Your Favourite Cycling Book Is....?

[McVouty]

Two which cover the relationships between nations' cycle racing histories and their wider social and politico/economic histories: 'Kings of the mountains' by Matt Rendell (Colombia) and 'Pedalare!Pedalare!' by John Foot (Italy). Indeed, anything by Rendell is intelligently written. I confess to not having read the Foot yet, but [footyphobes can skip this bit] taking a line through his 'Calcio', which does the same thing for Italian football and history, I'm looking forward to doing so. [Later] It's great, maybe even better than 'Calcio'. BTW, 'Wide-eyed and legless' by Jeff Connor, which tells the story of the last British team to enter the Tour de France before Sky, has recently had a well-deserved re-publication after being out of print for 23 years.

[ambodach]

The Davie Bell books mentioned earlier give a good flavour of how cycling used to be in my youth. For a historical note how about - The History of Mr Polly by H.G. Wells. Fiction but an interesting insight into cyling in those days

[Ugly]

I have three bound volumes of The Cheshire Roads News: 1940-44, 1945-48, 1949-52. These were my Godfathers, F L Lee, Who was a life member of the Norwood Paragon who moved to Cheshire on war work in 1940 and joined the 'Ches'. These amount to a cycling soap opera, faithful, indetail records of club runs, socials, club politics, members going of to war and sadly some not returning and all the various details of a club trying to maintain normality in abnormal times.

A cracking read

How the club managed to produce typeset, letterpress printed, hard back volumes in that time of austerity is, to me, a mystery

[boris]

journey to the centre of the earth by the crane cousins

[Ron]

I will always be grateful to the guy who loaned me The Wind in my Wheels by Josie Dew, it gave me the inspiration to tour Iceland.

[soton]

Apology if this has been mentioned: Francis Birtles' account of a solo trip across the outback of Australia in 1909, Lonely Lands (with pictures).
The price, ease of acquisition, and burden of ownership puts it in the 'best' category. Free at http://www.archive.org/details/lonelyla ... 00birtiala

[Cyril Haearn]

Mick Gambling.. On cycling

Paul Jones.. A Corinthian Endeavour - the national hill-climb championship [what do the competitors do for a warm-up?]

[Cyril Haearn]

Old copies of the CTC Gazette while not strictly books are very interesting

[richardfm]

Richard's Bicycle Book is very dated now but had a huge influence on me in my early years of riding and maintaining bikes. I've enjoyed other books since, but on nothing like the same scale.

Same here

[richardfm]

Has anyone mentioned Tom Vernon, Fat Man on a Bicycle or Jack Thurston's Lost Lanes?

[PutneySprinter]

Less romanticized and more gritty than other suggestions but -

Racing Through The Dark by David Millar is an amazing look into the sacrifices needed to get into the pro peloton, and how easy it is to be swept up in the culture and doping of pro cycling. Deals a lot with the mental side of not just pro racing, but also how he handled his punishment, ban etc. right up to becoming a commentator for the Tour.

The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton is seen as the 'dopers bible' - a very in depth examination of the doping systems, quantities, training methods and evasions used by US Postal, lead by Lance Armstrong. Similarly to Millar's book, it looks at the mental side, dealing with the fallout from positive tests and getting banned from pro cycling.

[fullupandslowingdown]

The most moving book I have read was The Flying Scotsman: The Graeme Obree story. It must have taken as much guts to write as everyone of his achievements in the saddle.
A book that I have read a while ago and then felt a degree of annoyance about was Its Not about the Bike, Lance Armstrong. Like many fans I felt let down by who had been a hero to cyclists and people with cancer alike. Trouble is, I confess a small degree of grudging admiration for him still. He had a dream and he did everything to make it come true. Shame that everything included lying, cheating, bullying, threatening. He will never know if he could have being a Le Tour winner without cheating. And I bet that nags him on the occasional lonely night.
My all time favourite book is however..... Richard's Bicycle Book. Covering such a range of aspects from history to maintenance.

[Cyril Haearn]

I had the book by he who did not win the TdF seven times
I put it in the recycling bin
Did anyone keep their copy?

[gregoryoftours]

Richard's Bicycle Book is very dated now but had a huge influence on me in my early years of riding and maintaining bikes. I've enjoyed other books since, but on nothing like the same scale.

Yes this! Richard's flights of fancy are amazing! Where else can you read advise such as that he offered on the ultimate defense against aggressive dogs? Ramming your arm down its throat and ripping the insides out through its mouth! (I might have made the insides bit up) Seriously entertaining, and the whole book is so varied.

[fullupandslowingdown]

Yes this! Richard's flights of fancy are amazing! Where else can you read advise such as that he offered on the ultimate defense against aggressive dogs? Ramming your arm down its throat and ripping the insides out through its mouth! (I might have made the insides bit up) Seriously entertaining, and the whole book is so varied.