Best of
Cycling

2018

The Tour According to G: My Journey to the Yellow Jersey


Geraint Thomas - 2018
    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.

The Comeback: Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France


Daniel de Visé - 2018
    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.The Comeback chronicles the life of one of America’s greatest athletes, from his roots in Nevada and California to the heights of global fame, to a falling out with his own family and a calamitous confrontation with Lance Armstrong over allegations the latter was doping—a campaign LeMond would wage on principle for more than a decade before Armstrong was finally stripped of his own Tour titles. With the kind of narrative drive that propels books like Moneyball, and a fierce attention to detail, Daniel de Visé reveals the dramatic, ultra-competitive inner world of a sport rarely glimpsed up close, and builds a compelling case for LeMond as its great American hero.

Around the World in 80 Days: My World Record Breaking Adventure


Mark Beaumont - 2018
    78 days, 14 hours and 40 minutes earlier he set off from the same point, beginning his attempt to circumnavigate the world in record time. Covering more than 18,000 miles and cycling through some of the harshest conditions one man and his bicycle can endure, Mark made history. He smashed two Guinness World Records and beat the previous record by an astonishing 45 days. Around the World in 80 Days is the story of Mark’s amazing achievement - one which redefines the limits of human endurance. It is also an insight into the mind of an elite athlete and the physical limits of the human body, as well as a kaleidoscopic tour of the world from a very unique perspective; inspired by Jules Verne’s classic adventure novel, Mark begins his journey in Paris and cycles through Europe, Russia, Mongolia and China. He then crosses Australia, rides up through New Zealand and across North America before the final 'sprint finish' thorough Portugal, Spain and France, all at over 200 miles a day. This is the story of a quite remarkable adventure, by a quite remarkable man.

Quondam: Travels in a Once World


John Devoy - 2018
    It all too often makes it impossible to return to the 'old life'. The end of it is only the beginning. In a sense, Quondam is just that, a love story to the open road, with its raw adventure, its intimacy and renewal, its landscapes and imagination. It is an invitation to those who can, to go with a new understanding, to those who have long ago been there, to remember fondly and to those who will never, to sit comfortably and enjoy every page.

Overlander: One man's epic race to cross Australia


Rupert Guinness - 2018
    This was no ordinary bike race. Unlike the Tour de France, which Guinness had made his name reporting on for decades, competitors rode completely unassisted from Fremantle in Western Australia to the Opera House in Sydney on the other side of the country - a gruelling distance of over 5000 kilometres that would not only test riders' physical endurance but their psychological resilience. Dubbed 'The Hunger Games on Wheels', there would be no help, just riders and their bikes crossing one of the most beautiful – and often most inhospitable – places on earth.   Rupert’s mission was to test his own grit, physical and emotional, as he followed the trail of the pioneering men and women whose historic rides over the last two centuries unveiled a largely unknown interior.     But when a terrible tragedy stopped everyone in their tracks, what he discovered was the extraordinary power of the human spirit. Rupert and his fellow competitors were forced to make some of the toughest decisions they had ever faced.

Icons: My Inspiration. My Motivation. My Obsession.


Bradley Wiggins - 2018
    Among them is Sir Bradley Wiggins – a man uniquely placed to reflect on the history of this remarkable sport and its unforgettable titans.In Icons, Wiggins takes the reader on an extraordinarily intimate journey through the sport, presenting key pieces from his never-before-seen collection of memorabilia. Over the course of his illustrious career, he amassed hundreds of items – often gifts from its greatest and most controversial figures. Each reflects an icon, a race or a moment that fundamentally influenced Wiggins on both a personal and professional level.By exploring the lives and achievements of 21 of the sport’s key figures – among them Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Miguel Induráin and Tom Simpson – Wiggins sheds new light on what professional cycling demands of its best competitors. Icons lauds their triumphs, elucidates their demons and sheds light on the philosophy and psychology that comprise the unique mindset of a cycling champion.

A Journey Through the Cycling Year


The Cycling Podcast - 2018
    Richard Moore, Lionel Birnie and Daniel Friebe share their diaries from three incident-filled Grand Tours, the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España. These take readers behind the scenes and explore the culture and landscape as well as the racing, while the ‘Lionel of Flanders’, complete with beer recommendations, does the same for the Classics in Belgium.There are appearances, too, by leading journalists and podcast favourites François Thomazeau, who takes responsiblity for the French Tour de France jinx, Ciro Scognamiglio, with a heartfelt love letter to cult favourite Filippo Pozzato, Fran Reyes, who pens a farewell to El Pistolero, Alberto Contador, and Orla Chennaoui, who hits the road to cover La Course in a one-woman karaoke-booth-on-wheels.Further contributions from professional riders Ashleigh Moolman Pasio and Joe Dombrowski and the voice of the Tour de France, Sebastien Piquet, as well as stunning galleries from the podcast world’s first and only dedicated photographer, Simon Gill, make this the perfect celebration of a year in cycling.

