Books : Blazing Saddles: The Cruel and Unusual History of the Tour de France
List Price: $24.95Amazon.com's Price: $16.47 You Save: $8.48 (34%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.620944
EAN: 9781934030257
ISBN: 1934030252
Label: VeloPress
Manufacturer: VeloPress
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: April 28, 2008
Publisher: VeloPress
Sales Rank: 140242
Studio: VeloPress
Related Items:
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
In this fascinating book, award-winning sports writer Matt Rendell covers every corner of "La Grande Boucle," from the eccentric couture of the first Tour winner (white blazer, black trousers, wool socks) to the earliest method of cheating (riding the train). Blazing Saddles recounts the famous rivalries and riders that contested the Tour, setting the score straight with complete records of every podium finisher. Rendell's vivid storytelling is complemented with more than 100 classic black-and-white photographs, portraying cycling's heroes and martyrs from Jacques Anquetil to Lance Armstrong.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Buddhist-like, this book takes the middle path - it is neither a dry encyclopedia nor an engrossing "best of" Tour de France book. Yet for its attempt to be comprehensive, it yaws more toward the latter than the former.
The book manages to hit the highlights of EVERY TdF in an entertaining fashion; and while it is apparent that some TdFs deserve little-to-no mention while books should be (and have been) written about several others...well, Blazing Saddles shows that sometimes the middle ground is a fertile place.
Rating:  -
This book is packed with information and great photos. However, the writing is so poor that it was hard to follow at times.
Rating:  -
The Tour De France is the most prestigious race in cycling, but it didn't become that way overnight. "Blazing Saddles: The Cruel and Unusual History of the Tour De France" chronicles the races one hundred and five year history, full of memory quotes and events throughout the history of the race. With each year covered with statistics covering the length of the course, the top three finishers and their times, it lends a bit of history to each of the races. For any fan of the race, "Blazing Saddles" is a 'must have' reference that is as entertaining as it is informative.
Rating:  -
"Hell, there are no rules here. We are trying to accomplish something."
Thomas Alva Edison
Leafing through the entertaining pages of "Blazing Saddles: The Cruel and Unusual History of the Tour de France" one is struck by the tone of the book, released just in time for this year's Tour. Instead of the usual paeans of praise to the great athletes of cycling history, author Matt Rendell has instead emphasized that the glorious Tour de France, one of the world's great sporting events, is "[a] fine spectacle of life-threatening exertion, bare-faced cheating, roadside sabotage, ludicrous clothing, extreme intimate discomfort and grown men at the absolute end of their tethers..."
At the pinnacle of the gang of eccentrics who populate this volume must stand the founder of the Tour, Henri Desgrange. Clearly a man who loved to give orders, M. Desgrange had a vision of the Tour as the ultimate test of strength and courage and dogged manliness. He once said that the ideal Tour winner would be the sole survivor. To realize this goal, the early Tours were insanely difficult. With staggering stage lengths over terrible roads and often started in the middle of the night, the Tour de France attracted some Very Tough Competitors, men not mollycoddled by technology. Desgrange objected to freewheels ("Are our races seriously threatened with decadence by the freewheel? Will the Tour de France be undermined by this infernal invention?") and although eventually ... Read More
Rating: -
Highly recommend for Tour de France and cycling buffs! Now i know much more of the details of how the race began and how it evolved and the some what odd history of the greatest cycling race!
Browse for similar items by category:
|
