The Shattered Peloton

Author: Graham Healy
Publisher: Breakaway Books
ISBN:
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 127

Book Description
A generation of young athletes decimated in the carnage of war. The Shattered Peloton is a mind-boggling account of young athletes in their prime destroyed in the hell of war. A mesmerizing view of cycling in its golden age, and the darkness that followed. On June 28, 1914, one hundred and forty-five riders lined up in a suburb of Paris at 3 a.m. to start the first stage of the Tour de France. The race, which had been founded just a decade earlier, had grown to become the biggest bicycle race in the world. The riders did not know it at the time, but as they raced, an event was taking place on the opposite side of Europe which would change all of their lives forever: Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, triggering World War I. While racing went on in France, a diplomatic crisis had started that would try but fail to avert war. Shortly after the finish of the race, France mobilized its troops and went to war with Germany. The organizer of the Tour de France, Henri Desgrange, despite being fifty years old, enrolled in the army shortly afterwards and encouraged the cyclists to do the same. The war would see over 16 million soldiers and civilians die. Many of the riders from that Tour de France did not return, and three previous winners of the race would be among those killed in action. The Shattered Peloton tells the story of the 1914 Tour and what happened to the top cyclists of the day during the course of the war. A brilliant, disturbing, important book for anyone with an interest in cycling or military history.

The Shattered Peloton

Author: Graham Healy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781621240112
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
How World War I decimated the ranks of elite cyclists, as they fought and died for their countries.

The Story of the Tour de France

Author: Bill McGann
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
ISBN: 1598586084
Category : Bicycle racing
Languages : en
Pages : 406

Book Description
What they are saying about The Story of the Tour de France: After forty years of study on the subject, I can with some confidence say Bill and Carol McGann's The Story of the Tour de France is the finest such work ever produced in the English language, and perhaps in any. Most of my preferred references are in French, one runs to over 800 pages, yet the McGanns' opus revealed information new to me in almost every paragraph. Their research has been not only impeccable, but insightful. -Owen Mulholland, author of Uphill Battle and Cycling's Golden Age The Story of the Tour de France: How a Newspaper Promotion Became the Greatest Sporting Event in the World by Bill and Carol McGann is a must read. -Road Bike Action Magazine For any historian of the sport the McGanns'Tour de France history is essential reading. Details of the stages and the riders are not glossed over. For those who are new to the sport, the McGanns bring the glory days of the sport alive with the intrigue that still exists today. Epic stages that might have faded into oblivion are eloquently recounted so that future generation of cyclists will know the rich history of our beautiful sport. -Neil Browne, editor, Road Magazine Besides towering over all bicycle races, the Tour de France endures for its unique Gaulic character, like Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. The McGanns' passionate and insightful writing evokes the raucous cast of riders, promoters, and journalists thrusting through highs and lows worthy of opera. This volume stands out as a must-read book for anyone seeking to appreciate cycling's race of races. -Peter Joffre Nye, author of The Six-Day Bicycle Races: America's Jazz Age Sport and Hearts of Lions Volume 1 of The Story of the Tour de France concluded with Jacques Anquetil's record setting fifth Tour win. Volume 2 opens with the greatest Italian racer of the modern age, Felice Gimondi and his effortless victory at the young age of 22. Despite his extraordinary talent, he never won the Tour again. Starting in 1969, Eddy Merckx began his run of 5 victories. Bernard Hinault, who also managed to win 5, followed him. Unable to fulfill his destiny as a likely 5-time winner because of a hunting accident, LeMond won the Tour 3 times. LeMond's era was followed by the remarkable Spaniard Miguel Indurain, the first man to win the Tour 5 times in a row. The late 1990s were a time of extreme crisis for the Tour as the culture of doping within the professional cycling community erupted into the scandal of 1998. The Story of the Tour de France deals with this episode at length. Emerging from a near-fatal bout of cancer, Lance Armstrong went on to do what no other rider in the Tour's long history had ever been able to accomplish, win the Tour 7 times. Following Armstrong's retirement, the Tour was again seized by scandal, this time Floyd Landis' disqualification for drugs after winning the 2006 Tour. The book concludes with the story of the 2007 Tour, followed by a quest for the greatest ever Tour de France rider and an epilogue that explains the reasons for the extraordinary success of the Tour. Bill and Carol McGann have had their lives inextricably tied up with bicycles about as long as they can remember. Their first date was a bike ride. Bill, formerly a Category 1 racer, has been a contributor to several cycling magazines and is widely acknowledged as an expert on road bikes and cycling history. Since his father gave him a small 1-speed English lightweight bicycle when he was 5 years old, Bill has been in love with everything about bikes. Carol, a former college biology instructor is also an accomplished rider, having cycle-toured extensively. Together they started Torelli Imports in 1981, a firm specializing in high-performance cycle equipment.

