Today's roller derby is a wildly popular woman's contact sport, international in scope. This grass roots sport is built on fun, for the spirited rollerskaters and the fans alike. From Reno to Toronto, roller derby is everywhere. See 250 color images of promotional material, including fliers, handbills, logos, and posters promoting bouts for more than 50 leagues around the world, tht convey the thrill of roller derby's glamour, grit, and glory. See the ladies themselves, as they travel the globe on eight wheels. Collect the artwork and be inspired to join the fun, on either side of the railing.

Alps Mountain Biking is a guide to the western Alps. It reveals epic rocky descents, high-altitude blasts and hidden Alpine singletrack, all set against a backdrop of snowy peaks, pine forests and clear blue skies. This is some of the greatest singletrack, enduro and downhill riding the mountains have to offer. Featuring the Alpine hot spots alongside the best lesser-known areas, you can ride the main lines of Morzine and Chamonix, and then escape the crowds and head to La Plagne, Martigny or Sauze d'Oulx. Using lifts, buses and good old pedal power, you can really exploit the massive vertical gains each area has to offer and enjoy trails that cater for every taste and ability. Alps Mountain Biking has everything you need to get out of the concrete resorts and plan a great riding trip. Written by Samoens-based guide Steve Mallett, it gives you the local riders' inside knowledge on trails, and information on accommodation, lifts and travel. Packed with fantastic photography, it is guaranteed to inspire you to get out and explore this huge mountain bike playground.

Pointing the way to the future of research and development in relation to cycling as a mode of transport, this book investigates some of the significant recent developments in the technology, provision for, and take up of cycling in various parts of the world. Tensions at the heart of the nature of cycling remain: on the one hand cycling is frequently viewed as being a risky activity, while on the other hand it is seen as being a way of allowing populations to live healthier lives. Reviewing this dichotomy, the authors in this book consider the ways that cycling is planned and promoted. This is done partly in relation to these issues of risk and health, but also from the broader perspective of behavioural response to the changing nature of cycling. A section on methodologies is also included which outlines the current state-of-the art and points a way to future research.

This is the second edition of the definitive and bestselling guide to great mountain biking throughout England and Wales. With new clearer maps, updated content and the addition of the latest mountain bike centres. The Good Mountain Biking Guide is a huge book comprising 640 pages of detailed information and purpose drawn maps covering both natural areas and trail centres. It includes all major destination areas such as The Peak District, Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, North & South Downs, Brecon Beacons numerous smaller areas, many close to major towns and cities. The book will help plan riding of all sorts - from quick blasts after work, to day rides, mountain biking weekends and holidays across the whole of England and Wales. The Good Mountain Biking Guide features 700 route suggestions for the 500 areas that it covers making it incredible value for money. There are over 300 superb photographs of real riders on the trails and annotations of key trail features. The route summaries give a total of 17,000km of riding, enough to suit all levels and types of rider. An overview map of England and Wales shows every key mountain biking location and allows planning at a glance. The book complements other maps and guides and refers to the most appropriate resources to take out on the trail for navigational purposes. The index of 3,000 place names allows immediate reference of the relevant map. Each of the 500 areas has details of all useful facilities - from parking to pubs, cafes and bike shops. The Good Mountain Biking Guide is the ultimate reference book and is the one book that every mountain biker should own.

In July 2014 the greatest cycle race in the world visited God's Own County of Yorkshire. The 101st edition of the Tour De France started in Leeds and spent two days cycling over 240 miles through the county. Inspired by Yorkshire's wonderful landscape and history A Bicycle Ride in Yorkshire is an illustrated guide to the route of Le Tour Yorkshire, by cyclist, writer and artist Heather Dawe. It is a guide to riding the route, to the sights and landscape seen along the way and to the rich cycling heritage found on Yorkshire's roads. Beautifully illustrated with Heather's paintings, the route is brought to life. On the first day Le Tour departed from Leeds into the rolling scenery of the Yorkshire Dales, past the breweries of Masham to finish in the spa town of Harrogate. Day two began in the historic city of York, from where it explored the industrial valleys of the South Pennines, skirting the Peak District before finishing in the steel city of Sheffield. A Bicycle Ride in Yorkshire is an essential read for any cycling, Tour de France or Yorkshire aficionado.

