Posts Tagged “Story”
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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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THE SERIES OF EVENTS surrounding Floyd Landis’s 2006 Tour de France was as improbable as anything in the history of sports: He showed up nine seconds late for the race’s opening prologue, donned the leader’s yellow jersey twelve days later, and lost his lead only to regain it in remarkable fashion just before the Tour’s final stage into Paris. Winning the Tour should have been the culmination of a life’s dream, but a mere three days later, Landis was accused of using banned performance-enhancing drugs. Released by his team and threatened with the removal of his Tour title, Landis went from winning the most prestigious race of his career to being unfairly labeled as a cheater, a liar, and a doper. Positively False is at once a memoir and a powerful indictment of the unchecked governing bodies of cycling that have compromised theintegrity of the sport as a whole. From leaving the Mennonite community of his youth in order to pursue his passion for cycling, to riding alongside Lance Armstrong for three years — with whom he shared the same work ethic and competitive desire — Floyd Landis details the highs and lows of his career with unabashed honesty. It is this same honesty with which he will clear his name once and for all, as he lays bare the inner workings of the cycling world — a place where athletes are subject to the antiquated science, flawed interpretive protocols, and draconian legal processes of the anti-doping agencies — and finally lays to rest the scandal that threatened to destroy everything he’s worked so hard to achieve….
Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France
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The Giro d’Italia is one of the world’s most important and popular bicycle races, yet there is almost no information in English about this magical Italian race’s rich past. With “The Story of the Giro d’Italia”, the fabulous history of Italy’s national tour is at last available. Volume One takes the story of the Giro from its origin as a desperate promotional gamble by a nearly broke newspaper to Eddy Merckx’s convincing 1970 victory.
Volume 1 of “The Story of the Giro d’Italia” tells of Italy’s most celebrated riders: Costante Girardengo, the first campionissimo, or “Champion of Champions”; Alfredo Binda, who so dominated the Giro that one year he was paid by the organizers not to enter; Gino Bartali, who looked to become the dominating rider of his era; and Fausto Coppi, a fascinating personality and Bartali’s great rival who became not only Italy’s, but the world’s finest rider.
The great rivalry between Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali is known to many cycling fans, mostly because of their adventures in the Tour de France. But for much of bike racing’s history the Alps have been a high wall and Italian sponsors preferred to keep their racers at home where they could earn valuable publicity. Because of this, there is a whole world of great athletes who are virtually unknown to the non-Italian cycling fan. How about Giovanni Valetti? In 1939 Valetti beat Bartali when Gino was at the very peak of his powers. Has anyone heard of Giuseppe Enrici, the Giro winner who was born in Pittsburgh? Alfonsina Strada was the only woman who entered (and unofficially finished) a Grand Tour. And there was Giordano Cottur, who won a Giro stage in Trieste while guns blazed.
Clearly, this is a story that has to be told and it’s all there in “The Story of the Giro d’Italia”.
The Story of the Giro d’Italia: A Year-by-Year History of the Tour of Italy
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- ISBN13: 9781934030264
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In 1987, Joe Parkin was an amateur bike racer in California when he ran into Bob Roll, a pro on the powerhouse Team 7-Eleven. “Lobotomy Bob” told Parkin that, to become a pro, he must go to Belgium. Riding along a canal in Belgium years later, Roll encountered Parkin, who he described as “a wraith, an avenging angel of misery, a twelve-toothed assassin”. Roll barely recognized him. Belgium had forged Parkin into a pro, and changed him forever. A Dog in a Hat is Joe’s remarkable story.
Parkin lays it all out: the drugs, the payoffs, the betrayals, the battles for contracts, the endless promises, and the glory of racing day after day. A Dog in a Hat is the unforgettable story of the un-ordinary education of Joe Parkin and his love affair with racing, set in the hard place in the world to be a bike racer.
A Dog in a Hat: An American Bike Racer’s Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium
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- ISBN13: 9780307589842
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
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Lance Armstrong is a worldwide icon, indisputably one of the greatest cyclists who has ever lived. After battling cancer and becoming an inspiration to millions, Armstrong won the Tour de France a record-breaking seven consecutive years before retiring from competition in 2005.
Four years later, at thirty-seven, Armstrong decided to come out of retirement and go for the win yet again. He was racing for no salary, in a season when his greatest rival–Tour de France, Tour of Italy, and Tour of Spain champion Alberto Contador–was on his own team. The twenty-five-year-old Spaniard had been handpicked by Armstrong’s own mentor, Johan Bruyneel, to be his successor. Now he would be his fiercest competition. Armstrong was about to suffer like never before–and, for the first time in recent memory, appear to be human on a bicycle.
After seven Tour victories–and beating cancer–did Lance Armstrong really need to prove anything? Beyond the thrill of another possible victory, what drove him to race again? What was he seeking–and would he find it?
Cycling insider Bill Strickland had unprecedented access to Armstrong, Johan Bruyneel, and the team. He takes readers behind the scenes during the 2009 racing season and along for the ride on the Tour de France with a dramatic mile-by-mile account. Offering a penetrating and candid glimpse into the man behind the myth, Tour de Lance goes beyond a single season or a single race to reveal the heart of the sport and the soul of the cyclist.
Tour de Lance: The Extraordinary Story of Lance Armstrong’s Fight to Reclaim the Tour de France
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Posted by Blogmaster in Books (Bicycle History), tags: 1890s, Bicycle, Buffalo, Corps, Fort, Iron, Missoula, Riders, Soldier, Story
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This is the lively story of the only bicycle corps the U.S. Army ever authorized. Using buffalo soldiers, this 1890s African-American unit conducted drills and exercises on wheels. They rode into Northern Montana on muddy trails and toured Yellowstone on their 100-pound iron bicycles. As proof of their capabilities, these Iron Riders pedaled 1,900 miles from Ft. Missoula, across the snow-dusted Rocky Mountains and steamy Great Plains, to St. Louis. As they approached the city over 1,000 civilian bicyclists rode out to escort them into town in a great parade. Learn more about the adventures of this little known buffalo soldier unit and fascinating details about this era in America. Well researched and a good read. Full of rare pictures and drawings.
Iron Riders: Story of the 1890s Fort Missoula Buffalo Soldier Bicycle Corps
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Posted by Blogmaster in Books (Bicycle History), tags: 25th, Bicycle, Corps, Cyclists, Fort, Infantry, military, Missoula's, Story, U.S.
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Until the 1920s, bike races outdrew all other American sports including baseball. This colorful, exciting period of sports history, a saga of courage and occasional lunacy is re-created by the author, a prize-winning racer himself. Photos.
Hearts of Lions : The Story of American Bicycle Racing
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