A fascinating, mind-boggling account of young athletes in their prime destroyed in the hell of war. A mesmerizing view of cycling in its golden age, and the darkness that followed.
On June 28, 1914, one hundred and forty-five riders lined up in a suburb of Paris at 3 a.m. to start the first stage of the Tour de France. The race, which had been founded just a decade earlier, had grown to become the biggest bicycle race in the world. The riders did not know it at the time, but as they raced, an event was taking place on the opposite side of Europe which would change all of their lives forever: Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, triggering World War I.
While racing went on in France, a diplomatic crisis had started that would try but fail to avert war. Shortly after the finish of the race, France mobilized its troops and went to war with Germany. The organizer of the Tour de France, Henri Desgrange, despite being fifty years old, enrolled in the army shortly afterwards and encouraged the cyclists to do the same.
The war would see over 16 million soldiers and civilians die. Many of the riders from that Tour de France did not return, and three previous winners of the race would be among those killed in action.
The Shattered Peloton tells the story of that Tour de France and what happened to the top cyclists of the day during the course of the war.
A brilliant, disturbing, important book for anyone with an interest in cycling or military history.

The Triathlete Guide to Sprint and Olympic Triathlon Racing will help you discover the speed, thrill, and challenge of triathlon's most popular race distances. Not everyone has time to train for long-course triathlons. By pursuing triathlon's shorter distances, you can enjoy all the total body fitness benefits of the swim-bike-run sport and discover the unique challenges of short-course racing-all while enjoying a life outside of training. This complete guide from former pro triathletes Chris Foster and coach Ryan Bolton shares all the know-how you need to find speed and enjoy successful racing in sprint and Olympic-distance triathlons. Foster, now the Senior Editor of Triathlete magazine, shares his pro advice for how to set a smart race strategy, how to master triathlon pacing, how to execute fast transitions, how to train to improve your weakness and race to your strengths. Bolton offers smart, effective sprint and Olympic triathlon training plans so you can get started right away, no matter your background. Sprint and Olympic triathlons are triathlon's most popular distances for good reasons. Experienced triathletes returning to the short course will enjoy a break from long, slow hours of training and rediscover the joy of speed. Active people looking for a new challenge can jump right into triathlon's most beginner-friendly distances. The Triathlete Guide to Sprint and Olympic Triathlon Racing makes it simple to get back up to speed in the world's most rewarding endurance sport.

Best Easy Bike Rides Gettysburg is for tourists who want to explore the Gettysburg battlefield and some other point of interest around Gettysburg on bike. These are easy bike rides of 5 to 15 miles for beginning cyclists. There are many ways to see Gettysburg but one of the best ways it to do it by bike. Biking through the battlefield will allow you to cover miles of roads at a relaxing pace and make it easy to stop anywhere along the way without worrying where to park the car. Best Easy Bike Rides Gettysburg offers a diverse array of scenic tours in and around the Gettysburg battlefield and the surrounding area. Besides the battlefield, this book also has rides showing some of the interesting sites in the nearby towns including a restored Civil war train station, pretzel factory, and a basilica. The rides are in the 5 to 15 mile range, allowing for a great afternoon outings or family adventures. The book features 15 rides with color photos, maps, point-by-point miles and directions. No matter how many times you have visited this area, exploring it by bike will give you a new appreciation of the great historic significations and beauty of this area. Look inside for: One-hour rides to half-day adventures Rides for everyone, including families Mile-by-mile directions and clear trail maps Trail Finder for best rides for foliage, waterfalls, and great views GPS coordinates

'The latest book from the inestimable and seemingly irrepressible Simon Warren.' thewashingmachinepost From the Gavia Pass to Mount Etna, from The Stelvio to The Zoncalan, these climbs are legends in Italy and the building blocks of the Giro d'Italia. Technology may advance, training and diet may evolve, but these world-famous mountains are a constant. They have witnessed triumph and despair, courage and heartache, they are where champions are made and where dreams are shattered. And yes, the greatest arenas of Italy's greatest race are open 365 days of the year for any of us to ride. So take up the challenge, emulate your heroes and make your mark on the hundred greatest cycling climbs of Italy.