At a time when cycling in the United States rivaled baseball as the nation's most popular professional sport, along came Reggie McNamara, a farmer's son from Australia. Within a month of his arrival in the United States in 1913, he had earned the moniker "Iron Man" for his high tolerance of pain and his remarkable ability to recover from seemingly catastrophic injury. The nickname proved justified. Not only was he tough, he was also one of the best and highest-paid athletes in the world. During his thirty-year career, McNamara won seventeen punishing six-day races along with an inestimable number of shorter distance races, including high-profile events on three different continents, peaking in 1926-27 at the age of thirty-nine. The fans, media, and his fellow professionals all idolized him as an example of the true grit needed to succeed in this grueling and dangerous sport. Late in his career, however, hard drinking and injuries took their toll, and McNamara became estranged from his wife and children. He fought back just as he always had on the race course, conquering his addiction to alcohol and becoming one of the earliest success stories of Alcoholics Anonymous. In this humorous and exciting biography of the original Iron Man, Andrew M. Homan pulls McNamara back into the spotlight, depicting a flawed but beloved man whose success in those unrelenting six-day races came at a price.

In 1939 British cyclist Tommy Godwin cycled 75,065 miles in a single year. Think about that for a second: it's an average of over 200 miles each day. And it's a mark that still stands after almost eighty years. In The Year, Dave Barter resurrects the legend of the year record - a challenge nearly as old as bicycles themselves - and the cyclists who pushed themselves to establish and break it. Barter uncovers the stories behind these riders who would routinely cycle over a hundred miles a day in the race to set new records. Americans such as John H. George who recorded over 200 'centuries', nineteen double 'centuries' and three triple 'centuries' in the late 1800s. The British advertising executive Harry Long, whose annual tallies of over 20,000 miles in the early twentieth century led to the founding of the formal cycling year record and Cycling magazine's Century Competition. The Englishman of French descent, Marcel Planes, whose 1911 record of 34,666 miles stood for over twenty years. Not forgetting the legends of the job-seeking Arthur Humbles, the one-armed vegetarian communist Walter Greaves, the 'keep-fit girl' Billie Dovey and the staggering mark set by Godwin who left a youthful Bernard Bennett trailing in his wake. Meticulous research through the annuals, archives and news stories of the bicycling world is backed up with insights from the families of these legendary cyclists, as well as Dave's own analysis of the riders' years in numbers. There is no more difficult challenge in cycling. The Year is the definitive story of these phenomenal cyclists.

Unlock your cycling potential with yoga. Striving for stamina, power and speed can take its toll on the cyclist’s body. Yoga is the ideal cycling companion to relieve the repetitive strains of riding, helping to ease tight muscles, increase mobility and reduce chances of injury. In this new edition of the bestselling title, learn how to use yoga to optimise your recovery, ride tension-free and enhance your performance. A specialist in yoga for cycling, Lexie Williamson guides you through tried-and-tested poses and mobility drills so you can: · gain a supple back, hips and hamstrings · adopt a stronger aerodynamic position through riding-specific core moves · develop efficient breathing and build a mind-body connection · recover more efficiently with restorative yoga practices Functional and accessible, Yoga for Cyclists adapts yoga techniques for modern cyclists of all levels, making it suitable for everyone from the beginner to the Tour de France-hopeful. By following step-by-step sequences, from quick hip releases to extended post-ride sessions, you’ll discover how the power of yoga can transform your cycling. ‘Handy for both beginners and pros... leaves no stone unturned.’ – Women’s Fitness 'A genuinely useful guide that will soon have tattered edges through use.' – Road.cc

'Byrne comes across like a post-punk Michael Palin.' Sephen Dalton, The Times 'An engaging book; part-diary, part-manifesto.' Observer David Byrne, co-founder of the group Talking Heads, has been riding a bicycle as his principal means of transportation since the 1980's. When he tours, Byrne travels with a folding bicycle, bringing it to cities like London, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Manila, New York, Detroit and San Francisco. The view from his bike seat has given Byrne a panoramic window on urban life all over the world. An enchanting celebration of bike riding and of the rewards of seeing the world at bike level, this book gives the reader an incredible insight into what Byrne is seeing and thinking as he pedals around these cities.

