Best Cycling Books of ALL TIME
BikeRadarAdmin
Posts: 909
Hi All,
BikeRadar are looking to do a list of the best cycling books of all time and we need your help.
Either simply your favourite, or your top three cycling books.
They can be biographies, touring guides, training tips or collections of the best cycling photographs.
Thanks in advance!
BikeRadar are looking to do a list of the best cycling books of all time and we need your help.
Either simply your favourite, or your top three cycling books.
They can be biographies, touring guides, training tips or collections of the best cycling photographs.
Thanks in advance!
BikeRadar Communities Manager
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Gives you an entertaining story about an hour record attempt along with the history of the record. I've leant it to people with barely a passing interest in cycling who've thoroughly enjoyed it
I like Mike Carden's The Full English. He is like Bill Bryson on a bike and this book, by far his best, is a charming account of someone, without a racing bone in his body, getting out on a bike .
Next up, Charlie Weglius, The Domestique. Brutal and yet informative, tells it how it is.
Finally, Michael Hutchinson, Faster. A great insight into the science of riding a bike fast and covers off whether a great racer is, to a large degree, born. It can get a little too focused in places (probably not surprising given Hutch's nature) particularly on the biology of blood, etc., but one can always just skip the odd sentence.
3 very different books, all enjoyable.
Lance Armstrong - It's Not About The Bike if it wasn't for this book I wouldn't have got into the sport and be here today!
Wheelmen - Vanessa O'Connell and Reed Albergotti deconstructed my opinion of my (ex) hero
Yoga for Cyclists - Lexie Williamson keeps me injury and pain free!
Tyler Hamilton - The Secret Race - matter-of-fact tale of doping with Lance
Tim Moore - Gironimo! - story of how to ride the 1913 Giro on a period bike, hilarious
In search of Robert Millar - Richard Moore
Shadows on the road - Michael Barry
The first one made me want to build my own bike. Second one is all about my schoolboy hero. Third one is just an excellent read from a top pro who many may not have heard off but rode with Armstrong and Sky.
Bianchi Impulso
BMC Teammachine
“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. “ ~H.G. Wells
Edit - "Unless it's a BMX"
"A Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium".
How can that not be good?
+1 for The Rider
Remarkable book.
In search of Robert Millar - Richard Moore
Not quite as remarkable, but very good.
This one.
ABCC Cycling Coach
The Rider
Slaying the Badger
The flying scotsman, Obree
The Hour, Hutchinson
French Revolutions - Tim Moore
The Secret Race - Tyler Hamilton
Gironimo
Yellow Jumper
Seven Deadly Sins
Breaking The Chain
The Domestique - Charly Wegelius
The Racer - David Millar
He may polarise opinion to some extent, but Millar's books are bl**dy good and very insightful.
Honourable mention to the Zinn and the art of... maintenance guides too. Kept me on the straight & narrow with mechanical issues - gives you all the info you need without patronising you and treating you like an imbecile or blinding you with technical info.
Surrey Hills
What's a Zwift?
Marin Nail Trail
Cotic Solaris
Honorary mentions to these two as well. Both brilliant.
It's all about the bike - Rob Penn
In search of Robert Millar - Richard Moore
Tim Moore - French Revolutions
Tim Krabbe - The Rider
Pity the cycling reader who hasn't read it. No excuses - it was translated in 2001.
Krabbé also wrote lots of columns about his amateur races which have been compiled into a book but that won't be translated.
Domestique - Charlie Wegelius
A Peiper's Tale - Allan Peiper
Find books by or about the superstars of cycling invariably disappointing, with the exception of The Death of Marco Pantani.
The Secret Race Tyler Hamilton
Breaking the Chain Willy Voet
It's all about the bike Sean Yates
Heroes, villains & Velodromes - Richard Moore
Slaying the Badger - Richard Moore
The autobiographies of Coppi & Merckx are excellent as well.
Surprised to see so many picking Armstrong's fine work of FICTION!
'...time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana....'
mark beaumont , the man who cycled the world
But every cyclist really should read these:
Dervla Murphy wind in my wheels was a real treat. Not many of us have to whip out a revolver to stop a pack of wild dogs these days.And she always said she never mended a pucture , there was always a bloke nearby to do it for her.
thomas Stevens Around the world on a bicycle is the real hard stuff, and you can download it free I think.
Cycle tourists are soft these days. I always thought he was american , but now I find he was born in England , so that's ok .
http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z122 ... =slideshow
L'Etape
Rough Rider
I think as he retired a few years ago now and was not seen as a big name his book has passed many by.
Robert Millar book also was one I found interesting, more than most of the others that I have felt that, having read them I'd be quite happy to pass it on to someone else and not have any inclination to ever pick it up again.
The Moore book about Robert Millar is well written and utterly absorbing, another world.
Death of Marco Pantani by Matt Rendell
Riding Through The Storm By Geoff Thomas
As for It's Not About The Bike,I did enjoy reading it,having lost my father to cancer not that long before reading it,I have to say I was quite captivated by his bloody minded battle with the disease,same as i was for reading Riding Through the Storm a few years later
Seven deadly sins (David Walsh)
Gironimo (Tim Moore)
The Hour (Michael Hutchinson)
The above post may contain traces of sarcasm or/and bullsh*t.