to have raced on the Continent, as well as mechanics and team-support crew, this is a portrait of the complex character of cycle racing. It is an in-depth study of ambition, the race to win, the capacity to recover from defeat, the harrowing misery of lost morale, and the hard initiation faced by every newcomer to the unforgiving demands of professional competition.
Inside the Peloton: Riding, Winning & Losing the Tour de France
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