‘The Great Bike Race’ is revered by modern cycling critics and was the first book in English to tell the entire story of a full tour. Vivid descriptions of the racing, the personalities, tactics and intrigues of the 1976 race are rotated with insightful thematic chapters. Republished on the 40th anniversary of the race and original first publication.
If Alpe d'Huez was a rigorous climb, with its mathematical progression of tight corners and steep inclines, the Izoard is far more awesome, a rocky wilderness at 7,743 feet, which needs only a few bleached skulls at the roadside to complete its sense of desolation. Geoffrey Nicholson’s ‘The Great Bike Race’ is universally revered by modern cycling critics as the benchmark English-language volume of the sport and has risen to mythical status. It was the first book in English to tell the entire story of a full tour and truly captivates the reader from start to finish. Nicholson’s classic, vivid descriptions of the racing, the personalities, tactics and intrigues of the 1976 race are rotated with insightful thematic chapters where he lifts the lid on the broader culture and lengthy traditions of cycling’s most famous race and the greatest annual sports event in the world.
On the 40th anniversary of the race and original first publication, Velodrome Publishing is most honoured to republish and celebrate this seminal cycling tome as the launch volume in the ‘Vintage Velodrome’ series of titles. AUTHOR: Geoffrey Nicholson was one of the most original, prolific and best-liked sports writers of the past 50 years. He helped transform the character of sports journalism in the late 1950s by eschewing tabloid cliches and public relations hype and introducing a quality of writing which matched that of the arts and foreign pages. He was to become sports editor of the Observer and the Sunday Correspondent, sports features editor of the Sunday Times and rugby correspondent of the Independent. Nicholson’s main interest was cycling, and he covered the Tour de France for 20 years. 20 b/w photos
