Cycling Memoirs

Mark Cavendish is the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France's green jersey, the first to wear the iconic rainbow jersey in almost 50 years and our only ever rider to capture the Giro d'Italia points title. He is the most prolific sprinter in the Tour's history, and - according to L'Equipe - the best sprinter of all time. But smashing records and racking up victories means whole new levels of fame: and this has come at a price. Living in the goldfish bowl, he has come under fire for his bombastic riding style and been portrayed as everything from an outlaw to a psychopath.

Lightweight, compact, distinctively styled, and now, electric: The Brompton isn't the only folding bicycle—or even the first. But everyone who has been on one will enthusiastically testify to its marvelous design (virtually unchanged over decades) and the particular joy of riding it. Will Butler-Adams, CEO of Brompton Bicycles, has been at the company for twenty years. Initially, he worked as an engineer for Andrew Ritchie, the bike's brilliant inventor and the business's founder, before taking the helm in 2008.

Based on nearly 10 years of research in Italy, France, and Israel, including interviews with Gino Bartali's family, former teammates, a Holocaust survivor Bartali saved, and many others, Road to Valor is the first book ever written about the Italian cycling legend in English and the only book written in any language to fully explore the scope of Bartali's wartime work. An epic tale of courage, comeback, and redemption, it is the untold story of one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century.

For more than a decade, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has captivated the world of cricket and more than a billion Indians with his incredible ingenuity as captain, wicketkeeper, and batsman. Bharat Sundaresan tracks down the cricketer's closest friends in Ranchi and artfully presents the different shades of Dhoni - the Ranchi boy, the fauji, the diplomat, Chennai's beloved Thala, the wicketkeeping Pythagoras - and lays bare the man underneath. He discovers a certain je ne sais quoi about the man who has a magical ability to transform and elevate everything that comes into his orbit.

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 audiobook reflects Dan's generous and outspoken spirit, his resilience to pain, crashes, bad luck and, finally, his acceptance of destiny.

Sit back or saddle up as double Olympic gold medallist and multiple world champion Geraint Thomas gives you a warts-and-all insight into the life of a pro cyclist. Along the way he reveals cycling's clandestine codes and secret stories; tales from the peloton; the key characters like Wiggins, Hoy and Cav; the pivotal races; and essential etiquette. Geraint Thomas is treasured for treating his sport just as the rest of us see it: not as a job but as an escape and an adventure.

At the age of 69, Jonas Barter embarks on an inspiring adventure to celebrate retirement and reassure himself that the old body in the mirror is still friends with the younger guy in the head. This quest becomes the story of a 2,000 km bicycle trip in Northern Africa.

For 60 minutes this summer, the British public stopped what they were doing, switched on their radios and their TVs, refreshed their Twitter feeds, and followed Bradley Wiggins' attempt to break one of sport's most gruelling records: The Hour. The premise is simple enough: how far can you cycle in one hour? But it is thought to be one of the toughest events an athlete can endure, both physically and psychologically. Eddy Merckx, cycling's über-champ, called it the hardest thing he ever did.

Most fans and critics are aware of Armstrong's many accolades and controversies, but in order to truly understand Lance Armstrong, you must first understand where he came from. This unauthorized biography explores Armstrong's upbringing, his early years, and details his breakthrough into cycling all the way through the fallout of his big Oprah interview in 2013.

Sharp, resourceful and a permanent outsider; for nearly 20 years Steve Cummings determinedly blazed his own winning trail in international cycling. A maverick who defied the dominant teams, to record a sequence of gloriously improbable victories, he has lived and raced with legends of the sport—Cavendish, Wiggins, Froome, Thomas and others—about whom he has strong views and untold stories.

For years Geraint Thomas appeared blessed with extraordinary talent but jinxed at the greatest bike race in the world: twice an Olympic gold medallist on the track, Commonwealth champion, yet at the Tour de France a victim of crashes, bad luck and his willingness to sacrifice himself for his teammates. In the summer of 2018, that curse was blown away in spectacular fashion - from the cobbles of the north and the iconic mountain climbs of the Alps to the brutal slopes of the Pyrenees and, finally, the Champs-Elysees in Paris.

Before Bradley Wiggins, there was Sean Yates. Behind Bradley Wiggins, there was Sean Yates. One of only five Britons to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, Sean Yates burst onto the cycling scene as the rawest pure talent this country has ever seen. After turning professional at the age of 22, he soon became known as a die-hard domestique, putting his body on the line for his teammates.

In 2018, Leigh Timmis became the fastest person to cycle across Europe—in just 16 days, 10 hours and 45 minutes—breaking the previous world record by an astonishing 8 days and 17 hours. But when he set out to break the record, Leigh wasn't just trying to conquer the road. As he prepared his body for this ultra-endurance world record attempt, Leigh realized that he would have to confront deeper problems to make it to the finish line.

The moment the car hit her, everything changed for Charlotte Roach. Out on a training ride with other Olympic hopefuls, elite athletes all of them, Charlotte was just 21 years old, with the dream of making the GB triathlon team. Now, as she lay on the tarmac with a broken back, waiting for the air ambulance, she was drifting in and out of consciousness, fighting for her life. Nearly two years later, Charlotte sat on her bike in China, waiting for the sun to rise. Ahead of her was a journey that would span 10,000 kilometers.

The plan is simple. George and Ben have three weeks to cycle 1000 miles from the bottom of England to the top of Scotland. There's just one small problem - they have no bikes, no clothes, no food, and no money. Setting off in just a pair of Union Jack boxer shorts, they attempt to rely on the generosity of the British public for everything from food to accommodation, clothes to shoes, and bikes to beer.

So rapid has this national transformation been that it has taken place within the lifetimes of these remarkable young sportsmen. Colombia Es Pasión! How a New Generation of Cyclists Changed a Nation explores the lives and dreams of each of Colombia's leading cyclists. Theirs are inspiring stories of overcoming poverty and violence, sickness and corruption - of the emergence of the indigenous to global sporting glory.

The biggest annual sports event in the world is the Tour de France. In the wake of its overwhelming popularity, it’s easy to forget that there is much more to cycling than whoever gets to wear the yellow jersey. Cycling is rich with legends and pioneers, and it is their stories which light up this compelling account of the sport. This is the story of British cycling as told through the lives of the people who built it. From the first recorded race in a Paris park in 1868 to the present day, Great British Cycling Legends profiles the true originals.

In 1887 a 21-year-old newspaperman named George Nellis (1865-1948) rode a bicycle from Herkimer, New York, to San Francisco in 72 days, surpassing the transcontinental bicycle record by several weeks. He averaged 50 miles a day pedaling a 52-inch, high-wheeled Columbia Expert "ordinary" bicycle with a tubular steel frame and hard rubber tires, and he lost 23 pounds in the process.

One More Croissant for the Road sees ‘the nation’s taster in chief’ Felicity Cloake embark on the trip of a lifetime, cycling 3,500km across France in search of the definitive versions of classic French dishes. Felicity has long established herself as an absolute authority on everything that is important about food. This lively and charming account of her search for the ultimate Quiche Lorraine, la meilleure Tarte Tatin and a Cassoulet par excellence culminates in a triumphant two-wheeled tour of Paris’ boulangeries in pursuit of France’s finest croissant.

La biografía más completa de Lance Armstrong, escrita por Juliet Macur, periodista del New York Times, una de las periodistas que más acceso tuvo al ciclista norteamericano, antes y después de su confesión. El relato definitivo del espectacular ascenso y caída de Lance Armstrong.