Bike Book Critique

Excuse the epic nature of this post, since I started my new job where there is absolutely nothing to do at lunchtime, I’ve read six books (versus none in the preceding 12 months..) most of them about cycling that I’d been meaning to catch up on for ages. Nothing new but thought I’d offer my briefish personal reviews, and ask for any recommendations of what to read next...

A Race for Madmen- the History of the Tour de France
Quite long but fascinating, every stage in the Tour’s history has its own character, scandal, inspiration, heroes and villains. Gives a real insight into the race, good for relative tour-noobs and experts alike I reckon.

It’s All About the Bike / Robert Penn
I’d seen the TV programme at least twice and really enjoyed it, the book adds quite a lot of depth and is written with a lovely passion and fondness for bikes, hard to resist if you feel the same. There are probably weightier books devoted to the subject but does a brilliant job of explaining the origins of cycling, and probably in as much detail as you really want. I know people have said it’s a bit self indulgent but it’s his money and the result is really interesting. Plus he must have sold easily enough books to finance the bike and the travel. Wish I’d thought of that...

Wide Eyed and Legless
I am going to commit cycling book heresy and say I was a little bit disappointed with this. It’s still very much worthwhile reading, brilliant characters, a true warts and all look behind the scenes. But I’d heard a brief review of the book which talked about the people and what happened ...well, that’s what happened. There were no surprises and stage reports seem like filler to me. They’re not wonderfully written and feel disjointed. Good if you like period reviews of races maybe. I did enjoy this but I’d had it built up as an incredible book. If I was being really cruel I think you could get all the good stuff in a wordy newspaper article, the books feels like it’s stretching it.

In Pursuit of Greatness- Bradley Wiggins.
Really enjoyed this. I like Wiggo, I like the fact it’s not historical, we’ve seen his career changing and developing and it’s happening as we speak and he’s achieved a lot with the potential of more to come. It feels more ‘familiar’, easier to identify with a boy growing up in London in the 80’s than Bernard Hinault or whoever. My copy is updated for the 2009 TdF and I liked knowing stuff that Bradley didn’t when he wrote it (I believe it’s known as dramatic irony in literary terms), how he’d move away from track to road and Contador and breaking his collarbone last year and Cav going stellar. It’s also fairly personal without getting over schmaltzy. On a critical note some of the writing is clearly edited or ghost written and towards the end you do get slight déjà vu when you read another “I had to get it right / I was the best and should win easily but it could all go wrong / however it didn’t go wrong and I won” setup. Highly Recommended anyway.

The Death of Marco Pantani / Matt Rendell
Only about half way through so far but it’s very good. I will say he does do a bit of amateur psychology and you have to remember it’s just Matt Rendell’s opinion sometimes (there’s a bit about how he signed his name with Pantani sloping left and Marco sloping right and that it was like two halves of himself trying to escape each other or something..it’s a useful metaphor and all that but presented matter-of-fact when he is reading an awful lot into it), but Pantani’s a hugely interesting character and it’s a very engaging boook.

I think that’s it! Not sure what to read next...anyone got any suggestions?