Bikes and Bloomers: Victorian Women Inventors and their Extraordinary Cycle Wear


Kat Jungnickel - 2018
    Less noted is another critical technology with which women forged new and mobile public lives—cycle wear. This illustrated account of women's cycle wear from Goldsmiths Press brings together Victorian engineering and radical feminist invention to supply a missing chapter in the history of feminism.Despite its benefits, cycling was a material and ideological minefield for women. Conventional fashions were unworkable, with skirts catching in wheels and tangling in pedals. Yet wearing “rational” cycle wear could provoke verbal and sometimes physical abuse from those threatened by newly mobile women. Seeking a solution, pioneering women not only imagined, made, and wore radical new forms of cycle wear but also patented their inventive designs. The most remarkable of these were convertible costumes that enabled wearers to transform ordinary clothing into cycle wear.Drawing on in-depth archival research and inventive practice, Kat Jungnickel brings to life in rich detail the little-known stories of six inventors of the 1890s. Alice Bygrave, a dressmaker of Brixton, registered four patents for a skirt with a dual pulley system built into its seams. Julia Gill, a court dressmaker of Haverstock Hill, patented a skirt that drew material up the waist using a mechanism of rings or eyelets. Mary and Sarah Pease, sisters from York, patented a skirt that could be quickly converted into a fashionable high-collar cape. Henrietta Müller, a women's rights activist of Maidenhead, patented a three-part cycling suit with a concealed system of loops and buttons to elevate the skirt. And Mary Ann Ward, a gentlewoman of Bristol, patented the “Hyde Park Safety Skirt,” which gathered fabric at intervals using a series of side buttons on the skirt. Their unique contributions to cycling's past continue to shape urban life for contemporary mobile women.

The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling's Golden Gener


Barry Ryan - 2018
    Kelly was quiet, consistent and famously resilient - the dominant classics rider of his era. Roche, by contrast, was a charismatic and mercurial presence, whose unruly talent would carry him to the Triple Crown in 1987 - victories at the Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and World Championships - a feat unmatched since. But behind the races there lies a bigger drama: an untold story of influences shared, friendships made and broken, and conflict with cycling's old guard. Based on new and exclusive interviews with Kelly and Roche themselves, as well their teammates, rivals and confidantes, this is the inspiring story of how a generation of Irish cyclists took on the world and won.

American Pro: The True Story of Bike Racing in America


Jamie O. Smith - 2018
    Jamie Smith explores the domestic side of the world’s biggest amateur sport in American Pro: The True Story of Bike Racing in America. American Pro rips away the thin veneer of professionalism among domestic racing teams to lay bare the heart and soul of a struggling sport. Smith traces the arc of one team’s racing career to discover colorful personalities, scrappy racing action, humor and heartbreak. American Pro shows what the sport demands: the scramble for contracts, the dynamics of team chemistry, the unending travel, the Herculean struggle to realize the dream—all for the love of bike racing. With sharp humor and insight, Smith uncovers what’s wrong—and what’s right—with America’s broken bike racing system. American Pro will transform how you think of domestic pro racing through a five-season exposé of the sport we love.

Queens of Pain: Legends and Rebels of Cycling


Isabel Best - 2018
    From the fin-de-siècle velodromes of North America to the glamour and chaos of the first women’s Tour de France, Queens of Pain offers a sweeping panorama of female racing history. Told through the lives of the great champions, its heroines include stunt women and speed skaters, young mothers and teenage tearaways, shop assistants and coal-delivery girls. When prejudice and officialdom denied them one stage they found another: from six-day track racing to epic place to place records, from 12-hour time trials to unofficial road races. The greatly expanded women’s racing scene of today is the direct legacy of these pioneering riders whose stories form an unbroken thread since the invention of the bicycle.

Strength and Conditioning for Cyclists: Off the Bike Conditioning for Performance and Life


Phil Burt - 2018
    Now, in Strength and Conditioning for Cyclists you can benefit from their wealth of knowledge and experience and apply it to make you a stronger, faster and more robust cyclist.Use the self-assessment, inspired by the Functional Movement Screening used by the Great Britain Cycling Team, to identify your strengths and weaknesses.Discover the mobility and strengthening movements that are most applicable to your needs, maximising effectiveness and avoiding wasted time.Learn how to devise your own personalized and progressive off the bike training plan, how to schedule it into your year and combine it most effectively with your cycling.

