'Peter Cossins is an engaging writer whose conversational style makes this an effortless yet interesting read. The cosy tone delivers a great deal with a good balance of history and anecdotes. If you wish to explore cycling beyond the Grand Tours this is the book.' - Carlton KirbyAn awe-inspiring history of the five most legendary 'classic' races in world cycling.The Tour de France may provide the most obvious fame and glory, but i...

From the winner of the Telegraph Sports Book Awards Cycling Book of the Year 2018The first Tour de France in 1903 was a colourful affair full of adventure, mishaps and audacious attempts at cheating. Its riders included characters like Maurice Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman, said to have been swapped for a round of cheese by his parents in order to smuggle him into France to clean chimneys as a teenager, Hippolyte Aucouturier with his trademark handlebar moustach...

Great cyclists are born, but winning cyclists are made by the brains of their managers. The craft of racing requires a non-stop obsession with detail: watching rivals, judging the strength of a break, knowing the course, and picking the right moment to seize a fleeting opportunity and turn it into a big win.How the Race Was Won investigates the fine details of bicycle racing through extensive interviews with the sport's brightest minds. Author Peter Cossins has interrogated the riders, man...

21 haarspeldbochten naar de hemel. Als je tijdens de Tour wint op de Alpe d'Huez, ben je onsterfelijk! De beklimming van de Alpe d'Huez wordt ook wel de Hollywoodklim genoemd. Sinds de eerste ontmoeting van de Alpe met de wielersport, in 1952, toen de legendarische Fausto Coppi op de top triomfeerde, vervult deze berg een sterrenrol in de wielergeschiedenis. De 13,8 kilometer lange beklimming bevat 21 genummerde haarspeldbochten en heeft een gemiddeld stijgingspercentage van 7,8. Alle grot...

It has been called the Tour de France’s ‘Hollywood climb’, and there is no doubt that Alpe d’Huez has played a starring role in cycling’s history since its first encounter with the sport back in 1952 when the legendary Fausto Coppi triumphed on the summit. Re-introduced to the Tour in 1976, Alpe d’Huez has risen to mythical status, thanks initially to a string of victories by riders from Holland, whose exploits attracted tens of thousands of their compatriots to the climb, which ha...

When, during the Pyrenean stages of the 1998 Tour de France, a journalist asked Marco Pantani why he rode so fast in the mountains, the elfin Italian, unmistakeable in the bandanna and hooped ear-rings that played up to his "Pirate" nickname, replied: "To shorten my agony."Drawing on the fervour for these men of the mountains, Climbers looks at what sets these athletes apart within the world of bike racing, about why we love and cherish them, how they make cycling...

** WINNER OF THE CYCLING BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE 2019 TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS**So how do you win a bike race?Riding as fast as you could for as long as you could was the main tactic in the early days of road racing when Grand Tours could be won by hours. Now a minute’s delay thanks to a puncture could ruin a rider’s chances over a three-week race and the sport is described as nothing less than chess on wheels. The ...

An awe-inspiring history of the five most legendary “classic” races in world cycling.The Tour de France may provide the most obvious fame and glory, but it is cycling's one-day tests that the professional riders really prize. Toughest, longest and dirtiest of all are the so-called 'Monuments', the five legendary races that are the sport's equivalent of golf's majors or the grand slams in tennis. Milan–Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liè...

* WINNER OF THE 2020 TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS CYCLING BOOK OF THE YEAR*Discover this 100-year anniversary celebration of the hardest-earned and most sacred prize in sport, the Tour de France's Yellow Jersey.In 2019, the cycling world will celebrate the 100th anniversary of sport's most iconic and distinguished prize: the Yellow Jersey. Beautifully produced and packed full of interviews with riders such as Chris Froome, Thomas Voeckler a...

Ultimate Étapes is the essential guide to cycling the very best routes in Europe. From the epic ascent of the Stelvio to the windswept coastline of the Netherlands’ North Sea, by way of the cobbles of Flanders and Italy’s Strade Bianche, Peter Cossins has created a guide to the stages that have defined modern cycling. Taken together, they create a tour of Europe that offers as broad a variety of terrain as any of the Grand Tours would provide, enabling riders inspired by the beau...

Bloomsbury presents The Monuments 2nd edition by Peter Cossins, read by Nathaniel Priestley.An awe-inspiring history of the five most legendary “classic” races in world cycling.The Tour de France may provide the most obvious fame and glory, but it is cycling’s one-day tests that the professional riders really prize. Toughest, longest and dirtiest of all are the so-called ‘Monuments’, the five legendary races that are the sport’s equivalent of golf’s majors or the grand slam...

Le Tour 100 is a unique and stunning visual reference to the world's greatest race. With 100 computer-generated artworks detailing the routes of the greatest stages, it relates the most dramatic moments with an exhaustively researched array of facts, figures and stories to give the reader the ultimate Tour de France book.Published to celebrate the 100th race, the 100 seminal moments of the Tour have been chosen by the panel of authors and each has ...