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Books about the Tour de France
The Tour de France is the world's largest cycling race. It takes place
annually around France
(although some parts of the race sometimes take place in neighboring countries).
The race takes place over
22 days, covers approximately 3,000 kilometers (1,875 miles), and is divided
into 20 stages - the winner being decided by comparing the cumulative
times of each competitor across all the stages.
Here are some books about the Tour de France:
Related Web Sites:
Disclosure: Products details and descriptions provided by Amazon.com. Our company may receive a payment if you purchase products from them after following a link from this website.
By Graham Watson
VeloPress
Paperback (340 pages)
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Click Here | - ISBN13: 9781934030387
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Product Description:
Graham Watson’s Tour de France Travel Guide lets cycling fans experience all the excitement of the Tour while negotiating its many daily obstacles with the confidence of a local. As cycling’s leading photographer, Graham Watson has been in the right place at the right time during every stage of every Tour de France since 1977. No one knows how to get around the Tour like Graham. Graham shares his 31 years of Tour de France experience in this beautifully illustrated guidebook. Featuring over 200 of his award-winning photographs along with full-color maps, travel tips, checklists, and travel resources, this book presents a fresh and unique strategy for getting around the Tour’s many opportunities for frustration to find a front-row seat for all the action. Learn where to eat, where to sleep, how to get around, how to see and photograph the race, and how to enjoy the greatest show on two wheels. |
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By Carol McGann Bill Mcgann
Dog Ear Publishing
Paperback (316 pages)
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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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By Eric Delanzy
Rodale Books
Released: 2006-05-30
Hardcover (240 pages)
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Click Here | - ISBN13: 9781594862304
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Product Description:
With rare access to the remarkable photo archive of the Tour de France, this volume captures through stunning images and moving vignettes the breathtaking drama, heartbreak, and joy of the world’s most captivating cycling event.
Few sporting events can match the splendor and spectacle of the Tour de France—as teams of cyclists gather each July in quest of the coveted yellow jersey, ready to take on the 23-day chase through the French countryside lined with millions of spectators, and the winding and steep climbs and harrowing descents of the mountainous peaks of the Pyrennees and Alps.
Created with the endorsement of the Tour organization and carrying the official TDF logo, this rich anecdotal and photographic history depicts, both the classic, almost mythic tales that have defined the event over the years, and the rare, untold glimpses from behind the scenes. Offering coverage through 2005, it will be the first historical overview to include coverage of Lance Armstrong’s record-shattering seventh consecutive win. Each full-page spread stands on its own, allowing the reader to pick the book up anywhere and instantly absorb the magic moments that have enthralled fans for over 100 years. This is a beautiful, coffee table book, one that any cyclist or Tour fan will proudly display and eagerly peruse.
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By Pamela Pease
Paintbox Press, LLC
Hardcover (20 pages; 1)
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Click Here | - ISBN13: 9780966943375
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Product Description:
The story of one of sport’s most amazing events—the Tour de France—is told in both words and images in this impressively vibrant pop-up history. Invoking the sense of freedom and adventure that cycling brings to people of all ages, this visual chronicle uses eight intricate, colorful 3-D scenes to illustrate the unique traditions, strategies, and heroism of the annual quest for the yellow jersey. Pop-up scenes tracing the development of the bicycle through history, a revolving wheel explaining the roles of various team members and racing officials, and a map of France that tracks the Tour’s progress all encourage readers to embark on a journey of discovery. |
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By Richard Yates
Cycle Publishing
Hardcover (160 pages)
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Click Here | - ISBN13: 9781892495525
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Product Description:
The mountain stages, that's where the greatest battles of the Tour de France are fought, where champions are born and others crack. It's where men like Coppi, Merckx, and Armstrong have shown their mettle. This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of the Tour de France concentrating on these mountain stages and the riders who have excelled there. Illustrated throughout with historic duotone photographs. |
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By Christopher S. Thompson
University of California Press
Paperback (406 pages)
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In this highly original history of the world's most famous bicycle race, Christopher S. Thompson, mining previously neglected sources and writing with infectious enthusiasm for his subject, tells the compelling story of the Tour de France from its creation in 1903 to the present. Weaving the words of racers, politicians, Tour organizers, and a host of other commentators together with a wide-ranging analysis of the culture surrounding the event--including posters, songs, novels, films, and media coverage--Thompson links the history of the Tour to key moments and themes in French history. Examining the enduring popularity of Tour racers, Thompson explores how their public images have changed over the past century. A new preface explores the long-standing problem of doping in light of recent scandals. |
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By Bill McGann
Dog Ear Publishing, LLC
Paperback (404 pages)
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Volume 1 of The Story of the Tour de France concluded with Jacques Anquetil s record setting fifth Tour win. Volume 2 opens with the greatest Italian racer of the modern age, Felice Gimondi and his effortless victory at the young age of 22. Despite his extraordinary talent, he never won the Tour again. Starting in 1969, Eddy Merckx began his run of 5 victories. Bernard Hinault, who also managed to win 5, followed him.