This is a comprehensive guide to major leisure cycle routes south of (and including) the Loire Valley in France. All the major traffic-free routes and signed touring routes are included with a factifile, text description of what to see along the way and, crucially, quality mapping at 1:200,000 for all the routes.It features sumptuous photos. It provides background information on taking bikes on trains in France and much more.France is one of Europe's finest cycling destinations and the recent explosion of quality, specially built and signed routes has only enhanced this reputation.It helps readers discover Euro-Velo 6, which wends its way across the entire width of France on traffic-free and lightly trafficked tracks and roads. It uses the Loire Valley for much of its length. It features the traffic-free Littoral route along Provence's lovely Mediterranean coast. It also helps readers discover the countless signed routes in the Alps - some much easier than you might imagine. It describes a quality traffic-free route along virtually the whole of the Atlantic coast.So, whether you are planning lazy day rides around Loire Chateaux or the long-distance trip of a lifetime along the Canal du Midi and the Garonne valley, linking the Atlantic and Mediterranean in a French C2C adventure, this guide is both an essential pre-trip planner and an invaluable riders' companion.

The Lake District boasts some of the most stunning mountain scenery in the country, providing a dramatic backdrop to many of the rides featured in this book. The practical spiral-bound guide describes 20 wonderful lane rides of 24-35 miles in South Lakeland and the Eden Valley. All of the rides are highlighted on Ordnance Survey Landranger 1:50,000 mapping, seen as the gold standard of mapping for cyclists. Junction-by-junction route instructions guide you through the region's beautiful countryside. Each ride contains details of distance, grade of difficulty and refreshments along the way (with phone numbers of pubs and cafes so that you can check on opening hours). A height profile gives you warning of the hills to expect and schematic maps show how the ride can either be shortened or linked to adjacent rides for a longer day out. The rides have been designed to use quieter roads and are divided into three main areas: the first is around Cockermouth and Keswick where three rides explore the breathtaking landscape either side of Bassenthwaite Lake. To the west lie Wythop Woods, Whinlatter Forest, Loweswater, Crummock Water and Buttermere; to the east of Bassenthwaite is the classic circuit around the back of Skiddaw to Caldbeck. The second area covers the southeast of Cumbria, encompassing the upper Eden Valley and the Lune Valley, with rides starting from the handsome towns of Appleby, Kirkby Stephen, Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale. The weather tends to be drier here as the two valleys lie in the rain shadow of the Lakeland Fells. These rides also offer panoramic views of the Pennines and the Howgills to the north of Sedbergh. The final area features rides in and around the southern half of the Lake District National Park. There are fantastic views of many of the central lakes and fells including those to be enjoyed from the Windermere Ferry, featured on the ride north from Backbarrow. You may well be pleasantly surprised that there are so many quiet lanes to explore in such a popular tourist area. Choose your time well and you will enjoy your rides even more.

A must-have recipe book designed for cyclists of all levels, written by Alan Murchison – a Michelin-starred chef and champion athlete who now cooks for elite athletes.

As a cyclist, you can have the most amazing diet, but if that isn't balanced with the right training load, you can still end up piling on the pounds, which will slow you down. Michelin-starred chef and leading sports nutritionist Alan Murchison reveals how you can enjoy delicious, nutritionally balanced food and achieve sustainable long-term weight loss whilst positively impacting your cycling performance. A follow-up to Alan's award-winning The Cycling Chef, this is flavoursome food to get you lean and make you go faster.

'I can't think of a finer chef to have written a book on nutrition and diet for athletes' Tom Kerridge

A must-have recipe book designed for cyclists of all levels, written by Alan Murchison - a Michelin-starred chef and champion athlete who now cooks for British Cycling's elite athletes. His easy-to-make and nutritionally balanced meals will help cyclists reach their cycling performance goals - this is flavoursome food to make you go faster.

The Cycling Chef features more than 65 mouth-watering recipes - including breakfasts, salads, main meals, desserts and snacks, as well as vegetarian and vegan dishes - each designed with busy cyclists in mind. They are all quick and easy to prepare, and are made from ingredients that are readily available in any local supermarket.

A good diet won't make a sub-standard cyclist into a world beater, but a poor diet can certainly make a world class or any ambitious cyclist sub-standard. However, an optimised diet, whatever your potential, will help you reach your own personal performance goals.

