Tour de France: The History. the Legend. the Riders.

By Graeme Fife

Book Overview

An updated edition sets the 2013 race in the context of the event's remarkable history, stretching back to July 1903

Combining meticulous research with a fast-paced narrative style, Graeme Fife penetrates the mystique of the Tour de France and paints a colorful picture of the men whose exploits have given the Tour enduring universal appeal. The momentous 100th anniversary competition fully lived up to expectations and was the most exciting race in years. Mountains loomed large in one of the toughest routes since World War II, including a double ascent of the iconic l'Alpe d'Huez in just one day. Laced with tales of great solo rides, amazing fortitude, terrible misfortune, and triumph, Tour de France is the definitive account of this extraordinary competition. Named one of the top-five sports books of the year by both the Independent and the Times, it is the essential guide to the Tour.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1780576250
• ISBN13: 9781780576251
• Release Date: April 2014
• Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
• Length: 560 Pages
• Weight: 1.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

An excellent and fun read, which brings the tour to life

While I do not disagree with the people who find this book incomplete, perhaps unfair to Indurain, too flowery, or perhaps leaning too heavily on the author's own trips up the great climbs of the tour, I found it thoroughly enjoyable. Fife does have his own personal view of what good racing is, as anyone does, but I found it quite fun to see how tough these climbs are for the layman (he interupts his coverage of the history of the tour to bring you his own exploits on the col du telegraphe and Mont ventoux). I found the flowery language to be just a lot of fun, actually. And I found his treatment of the more ancient history of the tour to breathe life into the old photographs and old stories in a wonderful way. Perhaps this should not be your one book on cycling, but it is an excellent addition to your cycling library. You should certainly have tim krabbe's 'the rider', also, which is an absolutely fantastic book.

Comes across a little opinionated, but...

Despite his unfair treatment of Miguel Indurain's great career and Paul Kimmage's great book ("A Rough Ride"), this book does give the reader an interesting glimpse into the history of this great race. As others have commented, it is not comprehensive, the content being driven by the author's own passion for parts of the event's history.Worth a read if only to help understand the origins of the drugs scandals of recent years which can be traced back to the early years of the sport.

Probably the best book ever on the Tour

Graeme Fife's scholarly yet personal appraisal of the Tour de France is an essential book for anyone coming to the Tour for the first time. With the expected upsurge in interest related to the 100th anniversary in 2003 this account presents a comprehensive overview of the event with a plethora of anecdote, observation and detail. An absolute must for anyone who rides a bike!

We loved this book.

This book is just what you need if you have all the recently pubished tour de France books but have never had the chance to climb all those famous cols .Really is one for the true lover of the tour .It gets right into the feel of this historic race .Both my husband and I have read it several times over and bought it as presents for christmas .