” Krabbé doesn’t waste a word. Nearly every paragraph contains innuendos and significance that could only be penned by a seasoned bike rider who has a deep understanding of the sport. If you’ve ever thought about something during a bike race, Krabbé writes it down on paper. I have so many favorite quotes, truisms, and stories from this book I’d have to write something from every page. Here are just a few to give you a taste of what this book is about:

Page 9 | After one kilometer, a minuscule rider with a lack rag-mop attacks: Despuech. Baloney. This race lasts 140 kilometers. Despuech is crazy. He is only showing us that he doesn’t stand a chance in hell. He knows it too, but still it’s a fact: he has to choose between finishing at the back after shining, or finishing at the back after not having shone at all.

Page 15 | It’s too early. Always attack as late as you can, but before the others do.

Page 19 | Bicycle racing is a sport of patience. Racing is licking your opponent’s plate clean before starting on your own. Lebusque will stay out in front for kilometers. Where would we be without Lebusque? Lebusque doesn’t know what racing is.

Page 20 | Every once in a while someone along the road lets us know how far behind we are. A man shouts: ‘Faster!’ He probably thinks bicycle racing is about going fast.

Page 32 | The crowd falls for it every time. How often have I seen people clapping and cheering for a rider who, having been lapped six times, pushes on bravely? It’s an insulting brand of applause – for where does a winning rider get the right to revel in applause if the crowd isn’t obliged to hiss at him when he fails?

Page 41 | Kilometer 44. A sign: COL DE RIESSE, altitiude 920m. Every time I take a pull up front, I feel it: I’m strong today. So what if I attack right here? Then my chances would be reduced. Correct.

Page 53 | Fourty-three nineteen. My gear lever feels like a scab on a wound. During our reconnaissance ride I was using forty-three twenty here. Now I’m sticking to the nineteen, a matter of willpower. My twenty was still as clean as a whistle. Shifting is a kind of painkiller, and therefore the same as giving up. After all, if I wanted to kill my pain, why not choose the most effective method? Road racing is all about generating pain.

Pate 60 | I look at a girl in the crowd. She’s sixteen, she’s pretty. ‘Allez, les sportifs’, she shouts. ‘Un deux un deux.’ Why is she shouting like that? She know Hinault fell into a ravine, but not the names of the classics he won. Classics? She knows everything about Poupou, but she’s never heard of Milan-San Rimo, has no idea what fourty-three nineteen is. What gives her the right to raise her voice?…She’s the generation that no longer cheers for the riders, but for the journalistic cliche she recognizes in them. Now that I’m five centimeters closer, I can see how pretty she really is. I hate her.

Page 65 | My whole life had only one goal: making that last wheel, here, now. I was wasted. But that elusive finish line, eight, seven, six and a half meters in front of me, kept my hope and  desire awake. I coughed and slobbered. I remembered the words of advice ‘Shift, when you’re really, truly at the end of your rope, to a higher gear.’ I shifted. A few hysterical kicks on the thirteen, then clenched power of a mortal struggle. I was there. I was sitting on that last wheel. I was in the lead group.

Page 69 | Road racing imitates life, the way it would be without the corruptive influence of civilization. When you see an enemy lying on the ground, what’s your first reaction? To help him to his feet. In road racing, you kick him to death.”

Something I discovered from a sports physio about Ibuprofen a few years ago (post Achilles rupture/surgery) is that while it does reduce swelling it does so by blocking some processes that are inherent in the bodies healing process.  So potentially Ibuprofen is not such a great thing to take post injury if taken for a while as a combined painkiller anti-inflammatory.

Though Hutchinson did point out that all Fish Oils are not equal.  So I might have to reach for the more expensive ones when the current stock runs dry.

@Deakus

@gilly

I was handed a copy of Legends of The Tour earlier this year by my lovely, surprising Dad. I hadn’t seen it on the shelves and having looked at the first couple of pages was initially a bit underwhelmed. My initial reaction was completely misguided, what an incredible book, the artwork is so evocative and I found the book incredibly inspiring. My personal favourite is Anquetil literally against the clock, it makes you want to get out on your bike, can’t explain why. Great article @blackpooltower

Anquetil was one of the greatest characters of cycling. His motivations were so different to the rest of the peloton and his life from farm labourer to legend is fascinating. Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape is an awesome read, and although it covers his strange Menage a Trois with his ex wife and stepdaughter in the last couple of chapters, by far the best parts of the book are the racing!

I have read that one @deakus. As you say, some of it made for uncomfortable reading and I find it hard to find empathy with someone as narcissistic as Anquetil. But as a rider, he was exceptional. There was a recent post on velominati of him riding out of the doors of his chateau which kind of completed the loop.

Be that as it may be, there’s no denying that he was one fantastic looking fucker…

I’ve got Sean Yates’ autobiography to read next.

@SamFromTex

@Gianni

It’s somehow reassuring that the man with the hammer wears cycling shorts and maybe shaves his legs. He must be an ex-pro, who stalks the earth to teach cyclists those life lessons that can only be learned one way.

No way in hell, not with an upper body like that. The Man With The Hammer is a professional rockbreaker and definitely Hard, but he’s not a cyclist. He’s the enemy.