Pointing the way to the future of research and development in relation to cycling as a mode of transport, this book investigates some of the significant recent developments in the technology, provision for, and take up of cycling in various parts of the world. Tensions at the heart of the nature of cycling remain: on the one hand cycling is frequently viewed as being a risky activity, while on the other hand it is seen as being a way of allowing populations to live healthier lives. Reviewing this dichotomy, the authors in this book consider the ways that cycling is planned and promoted. This is done partly in relation to these issues of risk and health, but also from the broader perspective of behavioural response to the changing nature of cycling. A section on methodologies is also included which outlines the current state-of-the art and points a way to future research.

For professional cyclists, going faster and winning are, of course, closely related. Yet surprisingly, for many, a desire to go faster is much more important than a desire to win. Someone who wants to go faster will work at the details and take small steps rather than focusing on winning. Winning just happens when you do everything right - it's the doing everything right that's hard. And that's what fascinates and obsesses Michael Hutchinson. With his usual deadpan delivery and an awareness that it's all mildly preposterous, Hutchinson looks at the things that make you faster - training, nutrition, the right psychology - and explains how they work, and how what we know about them changes all the time. He looks at the things that make you slower, and why, and how attempts to avoid them can result in serious athletes gradually painting themselves into the most peculiar life-style corners. Faster is a book about why cyclists do what they do, about what the riders, their coaches and the boffins get up to behind the scenes, and about why the whole idea of going faster is such an appealing, universal instinct for all of us.

As a new breed of lifestyle sport enthusiasts 'derby grrrls' are pushing the boundaries of gender as they negotiate the nexus of pleasure, pain and power relations. Offering a socio-cultural analysis of the rise and reinvention of roller derby as both a new, globalized women's sport and an everyday creative leisure space, this book explores the manner in which roller derby has emerged as a gendered space for self-transformation, belonging and embodied contest, in which women are invited to experience their emotions differently, embrace pain and overcome limits. Sport, Gender and Power: The Rise of Roller Derby presents detailed interview, ethnographic and autoethnographic material, together with a range of media texts to shed new light on the complex relationships of power experienced by women in derby as a sport culture, whilst also examining the darker relationships that characterise the sport, including those of inclusion and exclusion, difference and identity, and competition and participation. A contemporary feminist study of empowerment, sexual difference, gender and affect, this book will appeal to scholars of gender and sexuality, embodiment, feminist thought and the sociology of sport and leisure.

'This is Dan Martin's long-awaited autobiography, full of 'the warmth, sharp insights and vivid colour of his 14-year career' Guardian Known, thanks to his racing style and attitude, for being one of road cycling's last romantics, Dan has always shied away from revealing too much about himself and his story. Now, having retired at the end of the 2021 season aged 35 and no longer bound by the constraints of the racing circuit, Dan feels the time is right to tell his story in the same forthright and honest manner that he rode his bike. This book reflects Dan's generous and outspoken spirit, his resilience to pain, crashes, bad luck and, finally, his acceptance of destiny. Each chapter's title has a sub-title based on a typical cyclist's fear: the fear of losing a race, the fear of retiring from the sport, the fear of mountains or downhills, the fear of doping and, ultimately, the fear of death. Dan also discusses every aspect of the professional cyclist's life - food, discipline, money, dreams, friendship and betrayal. Dan is unashamed when it comes to exposing these dark feelings, his weaknesses and how he tried to deal with them, his attitude exemplifying Mark Twain's quote: "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear". Written with his long-time friend and best-selling author Pierre Carrey, this is the story of a rider who never sought to conform to modern cycling's norms and someone who, in many ways, embodies an age in cycling which has long since disappeared. This is the celebration of a true cyclist's career, which will appeal to anyone who's embraced the weekend ride whilst dreaming of the mountains. '[Chased by Pandas] is not a conventional study of wins, losses and conquering mountains but overcoming the mental challenges of a sport into which he was seemingly born' The Times 'Records the brave and tough journey of 'one of road cycling's last romantics' Irish Independent 'Chronicles the former Irish road champion's journey through the ranks of professional cycling' Cycling Weekly

The Cotswold Hills stretch across the counties of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and extend into parts of Wiltshire, Somerset, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. Cotswolds Mountain Biking - 20 Classic Rides by Tom Fenton reveals all on the excellent and varied mountain biking tucked away in this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This book from leading MTB guidebook publisher Vertebrate Publishing features 20 classic rides between 14km and 77km in length, suitable for mountain bikers of all abilities - many of which are within easy reach of major towns and cities, including Birmingham, Coventry, Worcester, Gloucester, Oxford, Banbury, Swindon, Cheltenham and Bristol. Each ride is described with easy-to-follow directions and is plotted on clear and easy to use Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 mapping. Also included with each ride are details of distance, timings and difficulty gradings, plus refreshment stops and local knowledge. A Bonus Section includes details of the riding at Leckhampton Hill and Forest of Dean, plus top tens for descents, climbs and singletrack. A detailed appendix features information on places to eat, drink, stay and have your bike repaired!

