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.
- Wide-Eyed and Legless, Jeff Connor
- A Rough Ride, Paul Kimmage
- Kings of the Road, Robin Magowan
- Lance Armstrong's War, Dan Coyle
- Kelly - A Biography of Sean Kelly, David Walsh
- The Rider, Tim Krabbe
- The Death of Marco Pantani, Matt Rendell
- The Escape Artist, Matt Seaton
- French Revolutions, Tim Moore
- Flying Scotsman, Graeme Obree
- The Hour, Michael Hutchinson
- We Were Young and Carefree, Laurent Fignon
- In Search of Robert Millar, Richard Moore
- Breaking the Chain, Willy Voet
- The Great Bike Race, Geoffrey Nicholson
- From Lance to Landis, David Walsh
- Boy Racer, Mark Cavendish
- Put Me Back On My Bike - In Search of Tom Simpson, William Fotheringham
- Bad Blood, Jeremy Whittle
- The Fabulous World of Cycling, Winning Magazine
- The Giro d'Italia - Coppi vs. Bartali at the 1949 Tour of Italy, Dino Buzzati
- Visions of Cycling, Graham Watson
- Tour de France - The History, The Legends, The Riders, Graeme Fife
- Fallen Angel - The Passion of Fausto Coppi, William Fotheringham
- Kings of the Mountains, Matt Rendell
- World of Cycling, John Wilcockson
- Cycling is My Life, Tommy Simpson
- It's Not About the Bike - My Journey Back to Life, Lance Armstrong
- The Foreign Legion, Rupert Guinness
- A Dog in a Hat, Joe Parkin
- A Peiper's Tale, Allan Peiper with Chris Sidwells
- Watching the Wheels Going Round, Barry Hoban with John Wilcockson
- Le Métier, Michael Barry
- Push Yourself Just A Little Bit More, Johnny Green
- European Cycling - The 20 Greatest Races, Noel Henderson
- Tomorrow We Ride, Jean Bobet
- Greg LeMond - The Incredible Comeback, Samuel Abt
- The Tour de France 1903-2003 - A Century of Sporting Structures, Meanings and Values, Hugh Dauncey and Geoff Hare
- A Significant Other, Matt Rendell
- Inside the Peloton - Riding, Winning and Losing the Tour de France, Graeme Fife
- The Agony and the Ecstasy, Stephen Roche with David Walsh
- Great Road Climbs of the Pyrenees, Graeme Fife
- Roule Britannia, William Fotheringham
- Tour de Lance, Bill Strickland
- Le Tour, Geoffrey Wheatcroft
- In Pursuit of Glory, Bradley Wiggins
- The Unknown Tour de France, Les Woodland
- A Century of Paris-Roubaix, Pascal Sergent
- Inside the Postal Bus, Michael Barry
- 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!
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.
ReplyDeleteAll these book might be useful resource for every cycling people , these books might discover some history and knowledge of cycling as http://babici.cc/
ReplyDeletenice blogging! thanks :)
ReplyDeleteSo where have you been since December 2010?
ReplyDelete