When Henri Desgrange began a new bicycle road race in 1903, he saw it as little more than a temporary publicity stunt to promote his newspaper. The sixty cyclists who left Paris to ride through the night to Lyons that first July had little idea they were pioneers of the most famous of all bike races, which would reach its centenary as one of the greatest sporting events on earth. Geoffrey Wheatcroft's masterly history of the Tour de France's first hundred years is not just a hugely entertaining canter through some great Tour stories; nor is it merely a homage to the riders whose names -- Coppi, Simpson, Mercx, Armstrong -- are synonymous with the event's folly and glory; focusing too on the race's role in French cultural life it provides a unique and fascinating insight into Europe's twentieth century.
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Product Description
Review
'A fascinating book' -- Spectator
'Admirable and beautifully written' -- Daily Mail
'Mesmerisingly evoked . . . This is a charming, humorous, often moving book, bursting with joie de vivre' -- Daily Telegraph
'[Wheatcroft] brings a fresh eye to the Tour and a larger view of its cultural context' -- Guardian
'Admirable and beautifully written' -- Daily Mail
'Mesmerisingly evoked . . . This is a charming, humorous, often moving book, bursting with joie de vivre' -- Daily Telegraph
'[Wheatcroft] brings a fresh eye to the Tour and a larger view of its cultural context' -- Guardian
About the Author
Geoffrey Wheatcroft is a journalist and historian, a former literary editor of the SPECTATOR and 'Londoner's Diary' editor of the EVENING STANDARD, whose book THE CONTROVERSY OF ZION won an American National Jewish Book Award.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
During his sad last years of exile, Oscar Wilde was staying in Paris when he dined with the symbolist writer Maurice Maeterlinck and 'his wonderful mistress', Georgette Leblanc. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
During his sad last years of exile, Oscar Wilde was staying in Paris when he dined with the symbolist writer Maurice Maeterlinck and 'his wonderful mistress', Georgette Leblanc. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Paul Harris
I really enjoyed reading this. Very comprehensive and full of original angles on which to comment on the Tour's place in the sporting and social history of France in particular and Europe in general. Renewed my appreciation of the Tour's greatest legends such as Merckx, Coppi, Ocana, and Poulidor. I have an especially new-found reverence for the great Gino Bartoli. Vive le Tour!
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By bstrides42
This is an awful book. It's badly written, badly edited and remarkably boring. Certainly not the "Tour de Force" promised on the cover nor "terrifically entertaining" either. It's padded out with rambling tangential chapters which lead nowhere, and many of the chapters about races are simply lists of what happened, without any insight or analysis. If you want a compelling book about the history of the tour, look elsewhere.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Bruce Taylor
The Tour is a magnificent event, but this book reduced it to a never ending series of names, stage winners, times, routes.
There was an admirable attempt to interweave the history of the Tour with the history of France, but it never quite hung together coherently and acted as a thin cover for a narrative that was totally uninspired sequential account of each tour since 1903
I dont think I know any more about the Tour now than I did before I read this book
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