A Place Apart is a remarkable geographical and psychological travelogue that rises above history, politics, theology and economics. Created by a southern Irishwoman, cycling into the mayhem of Northern Ireland in order to try and sort out her own opinions and emotions about this troubled land. She came equipped with her own childhood experiences of murder and Republican martyrdom, but was otherwise unfettered by sectarian loyalties and armed with a delightful curiosity, a fine ear for anecdote, an ability to stand her own at the bar and penetrating intelligence. She travelled extensively through both town and country, frequently finding herself in horrifying situations, and sometimes among people stiff with hate and grief: but equally, she discovered an unquenchable spirit everywhere that refused to die. Other Dervla Murphy titles published by Eland. Original Hardbacks: A Month by the Sea: Encounters in Gaza, The Island that Dared: Journeys in Cuba, Eland Classics: Wheels within Wheels, Full Tilt: From Ireland to India with a Bicycle, In Ethiopia with a Mule, Where the Indus is Young: A Winter in Baltistan, Tibetan Foothold, The Waiting Land: A Spell in Nepal, On a Shoestring to Coorg.

Cycling in the Peak District presents 20 graded day rides in the national park, along with a challenging five-day 250km (155-mile) 'Tour de Peak District'. The circular day rides are centred around Ashbourne, Matlock, Bakewell, Buxton and many other charming Derbyshire towns, while the more challenging Tour de Peak District circumnavigates the National Park. Routes include sections of the Tissington Trail, Monsal Trail and Transpennine Trail, with a focus on quiet lanes, gratifying downhills and not overly technical bridleways, tracks and trails. The routes are ideal for gravel/adventure bikes (or hybrid/cross), though most can be easily adapted for road bikes. Each ride features step-by-step route description accompanied by 1:100,000 mapping. Overview stats and profiles are provided to aid route selection, along with details of refreshments, parking facilities and cycle hire, and full accommodation listings for the Tour de Peak District. The guide also includes tips for cycling the routes and advice for novices. The scenic Peak District boasts an abundance of country lanes, tracks, towpaths and railway trails that are perfect for two-wheeled exploration.

Wales Mountain Biking - Beicio Mynydd Cymru is a collection of 20 classic Welsh mountain bike rides, between 12 and 50 kilometres in length. Split into three sections, South Wales, Mid Wales and North Wales, this book includes classic mountain bike loops such as The Gap Road in the Brecon Beacons and Pen Trumau in the Black Mountains, routes in Pembrokeshire, and the Gower, the Elan Valley in the Cambrian Mountains, Moel Famau in the Clwydian Hills and classic routes in Snowdonia - including options for the awesome ascent and descent (!) of Snowdon itself. Written and illustrated by Mountain Bike Rider magazine's Wales-based routes expert Tom Hutton, each route is described with easy-to-follow directions and is plotted on clear and easy to use Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 mapping. Also included are details of distance, timings and difficulty gradings, plus refreshment stops and local knowledge. A Bonus Section hops over the border into England, to give the full lowdown on the classic Long Mynd circuit, featuring the legendary Minton Batch singletrack.

The mountains of Europe have many different meanings to many different people. For the locals they are a way of life; for visitors they represent breathtaking beauty, active holidays and peaceful moments. For cyclists, however, the dramatic landscapes mean something quite different: suffering, pain, agony - and glory. For over a century the mountains have provided the setting for the greatest cycling contests, where human determination and willpower can triumph over nature and opponents. In recent years, as cycling's popularity has changed our cities, made us more active and taken us down less-travelled roads, the mountains of Europe have become the primary destination for everyday riders who want to challenge themselves, experience the storied roads and escape their everyday lives. This publication is aimed at all who wish to be inspired by those challenges or celebrate those personal victories. With tributes and personal recollections from leading road cyclists, the photographs and words coalesce into a visual depiction that transcends any single perspective and will inspire awe and wonder in anyone who wishes to confront the power of the mountains.