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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grahams pictures deserve an Oscar for services to cycling, 14 April 2001
By A Customer
Graham Watson is one of the most respected cycling photographers of the last few decades. He always manages to capture the beauty, and cruelty of the sport. This collection of more than 250 images from the past 20 years spans the days when few wore sunglasses to the de rigueur sports shades of today. The older pictures show that the eyes really are the windows to the soul. The book is split into 6 parts each roughly covering a 4-year period. The format is larger than most. Pictures do not on the whole span the centre binding; a welcome change from other books. All aspects of the sport are included from cyclo-cross to track to the main topic professional road racing.The full intensity of battle of the classic one-day races is portrayed. Only on these days do or die efforts really surface. Sometimes it only the loser's faces that show just the level effort the winners offer. Grahams pictures show an insider view on this. The 3-week tours of France Italy and Spain rightly take a large proportion of the book. The flavours of the tours are highlighted. Sprints & crashes, heat & sunflowers, descents & climbs, winners & losers it's all there. The excitement that comes from watching close track racing is well expressed. The fight with the mud and snow of cyclo-cross the other end of the spectrum. Graham really does work all year around. Grahams career started with just as Eddy Merckx bowed out, he is (by his own admission) the only notable omission from this volume. All of the greats are shown in their moments of glory. The subject of drug abuse and Lances cancer could not really be ignored and Grahams observations are handled with a delicate touch. Just looking at the pictures shows how technology has evolved. Graham Obree's radical rework of aerodynamics is there to see. Jasper Skibby's infamous Koppenburg incident with the race directors car is shown in a sequence of snaps. The selection does have a US / UK bias; but then it is written for the English speaking fan. This is a book to look at time and time again. Put it away and bring it out and the images will still inspire. I took up cycling in 1980 and this book is near perfect representation of my own memory of professional racing as I could wish for. Well-done Graham I hope you have another 20 years of fantastic images to come.
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