The resulting film, A Sunday in Hell, has become the most admired cycling documentary of all time, and its revolutionary camera and sound techniques have forever changed the way the sport is viewed on screen.
Suitable for the connoisseur and ideal apprenticeship for the newcomer, this souvenir helps you celebrate it in glorious technicolour. It also allows you to bring to life the wonderful moments of the Tour's history.
The definitive biography of France's greatest cyclist by the number one bestselling author of Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike. Bernard Hinault is one of the greatest cyclists of all time. He is a five-time winner of the Tour de France and the only man to have won each of the Grand Tours on more than one occasion. Three decades on from his retirement, he remains the last Frenchman to win the Tour de France. His victory in 1985 marks the turning point when the nation who had dominated the first eight decades of the race they had invented suddenly found they were no longer able to win it. Hinault is the last 'old-school' champion: a larger-than-life character from a working-class background, capable of winning on all terrains, in major Tours and one-day Classics. Nicknamed the 'Badger' for his combative style, he led a cyclists' strike in his first Tour and instigated a legendary punch-up with demonstrators in 1982 while in the middle of a race. Hinault's battles with team-mates Laurent Fignon and Greg LeMond provide some of the greatest moments in Tour history. In Bernard Hinault and the Fall and Rise of French Cycling, William Fotheringham finally gets to the bottom of this fascinating character and explores the reasons why the nation that considers itself cycling's home has found it so hard to produce another champion.
First published in Great Britain in 2012 as Merckx, half man, half bike by Yellow Jersey Press"--T.p. verso.
Few British schoolchildren of the seventies can have been as obsessed with the Tour de France as William Fotheringham, who smuggled copies of Miroir du Cyclisme into lessons to read inside his books. Since joining the Guardian in 1989, William Fotheringham has been at the forefront of British cycling journalism.
On 22 July 2012 Bradley Wiggins became the first British man ever to win the Tour de France. In an instant 'Wiggo' became a national hero. Ten days later, having swapped his yellow jersey for the colours of Team GB, he won Olympic gold in the time trial, adding to his previous six medals to become the nation's most decorated Olympian of all time. Outspoken, honest, intelligent and fearless, Wiggins has been hailed as the people's champion. In My Time he tells the story of the remarkable journey that led to him winning the world's toughest race. He opens up about his life on and off the bike, about the personal anguish that has driven him on and what it's like behind the scenes at Team Sky: the brutal training regimes, the sacrifices and his views on his teammates and rivals. He talks too about his anger at the spectre of doping that pursues his sport, how he dealt with the rush of taking Olympic gold and above all what it takes to be the greatest.--Publisher's description
Half Man, Half Bike
The first ever English-language biography of Eddy Merckx, the greatest cyclist of all time, by William Fotheringham, Britain's top cycling writer. Eddy Merckx is to cycling what Muhammad Ali is to boxing or Pelé to football; quite simply, the best there has ever been. Throughout his professional career Merckx amassed an astonishing 445 victories. Lance Armstrong, by comparison, has managed fewer than 100. For Britain's leading cycling writer, William Fotheringham, the burning question remains, why? What made Eddy Merckx so invincible? Merckx was a machine. It wasn't just the number of victories; it was his remorseless domination that created the legend. Once, already comfortably leading the 1969 Tour de France, Merckx hammered a further eight and a half minutes out of his nearest rivals during an 85-mile solo break in the Pyrenees. But his triumphs only tell half a story that includes drug-busts, horrific injury and death. He was nicknamed 'The Cannibal' for his insatiable appetite for victory, but the moniker did scant justice to this handsome, sensitive, and surprisingly anxious man. In Half Man, Half Bike, Fotheringham goes back to speak to those who were there at the time. The result is the extraordinary and definitive story of a man whose fear of failure would drive him to reach the highest pinnacles before ultimately destroying him.
In 2012 Bradley Wiggins made history by becoming the first Briton ever to win the Tour de France. From the early days of Brian Robinson to Bradley Wiggins's dominant ride via Tom Simpson, Robert Millar, Chris Boardman and many others, Roule Britannia celebrates a nation's love affair with the greatest race of all.
If it’s on the bike, it’s in the book. The world of cycling is one of death-defying feats and obscure mechanical oddities, heroics and geekiness in equal measure. In Cyclopedia, renowned two-wheel aficionado and acclaimed sportswriter William Fotheringham delves deep into this world to unearth amazing facts and enthralling anecdotes. This essential book is an A to Z compendium of everything you could ever want to know about the bicycle, from the history of the Tour de France to Chris Hoy’s dominance of the Beijing velodrome, from the origins of the quick-release system to the diet that powered Graeme Obree to the world hour record, from Lance Armstrong’s fabled career to the slang words used for performance-enhancing substances, from the literature of cycling to the perils of vicious dogs. Cyclopedia has all the equipment, the races, the chases, the faces, the places, the drugs, the sex, and the scandals to convert any amateur cyclist into a full-fledged bike expert.
Voted the most popular Italian sportsman of the twentieth century, Fausto Angelo Coppi was the campionissimo - champion of champions. The greatest cyclist of the immediate post-war years, he was the first man to win cycling's great double, the Tour de France and Tour of Italy in the same year - and he did it twice. He achieved mythical status for his crushing solo victories, world titles and world records. But his significance extends far beyond his sport. Coppi's scandalous divorce and controversial early death convulsed a conservative, staunchly Roman Catholic Italy in the 1950s. At a time when adultery was still illegal, Coppi and his lover were dragged from their bed in the middle of the night, excommunicated and forced to face a clamorous legal battle. The ramifications of this case are still being felt today. In Fallen Angel, acclaimed cycling biographer, William Fotheringham, tells the tragic story of Coppi's life and death - of how a man who became the symbol of a nation's rebirth after the disasters of war died reviled and heartbroken. Told with insight and intelligence, this is a unique portrait of Italy and Italian sport at a time of tumultuous change.