Sean Yates is probably the pro cyclist least likely to lose a bar fight, and he is a tiny twig of a man compared to The Hammer.

Much has been written about the man, but little as to his identity as a cyclist. I always assumed he was one of us, in a sense, for what other reason works he be out lurking on the road?

No way a cyclist… Professional Rockbreaker? Yea, probably. Though I never envisioned him standing on top of the hill looking ready to crush a soul. The handful of times I’ve met him he’s kinda sorta snuck up on me. So maybe part Ninja?? But only a small part. Mostly just a Professional Rockbreaker. That about fits. Cheers

@Gianni

It’s somehow reassuring that the man with the hammer wears cycling shorts and maybe shaves his legs. He must be an ex-pro, who stalks the earth to teach cyclists those life lessons that can only be learned one way.

No way in hell, not with an upper body like that. The Man With The Hammer is a professional rockbreaker and definitely Hard, but he’s not a cyclist. He’s the enemy.

Sean Yates is probably the pro cyclist least likely to lose a bar fight, and he is a tiny twig of a man compared to The Hammer.

Much has been written about the man, but little as to his identity as a cyclist. I always assumed he was one of us, in a sense, for what other reason works he be out lurking on the road?

It’s somehow reassuring that the man with the hammer wears cycling shorts and maybe shaves his legs. He must be an ex-pro, who stalks the earth to teach cyclists those life lessons that can only be learned one way.

No way in hell, not with an upper body like that. The Man With The Hammer is a professional rockbreaker and definitely Hard, but he’s not a cyclist. He’s the enemy.

Sean Yates is probably the pro cyclist least likely to lose a bar fight, and he is a tiny twig of a man compared to The Hammer.

My reaction to Michael Hutchinson’s The Hour was like yours to Gironimo, I wanted to say, if this was easy anyone would do it, FFS.

But I might still have to read this. It sounds like some of the British mountaineering epics where these things are planned in a pub only because it sounds like a good (drunk) idea and even the next morning they continue to go forward.

If I may make a modest contribution:

Etape: The untold stories of the defining stages of the Tour de France’s defining stages (Richard Moore)

Bike! A tribute to the worlds greatest racing bicycles (Richard Moore and Daniel Benson)

@gilly

I was handed a copy of Legends of The Tour earlier this year by my lovely, surprising Dad. I hadn’t seen it on the shelves and having looked at the first couple of pages was initially a bit underwhelmed. My initial reaction was completely misguided, what an incredible book, the artwork is so evocative and I found the book incredibly inspiring. My personal favourite is Anquetil literally against the clock, it makes you want to get out on your bike, can’t explain why. Great article @blackpooltower

Anquetil was one of the greatest characters of cycling. His motivations were so different to the rest of the peloton and his life from farm labourer to legend is fascinating. Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape is an awesome read, and although it covers his strange Menage a Trois with his ex wife and stepdaughter in the last couple of chapters, by far the best parts of the book are the racing!

I have read that one @deakus. As you say, some of it made for uncomfortable reading and I find it hard to find empathy with someone as narcissistic as Anquetil. But as a rider, he was exceptional. There was a recent post on velominati of him riding out of the doors of his chateau which kind of completed the loop.

Faster would be my cycling book of the year, because Hutch writes so well and really brings to life a very nerdy and obscure segment of cycling in a way which anyone who has trained or tried to be competitive, at any level, will appreciate.

Gironimo has some good anecdotes and it is worth a read but don’t expect it to be so eye-wateringly funny as French Revolutions. Sometimes though I find his cluelessness a little frustrating and it wears thin. Like reading about someone trekking to the south pole and not realising it was going to be really cold; there is humour in the situation but it contends with the desire to just slap them.

I would give Lanterne Rouge a bit more praise. Although there are certainly some hapless and unfortunate instances it isn’t just about wallowing in failure. It is often a celebration of determination and bravery. And as you say it is very well researched – not just stories gather from press archives but interviews and meetings with quite a few of the people involved which brings it to life very well.

I was handed a copy of Legends of The Tour earlier this year by my lovely, surprising Dad. I hadn’t seen it on the shelves and having looked at the first couple of pages was initially a bit underwhelmed. My initial reaction was completely misguided, what an incredible book, the artwork is so evocative and I found the book incredibly inspiring. My personal favourite is Anquetil literally against the clock, it makes you want to get out on your bike, can’t explain why. Great article @blackpooltower

Anquetil was one of the greatest characters of cycling.  His motivations were so different to the rest of the peloton and his life from farm labourer to legend is fascinating.  Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape is an awesome read, and although it covers his strange Menage a Trois with his ex wife and stepdaughter in the last couple of chapters, by far the best parts of the book are the racing!

All 3 now on the crimbo list and great to see some familiar names.

I have read Tim Moores – French Revolutions which is also very good and as for Hutch, well over here he is a legend known more commonly as the writer of the back page article in Cycling Weekly and he never ceases to bring a wry smile or laugh to my face.

I concur!  I periodically pull The Rider from the shelf and I find it just as compelling as the first time I read it.

I really need to dig out the quote about resting…