Unable to fulfill his destiny as a likely 5-time winner because of a hunting accident, LeMond won the Tour 3 times. LeMond s era was followed by the remarkable Spaniard Miguel Indurain, the first man to win the Tour 5 times in a row.
The late 1990s were a time of extreme crisis for the Tour as the culture of doping within the professional cycling community erupted into the scandal of 1998. The Story of the Tour de France deals with this episode at length.
Emerging from a near-fatal bout of cancer, Lance Armstrong went on to do what no other rider in the Tour s long history had ever been able to accomplish, win the Tour 7 times. Following Armstrong s retirement, the Tour was again seized by scandal, this time Floyd Landis disqualification for drugs after winning the 2006 Tour.
The book concludes with the story of the 2007 Tour, followed by a quest for the greatest ever Tour de France rider and an epilogue that explains the reasons for the extraordinary success of the Tour.
What they are saying about The Story of the Tour de France:
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. Most of my preferred references are in French, one runs to over 800 pages, yet the McGanns opus revealed information new to me in almost every paragraph. Their research has been not only impeccable, but insightful.
Owen Mulholland, author of Uphill Battle/i> and Cycling s Golden Age
The Story of the Tour de France: How a Newspaper Promotion Became the Greatest Sporting Event in the World by Bill and Carol McGann is a must read.
Road Bike Action Magazine
For any historian of the sport the McGanns Tour de France history is essential reading. Details of the stages and the riders are not glossed over. For those who are new to the sport, the McGanns bring the glory days of the sport alive with the intrigue that still exists today. Epic stages that might have faded into oblivion are eloquently recounted so that future generation of cyclists will know the rich history of our beautiful sport.
Neil Browne, editor, Road Magazine
Besides towering over all bicycle races, the Tour de France endures for its unique Gaulic character, like Victor Hugo s Les Miserables. The McGanns 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 Lion |
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By Les Woodland
Van der Plas/Cycle Publishing
Hardcover (152 pages)
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The Tour de France. It's probably the world's greatest and certainly toughest professional sporting event. There is much more to the Tour than the daily stage victories and dope charges. This book takes a close look behind the scenes of the Tour and brings up many fascinating stories from the race's 100-year history, as well as the events that preceded the Tour itself. The Unknown Tour de France makes fascinating reading for everyone interested in bicycle racing and professional sports in general. You'll hear about the great champions of the early days, and some of later years, who molded the public image of the Tour the way it has become known. You'll read about the beginnings of road racing and the men who started and promoted this great venture. Find out about the 'foreign legion', the early English-speaking riders, and the way some of them later placed their mark on the Tour. This edition replaces the previous edition ISBN 97818924266, which is no longer available. |
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By Phil Liggett & Sammarye Lewis
For Dummies
Paperback (287 pages)
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Click Here | - ISBN13: 9780764584497
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Product Description:
A plain-English guide to the world's most famous-and grueling-bicycle race Featuring eight-pages of full-color photos from recent Tour de France races, this easy-to-follow, entertaining guide demystifies the history, strategy, rules, techniques, equipment, and competitors in what is arguably the most grueling and intriguing multiday, multistage sporting event in the world. Cowritten by the most popular English-speaking cycling commentator on the planet, this book is great reading for both experienced and the new bicycle racing fans alike. |
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By Philippe Brunel
Buonpane Publications
Hardcover (156 pages)
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