Straightforward yet sly, funny but perhaps a little crazy, Roll calls it like he sees it. Here are anecdotes about the Tour de France, international mountain-bike tournaments, training struggles, heart-stopping fascinating inside look at the world of championship cycling.Way out West --The day the big men cried --One racer's view --Believe or leave --Blind faith was my motto at the '86 Tour --Springtime in hell --Bobke on the defensive --Lost in the Jemez --Bobke takes to the dirt --Deep down dirty with Bobke --Living in a lactic-acid crippling haze --Euro' trashed --Dream season --Nerves + neurosis --Rhythm is a racer --The watch --The sport according to Bobke --The "water hole" revisited --One heli tour --Bobke's back! --Dry bread wants a Harley --Lance and the dipped in ding-dong doodle down in Dixie --Nine guesses --A day at the fair --The night before Amstel --Into the twenty-first century --51 things to do before you die --Eurotrash and the Texas Tornado --Training tips with Bobke --Il Becco Bartalese, following in Coppi's and Bartali's tracks

    Often called the greatest boxer of all time, he held world titles at four different weights, is the only boxer in history to have fought in five different decades, and his bouts with fellow greats like Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, and Marvin Hagler have gone down in fistic folklore. He finally retired in January of 2002, at age fifty-two, with a professional record of 104 wins (69 by KO) in 120 fights. They called him Manos de Piedra: “Hands of Stone.” Now journalist Christian Giudice has written the first—and definitive—story of Duran’s incredible life both in and out of the ring. He has interviewed the fighter, his family, closest friends, and scores of his opponents to separate truth from myth. Duran was born in utter poverty in Panama and grew up in the streets, fighting to survive. His talent with his fists soon emerged, and he had his first professional fight in 1967. Duran grew into a fighter’s fighter. His hunger to destroy opponents and his willingness to take on anyone, anywhere, made him a huge favorite while his flamboyant lifestyle outside the ring made headline news. Duran was one of the first Latino fighters to become a mainstream sports star in the United States, and his natural talent, unprecedented achievements, and longevity made an indelible mark on the world of sport.

    “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 saw as “a wraith, an avenging angel of misery, a twelve-toothed assassin”. Roll barely recognized him. Belgium had forged Parkin into a pro bike racer, and changed him forever.A Dog in a Hat is Joe’s remarkable story. Leaving California with a bag of clothes, two spare wheels, some cash, and a phone number, Parkin left the comforts of home for the windy, rainswept heartland of European cycling. As one of the first American pros in Europe, Parkin was what the Belgians call “a dog with a hat on” — something familiar, yet decidedly out of place.Parkin lays out the hard reality of the life—the drugs, the payoffs, the betrayals by teammates, the battles with team owners for contracts and money, the endless promises that keep you going, the agony of racing day after day, and the glory of a good day in the saddle.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 hardest place in the world to be a bike racer. It is a story untold until now, and one that you will never forget.

    You are amazing. You have untapped potential in you that would blow your mind. — From the introduction. While the world increasingly seeks happiness in fads and self-help books—millions of us reaching upward every day toward some enlightened being that we wish to be—surfing icon Laird Hamilton is more intent on looking inward and appreciating the brilliant creature we already are. In LIFERIDER, Laird uses five key pillars – Death & Fear, Heart, Body, Soul, and Everything is Connected – to illustrate his unique worldview and life practices, offering inspiration to anyone who wants to elevate their ordinary, landlocked life to do extraordinary things. This is Laird Hamilton in his own words—raw, honest, and unvarnished–on topics he has rarely explored before. Based on extensive interviews and conversations between Laird and his cowriter, Julian Borra, with additional insights from Laird’s wife, pro-volleyball player Gabby Reece, LIFERIDER takes on human resilience, relationships, business, technology, risk-taking, and the importance of respecting the natural world, all through the lens of Laird’s extraordinary life both in and beyond the ocean.

    It was the crowning achievement of a hugely successful career, in which he won 31 Grand Prix, a record for a British driver that stood until Lewis Hamilton overhauled him in 2014. Always an aggressive driver, his exciting style meant he was hailed as a hero by his millions of fans in the UK and around the world. Out of the car, he was outspoken and charismatic, which merely served to enhance his reputation. Now, 20 years after he retired from F1, Mansell looks back on a stellar career in which he battled against many legends of the sport, from Lauda through the Senna and Prost years and on to Schumacher. He provides vivid insights into what it was like to race against those greats in an era when the risks to drivers were enormous. He explains what motivated him to get to the top, and takes the reader behind the scenes to give an unrivalled insight into the sport and the key moments of his career. Still closely involved in Formula One, Mansell assesses how F1 has changed, and gives his authoritative verdict on the sport, the cars and the drivers. It is an unmissable account from one of Britain's greatest sporting heroes.

