Every Second Counts!August 4, 2007 7 out of 7 found this review helpful
For three weeks every July little else that can be called serious goes on in France. Everything is on hold whilst a great sporting event takes place. With a duration longer than Wimbledon, the Test Matches, the Open Golf championship and even the Olympic Games. It's the `Tour de France'. Bicycling in extremist! The TdeF is as French as the Guillotine, Baguettes and Bardot! Around two hundred super fit human beings pedal their arduous, and often perilous, way through pretty villages, vineyards and sunflowers, mountain passes and stray dogs for some two and a half thousand miles all aiming to get to Paris in the shortest time and in one piece. Usually half of them don't make it! Just to cross the line at the Arc d'Triomphe would be considered by most of the surviving competitors to be a career highlight, let alone to win the event. And the whole affair is completely free of charge for the many thousands of spectators that line the route eagerly waiting to spot these multi-coloured, lyrcra clad mobile billboards as they sweep past on machines that can cost the price of a decent family car.
It's all here in this glorious book. The history, the heroes, the rules (lots of these) - and oft the sabotage! Within the pages of this superb tome will be found inserted a couple of dozen and more facsimiles of memorabilia. Artefacts from the history of this iconic event. Rulebooks, competitor application forms. postcards from way back and scribbled notes. For TdeF enthusiasts the book surely is a must have item. For the rest of us mere spectators it is a terrific, hugely interesting read. The book, contained in a slipcase, is a tribute to the authors and a remarkable piece of construction by the publishers. It is worth the full price but can usually be found for much less. My copy was a bit under half-price. A bargain.
If you like bikes and enjoy `La Tour' you'll love this! Do get a copy, you won't regret it !
The most amazing book I have ever bought or ever will.June 1, 2007 9 out of 10 found this review helpful
Always difficult to buy a book that sealed and expect not to be dissapointed. Not this one. The work and attention to detail is simply breathtaking. Rather than give away all the surprises the book contains copies and other memorabilia of parts of the Tour De France through history and thankfully an English translation in a separate booklet is included, so you can understand in the true spirit of the TDF each item. The painstaking work that went into this book is worth anyones money.
Simply perfection.
An absolute must.
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