Indurain

Author: Alasdair Fotheringham
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1473528739
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Book Description
Miguel Indurain is Spain’s greatest cyclist of all time and one of the best Tour racers in history. He is the only bike rider to have won five successive Tours de France, as well as holding the title for the youngest ever race leader in the Tour of Spain. This is his story. As the all-conquering hero of the 90s, Indurain steadfastly refused to be overwhelmed by fame; remaining humble, shy and true to his country roots. Along with his superhuman calmness, iron will-power and superb bike handling skills, he was often described as a machine. Yet 1996 saw Indurain, the Tour’s greatest ever champion, spectacularly plummet, bringing his career and supremacy to an abrupt end. In Indurain, Alasdair Fotheringham gets to the heart of this enigmatic character, reliving his historic accomplishments in vibrant colour, and exploring how this shaped the direction taken by generations of Spanish racers - raising Spanish sport to a whole new level.

Marie Marvingt, Fiancee of Danger

Author: Rosalie Maggio
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476675503
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 311

Book Description
Marie Marvingt (1875-1963) set the world's first women's aviation records, won the only gold medal for outstanding performance in all sports, invented the airplane ambulance, was the first female bomber pilot in history, fought in World War I disguised as a man, took part in the Resistance of World War II, was the first to survive crossing the English Channel in a balloon, worked all her life as a journalist, spent years in North Africa and invented metal skis. Her life story was so unusually rich in exploits and accomplishments that some dismissed it as a hoax. This biography explores the life of "the most incredible woman since Joan of Arc" and investigates the reasons she has been forgotten. Known as the "fiancee of danger," she was the model for the silent film series The Perils of Pauline.

Iron Mac

Author: Andrew M. Homan
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803290551
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Book Description
At a time when cycling in the United States rivaled baseball as the nation's most popular professional sport, along came Reggie McNamara, a farmer's son from Australia. Within a month of his arrival in the United States in 1913, he had earned the moniker "Iron Man" for his high tolerance of pain and his remarkable ability to recover from seemingly catastrophic injury. The nickname proved justified. Not only was he tough, he was also one of the best and highest-paid athletes in the world. During his thirty-year career, McNamara won seventeen punishing six-day races along with an inestimable number of shorter distance races, including high-profile events on three different continents, peaking in 1926-27 at the age of thirty-nine. The fans, media, and his fellow professionals all idolized him as an example of the true grit needed to succeed in this grueling and dangerous sport. Late in his career, however, hard drinking and injuries took their toll, and McNamara became estranged from his wife and children. He fought back just as he always had on the race course, conquering his addiction to alcohol and becoming one of the earliest success stories of Alcoholics Anonymous. In this humorous and exciting biography of the original Iron Man, Andrew M. Homan pulls McNamara back into the spotlight, depicting a flawed but beloved man whose success in those unrelenting six-day races came at a price.