Over 100,000 miles to cover, one man, one bike and one hungry stomach. Having created his alter-ego, the Hungry Cyclist and with thousands of pedal-powered miles before him, Tom Kevill-Davies pushed off from New York City on one of the most ambitious gastronomic adventures ever undertaken. A ballsy travel memoir The Hungry Cyclist follows Tom's adventure into the hearts and minds of the people he meets. Revealing the diverse cultures of the Americas, Tom's journey from over the Rockies to Baja California, through Central America down all the way to Brazil via Colombia, gives the real flavour of this truly extraordinary landmass. This is a tale of death-battles with squadrons of mosquitoes, malodorous public toilets, of galloping dysentery one day, to drowning your sorrows with cowboys and dining with beauty queens the next. But above all it is an ambitious story of getting to where you want to be - even if you have to endure cactus-induced punctures, unforgiving desert heat, uphill struggles through never-ending cocaine plantations, or artfully dodge hungry bears, neurotic RV-driving Americans, angry rabid dogs and run-ins with local law authorities in the process. An amazing tale of what can happen when you get on your bike and go.

Raging Love is about athlete Jimmie D. King's rise to fame as an angry, chronically injured powerlifting champion to a happy, healthy cyclist and bodybuilder. The reader will witness a man who learns to be at ease with himself through mentoring and coaching others to become a better version of themselves. It gives us a glimpse at the life and athletic career of Powerlifting National Champion Jimmie D. King. With stunning candor, King shares his intimate and deeply personal perspective-including his challenges and struggles with bullies, physical limitations, childhood abuse, disappointments, oppression, and racism-and how he evolved and adapted over seven decades all while learning to serve and develop the talents of others. Far more than a sports memoir, Raging Love is a gripping tale of perseverance and purpose and a reminder that finding one's path is, above all, an evolution from psychological discipline and mental toughness to forgiveness, spiritual peace, self-knowledge, and self-love. This is a must-read that will inspire sports fans of all ages. The reader will cheer for King as he wrestles his rage, learns to forgive, and turns his focus to love and service of others.

Subways and yellow taxis may be the icons of New York transportation, but it is the bicycle that has the longest claim to New York's streets: two hundred years and counting. Never has it taken to the streets without controversy: 1819 was the year of the city's first bicycle and also its first bicycle ban. Debates around the bicycle's place in city life have been so persistent not just because of its many uses-recreation, sport, transportation, business-but because of changing conceptions of who cyclists are. In On Bicycles, Evan Friss traces the colorful and fraught history of cycling in New York City. He uncovers the bicycle's place in the city over time, showing how it has served as a mirror of the city's changing social, economic, infrastructural, and cultural politics since it first appeared. It has been central, as when horse-drawn carriages shared the road with bicycle lanes in the 1890s; peripheral, when Robert Moses's car-centric vision made room for bicycles only as recreation; and aggressively marginalized, when Ed Koch's battle against bike messengers culminated in the short-lived 1987 Midtown Bike Ban. On Bicycles illuminates how the city as we know it today-veined with over a thousand miles of bicycle lanes-reflects a fitful journey powered, and opposed, by New York City's people and its politics.

'A master psychologist - cycling's answer to Brian Clough.' MARK CAVENDISH The inside story of Mark Cavendish's Rainbow Jersey Winning World Title of 2011 Twenty five years ago, British road cycling was in the doldrums: today it is at the top of the world thanks to Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas and the sprinter who has bridged all their careers - the Manx Missile, Mark Cavendish. British cycling has become that rare beast, a story of sporting success built from the bottom up. Project Rainbow is the story of this sport's meteoric rise, told by one of its key figures, culminating in Cavendish's world road race title in 2011. As GB Elite Road Coach and former Team Sky Performance Manager, Rod Ellingworth was one of the most important men behind this incredible rise. Here, one of the chief architects of this amazing journey, tells the inside story of both teams' advance to the top. With an introduction by Mark Cavendish.

Whether your idea of fun is riding your ten-speed around the neighbourhood or facing the challenges of off-road racing, A Basic Guide to Cycling offers savvy tips for safety and enjoyment. This book provides practical suggestions for buying a bicycle, caring for your bike, and getting and keeping fit. You'll also find up-to-date advice on how to join the community of cyclists, wherever you live. In simple, non-technical language, A Basic Guide to Cycling explains the three disciplines of Olympic cycling -- Road Racing, Track Racing, and Mountain Bike Racing. Special features include: Results of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia; Profiles of leading US Olympic cyclists; Advice on selecting and purchasing a bike; Accessories: what to wear, what to bring with you; Getting started in racing and competitive cycling; Coverage of road, track, and off-road events.