    From his early years as a keen cyclist in his hometown in Colorado to his unflinching rite of passage as a professional rider with US Postal to his elevation as one of cycling's most resilient, ethical and intelligent team bosses, the highs and lows of his career have mirrored those of the sport itself. Vaughters has had a front-row seat for most of the major events in cycling over the past three decades. He was both a former teammate of Lance and a leading witness against him. And he went on to renounce doping and start the first pro cycling team to dedicate itself to clean riding, which has grown into one of the most successful teams competing today and started a movement that has swept across the sport.This is also not simply a story of races won and lost: Vaughters shows readers how he navigated the complex, international business of building Slipstream into a world-class cycling team. Over the past decade, he has led the sport out of the scandal-plagued Armstrong era. By presenting the world with a team made of talented racers built around a rigorous approach to clean racing, he set a new standard within cycling that has since spread across the peloton. Written from the unique perspective of both a racer and a team manager, One-Way Ticket gives the complete story of what it takes to build a winning team and repair the reputation of a sport.

    She was one of the few media members aside from Oprah Winfrey to be granted extended one-on-one access to the most famous pariah in sports.At the center of Cycle of Lies is Armstrong himself, revealed through face-to-face interviews.But this unfolding narrative is given depth and breadth by the firsthand accounts of more than one hundred witnesses, including family members whom Armstrong had long since turned his back on—the adoptive father who gave him the Armstrong name, a grandmother, an aunt. Perhaps most damning of all is the taped testimony of the late J.T. Neal, the most influential of Armstrong's many father figures, recorded in the final years of Neal's life as he lost his battle with cancer just as Armstrong gained fame for surviving the disease.In the end, it was Armstrong's former friends, those who had once occupied the precious space of his inner circle, who betrayed him. They were the ones who dealt Armstrong his fatal blow by breaking the code of silence that shielded the public from the grim truth about the sport of cycling—and the grim truth about its golden boy, Armstrong.Threading together the vivid and disparate voices of those with intimate knowledge of the private and public Armstrong, Macur weaves a comprehensive and unforgettably rich tapestry of one man's astonishing rise to global fame and fortune and his devastating fall from grace.

    Even more important, he succeeded in never wavering from coaching his way, from a place of deep values. Jackson was tagged as the “Zen master” half in jest by sportswriters, but the nickname speaks to an important truth: this is a coach who inspired, not goaded; who led by awakening and challenging the better angels of his players’ nature, not their egos, fear, or greed.This is the story of a preacher’s kid from North Dakota who grew up to be one of the most innovative leaders of our time. In his quest to reinvent himself, Jackson explored everything from humanistic psychology and Native American philosophy to Zen meditation. In the process, he developed a new approach to leadership based on freedom, authenticity, and selfless teamwork that turned the hypercompetitive world of professional sports on its head. In Eleven Rings, Jackson candidly describes how he:Learned the secrets of mindfulness and team chemistry while playing for the champion New York Knicks in the 1970sManaged Michael Jordan, the greatest player in the world, and got him to embrace selflessness, even if it meant losing a scoring titleForged successful teams out of players of varying abilities by getting them to trust one another and perform in syncInspired Dennis Rodman and other “uncoachable” personalities to devote themselves to something larger than themselvesTransformed Kobe Bryant from a rebellious teenager into a mature leader of a championship team.Eleven times, Jackson led his teams to the ultimate goal: the NBA championship—six times with the Chicago Bulls and five times with the Los Angeles Lakers. We all know the legendary stars on those teams, or think we do. What Eleven Rings shows us, however, is that when it comes to the most important lessons, we don’t know very much at all. This book is full of revelations: about fascinating personalities and their drive to win; about the wellsprings of motivation and competition at the highest levels; and about what it takes to bring out the best in ourselves and others.

    194 days and 17 hours previously, he had set off from Paris in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in record time. Mark smashed the Guinness World Record by an astonishing 81 days. He had travelled more than 18,000 miles on his own through some of the harshest conditions one man and his bicycle can endure, camping wild at night and suffering from constant ailments.The Man Who Cycled the World is the story not just of that amazing achievement, but of the events that turned Mark Beaumont into the man he is today. From the early years of his free-spirited childhood in the Scottish countryside, he had been determined to break records, cycling across Scotland and then from John O'Groats to Land's End by the age of fifteen, raising thousands of pounds for charity. After leaving university, he had been equally determined not to settle for an average existence, but to break free and see the world from a saddle, to follow his dreams.This is the tale not just of one of the last great circumnavigation world records, and of the incredible endurance it took to accomplish it, but an insight into many of the world's cultures from a unique perspective. From Paris to Istanbul, through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and south-east Asia to Singapore, then across Australia, New Zealand and the United States before the final legs in Europe, all at hundred miles a day, this is the story of a quite remarkable adventure, by a quite remarkable man.

    As a newcomer to the sport and a complete unknown to the press, Chrissie's win shook up the sport. A LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS is the story of her rise to the top, a journey that has taken her around the world, from a childhood in England, to the mountains of Nepal, to the oceans of New Zealand, and the trails of Argentina, and first across the finish line.Wellington's first-hand, inspiring story includes all the incredible challenges she has faced--from anorexia to near--drowning to training with a controversial coach. But to Wellington, the drama of the sports also presents an opportunity to use sports to improve people's lives.A LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS reveals the heart behind Wellington's success, along with the diet, training and motivational techniques that keep her going through one of the world's most grueling events.

