Sunday, December 12, 2010

Top 50 Cycling Books

I picked up an issue of Cycle Sport the other day. In it is an article highlighting the top 50 cycling books. It's in the December issue along with some other good articles on the Ghent Six track races, Thor and his WC win and the 2011 Tour de France route.

I looked around online to see if I could find the list anywhere and I couldn't, so I decided to recreate it here.  Absent from my list is the clever commentary, especially since I've only read three of the books on the list. If you want to know more about the book, you can buy the December issue of Cycle Sport or look up the book on Amazon.

  1. Wide-Eyed and Legless, Jeff Connor
  2. A Rough Ride, Paul Kimmage
  3. Kings of the Road, Robin Magowan
  4. Lance Armstrong's War, Dan Coyle
  5. Kelly - A Biography of Sean Kelly, David Walsh
  6. The Rider, Tim Krabbe
  7. The Death of Marco Pantani, Matt Rendell
  8. The Escape Artist, Matt Seaton
  9. French Revolutions, Tim Moore
  10. Flying Scotsman, Graeme Obree
  11. The Hour, Michael Hutchinson
  12. We Were Young and Carefree, Laurent Fignon
  13. In Search of Robert Millar, Richard Moore
  14. Breaking the Chain, Willy Voet
  15. The Great Bike Race, Geoffrey Nicholson
  16. From Lance to Landis, David Walsh
  17. Boy Racer, Mark Cavendish
  18. Put Me Back On My Bike - In Search of Tom Simpson, William Fotheringham
  19. Bad Blood, Jeremy Whittle
  20. The Fabulous World of Cycling, Winning Magazine
  21. The Giro d'Italia - Coppi vs. Bartali at the 1949 Tour of Italy, Dino Buzzati
  22. Visions of Cycling, Graham Watson
  23. Tour de France - The History, The Legends, The Riders, Graeme Fife
  24. Fallen Angel - The Passion of Fausto Coppi, William Fotheringham
  25. Kings of the Mountains, Matt Rendell
  26. World of Cycling, John Wilcockson
  27. Cycling is My Life, Tommy Simpson
  28. It's Not About the Bike - My Journey Back to Life, Lance Armstrong
  29. The Foreign Legion, Rupert Guinness
  30. A Dog in a Hat, Joe Parkin
  31. A Peiper's Tale, Allan Peiper with Chris Sidwells
  32. Watching the Wheels Going Round, Barry Hoban with John Wilcockson
  33. Le Métier, Michael Barry
  34. Push Yourself Just A Little Bit More, Johnny Green
  35. European Cycling - The 20 Greatest Races, Noel Henderson
  36. Tomorrow We Ride, Jean Bobet
  37. Greg LeMond - The Incredible Comeback, Samuel Abt
  38. The Tour de France 1903-2003 - A Century of Sporting Structures, Meanings and Values, Hugh Dauncey and Geoff Hare
  39. A Significant Other, Matt Rendell
  40. Inside the Peloton - Riding, Winning and Losing the Tour de France, Graeme Fife
  41. The Agony and the Ecstasy, Stephen Roche with David Walsh
  42. Great Road Climbs of the Pyrenees, Graeme Fife
  43. Roule Britannia, William Fotheringham
  44. Tour de Lance, Bill Strickland
  45. Le Tour, Geoffrey Wheatcroft
  46. In Pursuit of Glory, Bradley Wiggins
  47. The Unknown Tour de France, Les Woodland
  48. A Century of Paris-Roubaix, Pascal Sergent
  49. Inside the Postal Bus, Michael Barry
  50. Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape, Paul Howard
That's it. Print it off, take it with you next time your at a bookstore or a library. Enjoy!

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for reprinting the Cycle Sport December issue's "50 Greatest Cycling Books" list. The list included a few new-to-me volumes and I look forward to reading them this winter. Acknowledging that it is always easier to nit-pick someone's else's effort, I nonetheless think the list would have benefitted from more diversity -- three authors with three books each on a list of the top fifty!? The picks were likewise a little short on the first 50-60 years of bicycle racing and, while I recognize Cycle Sport's natural "Roule Britannia" focus, bicycle racing was a big deal on our side of the pond in its infancy. To that end, I would recommend "Major Taylor: The Fastest Bicycle Racer in the World" by Andrew Ritchie (2nd updated edition with photos) and "The Six-Day Bicycle Races: America's Jazz Age Sport" by Peter Nye as two good reads that might help to round out a modest cycle racing library.

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  2. All these book might be useful resource for every cycling people , these books might discover some history and knowledge of cycling as http://babici.cc/

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  3. So where have you been since December 2010?

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