Oppy: The Life of Sir Hubert Opperman


Daniel Oakman - 2018
     Hubert 'Oppy' Opperman was a sporting icon, a cycling phenomenon whose epic feats of endurance captivated the world. For over two decades, he dominated almost every race he entered and shattered record after record in Australia and Great Britain. In 1928, he led the first Australasian team to ever contest the Tour de France. But Oppy was more than just a champion. During the Great Depression, a time of painful economic and social change, he became a transcendent symbol of Australian fortitude. He became a household name, a legend - as popular as the cricketer Don Bradman and the racehorse Phar Lap. As well as vividly retelling his sporting triumphs, this book is the first to consider the legacy of Opperman's post-cycling career. It explores the emotional pain of his private life, the controversies that dogged his seventeen-year political career including his term as Minister for Immigration in the Menzies Government, and the far-reaching changes he helped bring to Australian immigration policy. This meticulously researched biography gives readers a thrilling insight into the brutal world of professional cycling and an intimate portrait of an extraordinary Australian.

Old Men Bicycling Across America: A Journey Beyond Old Age


Frosty Wooldridge - 2018
    Pedal into those sunrises that light the sky with promise. Savor those elegant sunsets with their exclamation point to a glorious day on your bicycle. Remember the good, bad, and ugly moments. Stand tall that you possessed the courage to explore the world on your iron steed. It carried you into your dreams where you traveled into those epic moments of wonder, awe, and majesty.

Sunday in Hell: Behind the Lens of the Greatest Cycling Film of All Time


William Fotheringham - 2018
    273 kilometres of torment across the bone-crunching pavé of northern France.In 1976 the celebrated Danish film director, Jørgen Leth, embarked on an ambitious project to capture the spirit of this spectacular and cruel one-day race. The resulting film, A Sunday in Hell, has become the most admired cycling documentary of all time, and its revolutionary camera and sound techniques have forever changed the way the sport is viewed on screen.The film centres around legends including Eddie Merkx, Roger De Vlaeminck, Freddie Maertens and Francesco Moser, capturing not just their experiences from the saddle, but also the mood of a nation and its relationship with the most punishing of the Spring Classics.Sunday in Hell looks at the men, the method and the places behind the film. It observes the creativity of Leth and his collaborators, explores the lives of riders such as unlikely winner Marc Demeyer and revisits locations which have changed little to this day.

Cycling the The Wild Atlantic Way and Western Ireland: 6 Cycle Tours Along Ireland's West Coast


Tom Cooper - 2018
    The Wild Atlantic Way is a driving route along Ireland's Atlantic seaboard, covering over 2,350km of coastline and showcasing the region's breathtaking landscapes. This guide adapts the route for cyclists - and throws in a couple of other highlights (such as the Aran Islands and Killarney) for good measure.Since relatively few people are likely to have seven weeks to spare for a full Wild Atlantic Way tour, the book presents six self-contained cycle tours, each offering 7-10 days of riding. For the full Wild Atlantic Way experience, these distinct routes can be linked together into a 44-stage trip from Derry/Londonderry to Cork. Each route includes detailed advice on accommodation and facilities, plus optional detours and shortcuts and points of interest. The routes themselves are presented as 'route cards': ideal for use with a cycle computer, these pages provide 'at a glance' information for when you're on the road, covering navigation, facilities and local highlights.The guide covers all the practicalities - including transport, equipment and general tips on cycling in Ireland - and also offers background information on geology, plants and wildlife, history and culture to enhance your journey. The result is an ideal companion to discovering western Ireland, where magnificent scenery, a vibrant music scene and a warm Irish welcome await the turn of your pedals.

Relational Organisational Gestalt: An Emergent Approach to Organisational Development


Marie-Anne Chidiac - 2018
    In the field of Organisational Development and Change, fixed methodologies no longer adequately address the uncertainty and uniqueness of today's more complex change situations and more adaptive approaches to change are needed.Gestalt is a relational, dialogic, and emergent approach which means that it views individuals and organisations as embedded in their context, dependent on, and emerging from within a web of relationships and interactions. As such, Gestalt offers a transformative, integral and bespoke methodology for working with this complexity. This approach supports practitioners to attend to their presence, seek out the most pressing issues and mobilise for sustainable change. Gestalt has at its heart the notion of use-of-self as instrument which allows practitioners to be responsive to emergent issues and situations. Relational Organisational Gestalt is at the leading-edge of Gestalt theory and application in organisational settings.

Bicycle Utopias: Imagining Fast and Slow Cycling Futures


Cosmin Popan - 2018
    Drawing on literature on post-car futures (Urry 2007; Dennis and Urry 2009), transition theory (Geels et al. 2012) and utopian studies (Levitas 2010, 2013), this book imagines a slow bicycle system as a necessary means to achieving more sustainable mobility futures. The imagination of a slow bicycle system is done in three ways:Scenario building to anticipate how cycling mobilities will look in the year 2050.A critique of the system of automobility and of fast cycling futures.An investigation of the cycling senses and sociabilities to describe the type of societies that such a slow bicycle system will enable. Bicycle Utopias will appeal to students and scholars in fields such as sociology, mobilities studies, human geography and urban and transport studies. This work may also be of interest to advocates, activists and professionals in the domains of cycling and sustainable mobilities.