An unashamed plug for my hero.

[thirdcrank]

I've just discovered that my childhood hero, Brian Robinson - the man who blazed the trail in the 1950's for every British and Irish rider who has raced in Europe since then - will be signing copies of his book Brian Robinson: Pioneer at Sowerby Bros Cycles, Mirfield, West Yorks.

2pm - 4pm tomorrow 11 December.

http://new.britishcycling.org.uk/road/a ... k-Launch-0

I know we don't go in for advertising on here but this is something different. Without Brian Robinson's inspiration, people like Tom Simpson and many more since would probably never have given it a go in Europe. Anyway, you don't need to believe me, buy a copy of the book and read all about it for yourself.

[NUKe]

I heard Brian being interviewed on the radio a while back, if his book is as entertaiingin then I am sure it will be a good read

[Lawrie9]

He was the first Briton to finish the Tour de France and the first to win a Tour stage and paved the way for the likes of Tommy Simpson and Barry Hoban.

[thirdcrank]

I went and bought my copy, personally signed by Brian Robinson. I've only had time for a quick look but it looks to be well-worth a read.

[cyclingthelakes]

ThirdCrank, looks like the book passes my 'number of pages test', if a cycling book is under 200 pages, well, it's not much more than a long magazine article. I get disappointed with how short so many cycling books are not that I want to get rapped up in something overly long either. 240 pages. You should review it at amazon.co.uk when you finish. Written by Graeme Fife.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brian-Robinson- ... F8&s=books

He was the first Briton to finish the Tour de France and the first to win a Tour stage and paved the way for the likes of Tommy Simpson and Barry Hoban.

Shares with Tony Hoar distinction of first Briton to finish Tour, in 1955

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/in_dept ... 420548.stm

Tony in British Columbia: http://www.tonystrailers.com/Department ... graphy.htm

Three British riders - including the intriguingly-named Pierre Gachon - made Britain's debut in the 1937 Tour

Pierre Gachon is a very British sounding name!

[Erudin]

The latest Bike Show podcast talks to Graeme Fife about Brian Robinson (11mins in), Brian Robinson is interviewed too (14mins in).

[thirdcrank]

ThirdCrank, looks like the book passes my 'number of pages test', if a cycling book is under 200 pages, well, it's not much more than a long magazine article. I get disappointed with how short so many cycling books are not that I want to get rapped up in something overly long either. 240 pages. You should review it at amazon.co.uk when you finish. Written by Graeme Fife. ...

With my other recent family and domestic commitments (which are leaving me flushed with success but drained ) I've not had much chance to get stuck into this. As Graeme Fife points out somewhere in the intro, this is a bit late for a biography. Some of the very close detail of racing may leave some readers a bit bored IMO although it's fascinationg for those of us who idolised him all those years ago. The background info about training, diet etc, and the reminder of the stuff we used to read avidly in Coureur etc about drinking the minimum of fluids in hot conditions makes you realise how much sports science has improved. (Anybody you has watched "Death on the Mountain" will realise that even the doping was worse than amateurish - although I've not yet found anything about drugs here.) A modern reader can also understand something of how pro cycle racing has changed from being a cozy affair between a handful of what are now the eurozone countries to include riders from all over the world.

[cyclingthelakes]

A modern reader can also understand something of how pro cycle racing has changed from being a cozy affair between a handful of what are now the eurozone countries to include riders from all over the world.

Maybe and probably the Tour is and was on the up-and-up but Jean Bobet, brother of Louison Bobet, first 3 time winner of the Tour if I remember all this correctly and they rode in Post War Tours, wrote in his book "Tomorrow we ride" that the lower races, local races, criteriums, that were raced around France often had organised crime deciding who the winner would be and in turn, riders had to curry favour with the gangsters. So though the Tour was surely properly conducted, to get to the status of a rider to be invited to the Tour still meant going through the ropes to acquire one's status as a professional. Jean Bobet does not write too much on this leaving me with the impression that the organised crime may not have been that prevalent and the racing was everywhere in France. Louison Bobet's brother taught in Scotland after the war and went back to France to ride with his brother. It's an okay book I think around 200 pages there have you, 190 maybe, a bit thin.

[cyclingthelakes]

http://protourquebecmontreal.com/news/1 ... -le-passe/

Pierre Gachon in these nostalgic pictures wearing the Maple Leaf. So, I take it he was French Canadian/ Canadien in their language and a subject of the British Empire. Tony Hoar may well have been a Canadian as well back in the day. I've been to Montreal, what is it, despite people talking rightfully about the severe winters in these places, the summer gets so hot and humid at times it seems worse than locales that are very much more south.