The original autobiography of Bradley Wiggins, the first British rider to have won the Tour de France and a record-equalling seven-time Olympic medallist. 'The autobiography of one of British cycling's true greats is an authentic account of hard knocks, tough times and a surprising amount of alcohol' TIME OUT Bradley Wiggins is a British sporting legend. Not only has he won seven World Track Championships and a record-equalling seven Olympic medals, including double-gold in Beijing in 2008 and gold in the time trial in London in 2012, he is the first Briton to have won cycling's ultimate prize, the Tour de France. He is an immensely talented and dedicated endurance athlete with a gritty, down-to-earth persona - cool, outspoken, respected, inspiring - and he has helped to bring track and road cycling to a new audience in the UK. With new material by Brendan Gallagher, co-author of the original edition, this is the story of a boy with bikes in his blood, of a son abandoned by his father and of the journey from council estate to the very pinnacle of the sport. IN PURSUIT OF GLORY is a compelling, no-holds-barred account of Wiggins' rise to global success and an extraordinary insight into the world of cycling.

By winning the 2019 Tour de France, Egan Bernal became the race's youngest champion in 110 years, and the first from the South American nation of Colombia. His victory brought decades of national yearning to fruition. Colombia has long been the only developing nation contending at cycling's highest level. Yet its cycling sons are not the products of a rigorous sports system that spots them in childhood and nurtures them through the ranks to the pinnacle of globalised sport. They come from harder backgrounds, that surprise, shock - even, at times, enchant. Colombia Es Pasion! explores the lives and dreams of each of the nation's leading cyclists. Theirs are inspiring stories of overcoming poverty and violence, sickness and corruption, and achieving global sporting glory. 'Takes you into the heart of both a sport and a country. The journey is well worth the effort' Sunday Times 'Wonderful' Observer 'Remarkable, a masterpiece' Never Strays Far podcast

Meet Gary Fisher. The maverick kid bike racer who cycled straight into the Acid Test scene and lit up the Grateful Dead gigs, the relentless tinkerer who transformed an industry and sold mountain biking to the world and the visionary who's still working flat-out every day to prove that bikes are the answer to a healthier, happier future for everyone. A collaboration with cycling writer Guy Kesteven, Being Gary Fisher and the Bicycle Revolution is an autobiography of sorts. It's also a mind-blowing trip of ingenious innovation, dogged determination and boundless energy. Get caught up in Gary's crazy tales and his lifelong mission to invite everyone to the greatest dance on earth.

Where do you turn when you want to ride in the mountains, to follow in the wheeltracks of professional racers by climbing the famous passes of the Tour de France? There are several books and websites that highlight these renowned ascents, detailing their location, length and every little change in gradient. But how do you go about finding a route that links these passes together, that describes not only where they are and what they're like to ride, but highlights which is the best side to tackle them from and which roads to avoid? Award-winning author Peter Cossins's new series of guides to riding in the Western Europe's high mountains will provide these details - and much more. Inspired by Alfred Wainwright's walking guides to the Lake District, they are intended as the bible for any cyclist riding in Europe's most stunning terrain. The first in the series is The Roads, Cols and Passes of the Pyrenees, which is due for publication by Great Northern Books in June 2020. Featuring 120 routes, 400 Pyrenean climbs and more than 12,000 kilometres of riding, it will detail the best road cycling routes on both the French and Spanish sides of the 600km-long Pyrenean chain, as well as in Andorra. The routes will range from 50-kilometre loops passing some of the most extraordinary of France's Cathar Castles perched on almost impregnable pinnacles to 200-kilometre Tour de France-like epics over several passes. It will not only include illustrious Tour ascents such as the Col du Tourmalet, the Col d'Aubisque and Plateau de Beille, but also draw attention to other climbs and regions that also merit exploration on two wheels, highlighting points of historical significance and the best the roads on which to access them, always aiming to make the riding experience as pleasurable as possible. The book is aimed at anyone who wants to ride in the Pyrenees, from newcomers to road riding who want to take their first tentative steps in the high mountains right through to very experienced cyclists who want to push themselves and explore new terrain at the same time. There will be something for everyone, in every part of the Pyrenees.

West Yorkshire Mountain Biking - South Pennine Trails features 23 of the best mountain bike rides in West Yorkshire, between 10.5km and 32km in length, suitable for all levels of mountain bikers. The routes are split into four sections: Calderdale, Bradford, Kirklees and City of Leeds. Explore wild moorland, plunge into steep and deep wooded valleys, cruise through the heart of industrial Yorkshire and speed along some of the best singletrack in the country. As with all new Vertebrate MTB guidebooks, this title features industry-standard Ordnance Survey mapping, and is illustrated with stunning action photography. Researched, ridden and written by local expert and MTB journalist Benjamin Haworth, each route features clear and easy to use Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 maps, easy-to-follow directions, details of distance, timings and difficulty gradings, and refreshment stops and local knowledge. Also included is a detailed Appendix.

