The Layman's Guide to the Tour de France: The simplest, easiest, and most basic analysis of the greatest and most complicated bike race on planet

The Layman's Guide to the Tour de France: The simplest, easiest, and most basic analysis of the greatest and most complicated bike race on planet

SURVIVAL ON TWO WHEELS! In what is considered as one of the toughest sports on planet Earth, journey into a day in the life of a bike racer in the famous Tour de France bicycle race! Twenty-one chapters, called stages, tell all about the inner workings of the race. Everything from an historical background overview of how the race originally got started to a sprint down the famous Champs-Élysées is included. You’ll begin the race wearing the famed yellow jersey as race leader and feel the pressure of keeping it as the other racers test your limits. An analysis of the other coveted colored jerseys, green, polka dot, and white is also included as well as a close-up inspection of the geometry and mechanics of a bike. Ever get a body massage? Better get permission first from your significant other, as mentioned in the chapter devoted to the support squad when the Tour’s first female masseuse was hired for an all-male team! The job of a bicycle mechanic is also profiled, with life-on-the-line technical know-how being depended on by racers, especially when descending a mountain at 60mph! The importance of helmets too is included, with reflection on the tragic death of Italian racer Fabio Casartelli. A chapter focused on bike racer anatomy talks about the super-human attributes of a typical Tour racer. Heart, lungs, mind, and muscle are all part of the equation necessary to carry a racer often over 100 miles per day for twenty-one days over mountains and windswept terrain at breakneck speeds. The tragic reality of drug use is also honed-in on in a unique chapter of its own. Three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond highlights America’s presence, France’s hero Bernard Hinault, Slovakia’s Peter Sagan, and many other riders fill the 163-page book’s focus on the great race, with a chapter devoted to the stars and slaves of the sport. The latter being the important role of the domestiques, or support riders who make up the majority of the teams in the race. No doubt you’ll be hungry after racing, and perhaps reading, as a special chapter in the book highlights the food on an average daily dinner table each eve at the Tour. Bring an appetite, because you’ll be permitted to eat practically everything in sight! Included are the author’s own reflections on his time spent in France training and racing with a French friend whose daily riding routine seemed the polar opposite to his own! Politics are everywhere it seems and have weaved their way into the Tour de France as highlighted in the book. How the race route is determined each year, who is involved, and what influences major sponsors have had on the planning of the race and team tactics. The evolution of the race is seen with critique, both positive and negative, as well as how some in the public have used the race as leverage to further a cause, including some protesters gluing themselves to the race road in an effort to stop the race and draw attention. A special section spanning six stages, or chapters, is devoted exclusively to visual images of the great race from its early days right up to modern times. 163 pages 58 color images 24 black & white images