Product Description
Volume 1 of The Story of the Tour de France concluded with Jacques Anquetil s record setting fifth Tour win. Volume 2 opens with the greatest Italian racer of the modern age, Felice Gimondi and his effortless victory at the young age of 22. Despite his extraordinary talent, he never won the Tour again. Starting in 1969, Eddy Merckx began his run of 5 victories. Bernard Hinault, who also managed to win 5, followed him.
Unable to fulfill his destiny … More >>
The Story of the Tour de France Volume 2: 1965-2007
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These volumes (I am including both) took a while to negotiate mainly due to the sheer number of statistics and terse, historical details. I would definitely NOT recommend this book to the neophyte as a stand alone source of cycling history. Knowing a fair amount racing and its history made the reading manageable, but someone without any background might be disinclined to make the effort this version requires. A good history is, in my opinion, a readable one, and this one gets a bit tedious. There is a lot of information here, though this is not the book’s salient liability. It just is rather dry. However, since it is unique in the genre – gazetteer-like, not much “style” to the writing as compared to simply delivering facts – fair comparison is difficult. Ok as a reference, but there are others that entertain as well as inform.
Rating: 3 / 5
This is a book for those with a reading light on their nightstand. Bill and Carol McGann have put together an encyclopedia of the Tour de France between 1965-2007, what most of us can relate to as the modern era. The transition from National teams (riders racing under the flag of a given country, ie., France, Germany, Italy etc) to Factory teams (Peugeot) to the multi-corporate sponsorships we have today. The various doping scandals of the past, which help provide a context for what we hear about today. The back-breaking transfers from one stage to the next that might have the riders not arriving at their next town until midnight, leaving short rest for the following-day’s 120+ mile race. The progress (and decline) of riders from year-to-year in a linear chronology that makes it easy to follow.
All too often we see little snippets of information, perhaps on [...] or LeTour.fr, giving us the route for the current race and telling us when it last rode over this pass, or through this town, without any context. With this book in hand, you’ll have it, and you can imagine how things might play out this time! That’s where I find “The Story of the Tour de France” invaluable, as I have visited the Tour de France 9 of the past 10 years, and feel like I have inside information on how things are likely to unfold.
There’s a place in the world for oversized coffe-table books with beautiful full-page color pictures on glossy paper. But if you want a great reference book to keep at your side while following the Tour de France, whether in person or on TV or the ‘net, this is for you. Why go to sleep with the TV droning on in the background, waiting for that nightly coma to set in, when you can read a book like this instead?
Rating: 5 / 5
Since reading the McGann’s first volume on the Tour, I have been eagerly awaiting Volume 2, which I received a few days ago. Volume 1 documents the beginnings of the Tour de France and the early years (through 1964), and covers the race and it’s context better than any other book. Volume 2 is even better; more robust and with greater detail; and it is the best piece on the world’s greatest sporting event ever. Each year’s Tour is recapped, but more interesting are the rider descriptions, tactics, and color. As an example from the 1992 Tour:
“Claudio Chiappucci was what Miguel Indurain wasn’t. Where Indurain was cold, calculating, riding only to win and no more, knowing that whatever time gaps he had allowed could be closed with a display of brute horsepower in the time trials, Chiappucci was the opposite. The Italian was willing to gamble, to take magnificent chances to gain time. He had to run these big risks knowing how vulnerable he was in the time trials. Indurain said that he had to have eyes on the back of his head when he raced Chiappucci.” The book is busting with observations such as this. How entertaining!
If you are a racer or a casual rider, you will love this book. And if you are a Lance Armstrong-era noob, you will gain more insight into that period from this book than from any other.
Highly recommended from an old Category 2 racer.
Rating: 5 / 5