Explore 52 of the best rail-trails and multiuse pathways across Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island All across the country, unused railroad corridors have been converted to public multiuse trails. In this official guide, the experts from Rails-to-Trails Conservancy present the best of these rail-trails, as well as other multiuse pathways, in Southern New England. Explore two Hall of Fame Rail-Trails: the Minuteman Bikeway, with its historical connections to the American Revolution, and the East Bay Bike Path, with its quintessential New England waterfront views. Discover paths that traverse the quiet woodlands of Connecticut and the charming communities of Rhode Island. Learn about ambitious trail projects across Massachusetts, like the Border to Boston Trail. Whether you're on feet, wheels, or skis, you'll love the variety in this collection of multiuse trails-from beautiful waterways and scenic areas to the hustle and bustle of the states' urban centers! In this book, you'll find: Detailed maps for every rail-trail, plus driving directions to trailheads Icons indicating the activities each trail can accommodate Succinct descriptions written by rail-trail experts "You can now throw away all your self-help books on fighting depression, losing weight, toning muscles, finding something to do with your kids, and learning American history. Just use this guide, find a great trail-and enjoy!" -Peter Harnik, Director, Center for City Park Excellence, Trust for Public Land

Great British Bike Rides is a celebration of British road cycling. Author Dave Barter brings together 40 of the best road rides in England, Scotland and Wales, searching out the country's most celebrated routes, toughest climbs and most scenic roads. The rides are challenging, they are adventurous, and they are quintessentially British - tackle the classic Fred Whitton in the English Lake District; pit yourself against fearsome climbs inspired by the Dragon Ride in Wales; and feast upon Scotland's stunning scenery following wild roads through Assynt and across Skye. Already a fanatical cyclist, author Dave Barter packed in his job and hit the road, embarking on a 9000-mile tour of Britain to bring together the best riding the country has to offer. His cycle routes are devised specifically for this book, enchaining unforgettable climbs, quiet roads and stunning scenery. Each ride is accompanied by detailed route information, bespoke mapping and a statistical breakdown including every detail the committed cyclist requires. The book is complemented with a set of downloadable GPX files to further aid navigation. Join the cycling revolution and discover the best road cycling in Great Britain.

Biking inspires millions of people around the world, with an ever-growing fan base. With some 200 colour and black-and-white photographs, Icons of Cycling captures the thrill and fascination of this sport on two wheels. Compiling the work of some of the best cycling photographers, the book breathes the spirit of cycling - as close and emotional as if the viewer were part of the race. Discover extraordinary shots of the peloton winding along alpine serpentines; exhausted athletes at the end of a stage; and unknown heroes from the team behind the team. A microcosm of ambition and passion, pain and glory, this is both a photographic artwork and a contemporary document of a thriving sport. A cherished collector's item for every cycle enthusiast.

"If Alpe d'Huez was a rigorous climb, with its mathematical progression of tight corners and steep inclines, the Izoard is far more awesome, a rocky wilderness at 7,743 feet, which needs only a few bleached skulls at the roadside to complete its sense of desolation." Geoffrey Nicholson's The Great Bike Race is universally revered by modern cycling critics as the benchmark English-language volume of the sport and has risen to mythical status. It was the first book in English to tell the entire story of a full tour and truly captivates the reader from start to finish. Nicholson's classic, vivid descriptions of the racing, the personalities, tactics and intrigues of the 1976 race are rotated with insightful thematic chapters where he lifts the lid on the broader culture and lengthy traditions of cycling's most famous race and the greatest annual sports event in the world.

South East Mountain Biking - North and South Downs is the full second edition of the bestselling guide to some of the finest mountain biking in the South East of England. Published by leading guidebook producer Vertebrate Publishing, it covers the best mountain biking in the south-east, including the newly-formed South Downs National Park. Delve into the woodland singletrack of the North Downs or head out on to the big, rolling chalk hills that make up the South Downs National Park. Get out of the towns and cities and discover the dense network of bridleways and byways that criss-cross the countryside of the South East. This guide contains 24 routes between 16 and 35km in length, suitable for all levels of mountain bikers. All route information has been thoroughly checked for this new edition, to give the most up-to-date and comprehensive guidebook to the area. Written by Nick Cotton, author of over 50 cycling guidebooks, each route features clear and easy to use Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 maps, easy-to-follow directions, details of distance, timings and difficulty gradings, refreshment stops and local knowledge, and stunning photography. Also included are Top Ten descents, climbs and mountain bike playgrounds, an introduction to the fantastic Surrey Hills singletrack, and a detailed Appendix.