    In his late twenties, he pedaled 25,000 miles around the world. Today he rides to get to work, sometimes for work, to bathe in air and sunshine, to travel, to go shopping, to stay sane, and to skip bath time with his kids. He's no Sunday pedal pusher. So when the time came for a new bike, he decided to pull out all the stops. He would build his dream bike, the bike he would ride for the rest of his life; a customized machine that reflects the joy of cycling.It's All About the Bike follows Penn's journey, but this book is more than the story of his hunt for two-wheel perfection. En route, Penn brilliantly explores the culture, science, and history of the bicycle. From artisanal frame shops in the United Kingdom to California, where he finds the perfect wheels, via Portland, Milan, and points in between, his trek follows the serpentine path of our love affair with cycling. It explains why we ride.It's All About the Bike is, like Penn's dream bike, a tale greater than the sum of its parts. An enthusiastic and charming tour guide, Penn uses each component of the bike as a starting point for illuminating excursions into the rich history of cycling. Just like a long ride on a lovely day, It's All About the Bike is pure joy- enriching, exhilarating, and unforgettable.

    Andy isn't a sporting superstar, he holds down a 9-5 job and all the pressures that go with it; he isn't blessed with speed and talent; there are no multi-million pound sponsorship deals; yet this remarkable "common man" is inspiring in a way that some of today's sporting superstars have forgotten how to be. You wouldn't recognize Andy in the street, yet his story provides valuable lessons to us all: "Never give up" and "Anything is possible." Can't Swim, Can't Ride, Can't Run follows Andy Holgate's epic journey from being an overweight librarian to an Ironman triathlete. Before he could even begin the rollercoaster ride which amassed more punctures than Andy cares to remember, this would-be Superman had first to buy a second-hand bike and take swimming lessons. Along the way, he ended up in hospital, dealt with family crises, encountered crocodiles and deadly amoebas, and persuaded his friends that doing an Ironman event is what normal people do on their stag weekend. This is the inspirational, amusing and moving story of how one normal bloke learnt how to fall off a bike and not injure himself, to run a marathon despite two dodgy knees, and most importantly how not to drown.

    This is the remarkable story of a man who triumphed over all the odds -- a behind-the-scenes record of the 2004 professional cycling season and the manner in which Armstrong landed his sixth Tour de France victory. What makes the book particularly inspiring is the fact that Armstrong is no superman -- he talks about the many strikes against him (his age, the dissolving of his team and -- most of all -- his triumph over potentially lethal illness (his struggle against cancer is, of course, well-known).Coyle takes us from the cyclist's turbulent youth in Texas through his many achievements in the cycling field (notably his near loss in the 2003 tour), and his massive struggles against a series of disasters that would have floored most of us: his difficult divorce and subsequent separation from his children and, finally, the terrifying revelation of his cancer. The section on the various solutions that Armstrong tried (including new age healers and radical Italian sports doctors) makes for particularly fascinating reading: as Armstrong realised that his solutions lay elsewhere, there is a genuinely inspirational note here. Equally fascinating are the descriptions of his obsessive fans, the mind games he was forced to play (both with his opponents and corporate heavyweights), and, of course, his much-publicised relationship with rock star Sheryl Crow. The climax, his victory in the 2004 Tour de France, rounds out one of the best sport biographies in years. --Barry Forshaw

    This is the story of how she got to the top, and battled with everything she had to stay there. Sam’s memoir takes in the whole story, from being kicked out of ballet lessons as a child but being accepted on the boys’ sports teams, to working as a firefighter in West Yorkshire for ten years, tackling dangerous and adrenaline-fueled situations on a daily basis, and to taking up CrossFit at the comparatively ancient age of 27. Sam tells of what it took to become champion a mere three years later, and after a year out with a broken patella. Despite the numerous setbacks and debilitating injuries that have plagued her in the years that followed, when most other athletes would have thrown in the towel, Sam has fought, and continues to fight, to be the very best that she can be. Start Your Engines is the story of how, with a combination of grit, training and dogged motivation, it’s never too late to achieve your dreams.

    When Meb Keflezighi ran his final marathon in New York City on November 5, 2017, it marked the end of an extraordinary distance-running career. As the first person in history to win both the Boston and New York City marathons as well as an Olympic marathon medal, Meb’s legacy is forever cemented. Meb's last marathon was also his 26th, and each of those marathons has come with its own unique challenges, rewards, and outcomes. In 26 Marathons, take on those legendary races alongside Meb—every hill, bend, and unexpected turn of events that made each marathon an exceptional learning experience, and a fascinating story. 26 Marathons offers the wisdom Meb has gleaned about life, family, identity, and faith in addition to tips about running, training, and nutrition. He shows runners of all levels how to apply the lessons he's learned to their own running and lives. Equal parts inspiration and practical advice, 26 Marathons provides an inside look at the life and success of one of the greatest runners living today.