Showing titles in Cycling

Johan Bruyneel knows what it takes to win. In 1998, this calculating Belgian and former professional cyclist looked Lance Armstrong in the eye and said, "Look, if were going to ride the Tour, we might as well win." In that powerful phrase a dynasty was born.

Ishbel Rose Holmes was adrift and alone when she set out to bicycle across the world. She was pedaling across Turkey when a street dog, Lucy, crossed her path and changed her life forever. Ishbel did not want anything or anyone to slow her down, but when she witnessed Lucy attacked by other dogs, Ishbel rescued her - forming a deep bond between the pair. Ishbel recognized her own vulnerability in her new canine friend and launched a heartfelt mission to find Lucy a home and give her a happy life.

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.

Rebecca Rusch has run the gauntlet of endurance sports over her career as a professional athlete—climbing, adventure racing, whitewater rafting, cross-country skiing, and mountain biking—racking up accolades and world championships along the way.

The Circuit des Champs de Bataille (the Tour of the Battlefields) was held in 1919, less than six months after the end of the First World War. It covered 2,000 kilometres and was raced in appalling conditions across the battlefields of the Western Front, otherwise known as the Zone Rouge. The race was so tough that only 21 riders finished, and it was never staged again. With one of the most demanding routes ever to feature in a bicycle race, and plagued by appalling weather conditions, the Circuit des Champs de Bataille was beyond gruelling, but today its story is largely forgotten.

Three-time Ironman finisher Amy Snyder takes the wraps off the best kept secret in the sports world, the Race Across America (RAAM), a bicycle race like no other. Unlike its famous cousin the Tour de France, RAAM is much crazier, more gothic, and even savage: Once the gun goes off the clock doesn't stop, and the first rider to complete the prescribed 3,000-mile route is the victor. In Hell on Two Wheels, Snyder follows a group of athletes before, during, and after the 2009 RAAM.

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.

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.

Jools Walker rediscovered cycling aged 28 after a decade-long absence from the saddle. When she started blogging about her cycle adventures under the alias Lady Vélo, a whole world was opened up to her. But it's hard to find space in an industry not traditionally open to women - especially women of colour. Shortly after getting back on two wheels, Jools was diagnosed with depression and then, in her early 30s, hit by a mini-stroke. Yet, through all of these punctures, one constant remained: Jools' love of cycling.

When licensed clinical therapist and self-proclaimed “reluctant adventurer” Leah Day felt herself drifting from her son, Oakley, she decided to make a drastic play to reconnect. In this memoir chronicling the journey of a lifetime, Leah and Oakley find that if they can push themselves to accomplish physically exhausting and emotionally taxing milestones on a bike, they are capable of anything!

Professional cycling has been around for more than 100 years, more than enough time for nearly anything imaginable to have happened. Whether it's the Tour de France racer who thought the worst thing that could happen to him was being forced to wear the Yellow Jersey, or the communist team director who insisted, on a whim, that a rider have a toe amputated or the fit of jealousy that started the Giro d'Italia, the sport has an endless supply of examples of human folly.

The Paris-Roubaix bicycle race, nicknamed "The Hell of the North," is famous for sending riders over brutal cobblestone roads. Only the strong, brave and lucky survive the hours of bone-shaking racing without suffering some mishap or catastrophe. It is so difficult no one wins it by accident, and winning Paris-Roubaix automatically puts a rider among the immortals of the sport. Why did Paris-Roubaix emerge to be such a special race? Les Woodland tells the inside story of one of cycling's classics.

In November 2015 Sarah Outen completed her five-year, 25,000 mile journey looping the planet by cycling across Europe, Asia and North America and canoeing and kayaking across the North Pacific and most of the North Atlantic.

This is an introductory guide for people who quite like the idea of getting on a bike. It does not tell you how to use a power meter or what ratio of protein to carbs you have to eat after a grueling turbo session. It's just about bikes, and cycling, and fun, and leisure, and safety.

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.

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.

Edward Enfield sets off on his latest cycling trip, carrying few preconceptions but plenty of wit. Determining the route he should take from recommendations scrawled on a napkin, he starts by following the 'Romantic Street' along the banks of the Danube from Passau to Vienna, taking in castles, churches and good food along the way. And, as Edward amply reveals in this charming book, there is no place from which to see a country that is nearly as good as the saddle of a bicycle.

For a Yellow Jersey narrates the many remarkable lives of the women's Tour de France. A race which has, in its various incarnations, acted as a microcosm of the women's bike racing scene as a whole. Like the careers of many of its participants, the race itself represents an inspiring story of...

Burnt out and questioning life Naomi was ready for a change. Unsure of which option to take, she would end up cycling the world with a man she’d met just three times in the adventure of a lifetime. Riding through tiger reserves, cycling Cairo to Capetown and crossing the 5,416m high Thorong-la pass in Nepal this book is full of tales of adventure. With early school reports noting Naomi would be better at sport if she at least turned up, this is not an athlete’s journey but the story of an ordinary person with a great opportunity and a can-do attitude.

Lee Craigie is one of Scotland’s great bike racers, yet she has accomplished much more since retiring. In Other Ways to Win she tells her story of growing up near Glasgow and discovering the freedom of cycling—skipping French lessons and heading off into the Campsie Fells to see just how far she could ride.