Momentum Is Your Friend

Author: Joe Kurmaskie
Publisher: Breakaway Books
ISBN:
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Book Description
Most people bring their inner child on an epic adventure. Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie actually took his two kids along. For a 4,000-mile bicycle ride across America, Joe’s seven-year-old son, Quinn, rides a tagalong bike attached to his dad’s; and behind that is five-year-old Enzo in a bike trailer. Our hero the Metal Cowboy answers the question “What are you, crazy?” with a resounding and cheerful “Yes.” Unassisted—with no support crew except his boys’ comic relief and the periodic kindness of strangers—he pedals hundreds of pounds of gear and offspring over mountain passes, across the wide plains, through thunderstorms, and into the heart of what it means to be a dad. Along the way they encounter everything that makes up America—small-town kindness and inner-city heart, wild horses and highway roadkill, a bitter Vietnam vet and a hopeful young inventor, grizzly bears and bison roaming free, cyclists and monstrous RVs, a very peppy cheerleader and a visitation from the ghost of the author’s father, horrible traffic and serene dirt roads, a monastery and a distillery, baseball, and yes, lots of pie. By the time they reach Washington, DC, two months after leaving Portland, Oregon, they’ve bonded in a rare way. Kurmaskie writes, “We share a secret, the three of us; one permanent summer in our hearts now, where we’re never apart.” Praise for MOMENTUM IS YOUR FRIEND “Give Huck Finn a bicycle, give Lance Armstrong a sense of humor and give Jack Kerouac a good editor and you have Joe Kurmaskie’s latest road trip. Hilarious. A one-of-a-kind voice in the travel world.” —Tom Lang, author of Coffee, Cat, and Mrs. Claus “With his two sons in tow providing moral support (and comic relief), Joe Kurmaskie treats us to a reader’s trifecta: a humorous travelogue, a stirring adventure tale, and a touching family story.” —Bart King, author of The Big Book of Boy Stuff “A witty, whacky, and pensive midlife adventure with the Metal Cowboy and his two sidekicks. Joe rode the sort of miles we all wish we had. A highly entertaining read.” —Andrew Pham, author of Catfish and Mandala “Joe Kurmaskie is the real deal and Momentum Is Your Friend is true to the man himself. Intimate, ironic, worldly, wise, and most of all, fun. It reads like a wild, downhill ride with lots of switchbacks, hanging on for dear life and enjoying every bump. Read it.” —Robert Ferrigno, author of Prayers for the Assassin and Horse Latitudes “As Melville is to the sea, Mark Twain to the raft, and Kerouac to the car, Joe Kurmaskie is to the bike. It is the great gift of Momentum Is Your Friend to follow that essentially American, writerly imperative: to go, to go, to go! An absolutely gobsmacking beauty of a book.” —Andrew Lewis Conn, Author of P and The Last American Novel “Joe Kurmaskie is a supercharged storyteller for the new millennium, and I would cross the desert sands and climb the Rockies to listen to him tell his tale.” —Jay Atkinson, author of Caveman Politics, Ice Time, Legends of Winter Hill, and City in Amber

Sport and the Pursuit of War and Peace from the Nineteenth Century to the Present

Author: Martin Hurcombe
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000848582
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

Book Description
This volume of wide-ranging essays by sport historians and sociologists examines the complex relations of war, peace and sport through a series of case studies from South and North America, Europe, North Africa, Asia and New Zealand. From formal military training in the late nineteenth century to contemporary esports, the relationship between military and sporting cultures has endured across nations in times of conflict and peace. This collection contextualizes debates around the morality and desirability of continuing to play sport against the backdrop of war as others are dying for their nation. It also examines the legacy and memory of particular wars as expressed in a range of sporting practices in the immediate aftermath of conflicts such as the World Wars and wars of independence. At the same time, this book analyses the history of sport and peace by considering how sport can operate as a pacification in some contexts and a tool of reconciliation in others. Together, and through an introductory framing essay, these essays offer scholars of sport, conflict studies and cultural history more broadly a multinational analysis of the war-peace-sport nexus that has operated throughout the world since the late nineteenth century. Chapter 11 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. Funded by Tokyo University.

Power of the Pedal

Author: Rupert Guinness
Publisher: National Library of Australia
ISBN: 0642279225
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 220

Book Description
In 'Power of the Pedal', read about cycling in Australia from the penny farthing to 21st-century commuters and Olympic stars. Bicycles changed our lives! They meant a new and faster way to get around and gave rise to ways of exploring, socialising and competing. In the nineteenth century cycling encouraged 'overlanders', adventurers who explored new routes through rugged terrain; cycling clubs that gave women a new kind of freedom to mix socially with men: and novel kinds of racing. In this book, cycling journalist Rupert Guinness reveals 200 years of the bike in Australian everyday life and the world of competition.

Riding in the Zone Rouge

Author: Tom Isitt
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 1409171167
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
'An evocatively thoughtful wider history of the race, the war and the peace' GUARDIAN 'Occasionally funny and regularly poignant, brilliantly focused in its research . . . His drive, wit and curiosity inform Zone Rouge . . . gently profound and genuinely moving' HERALD The Circuit des Champs de Bataille (the Tour of the Battlefields) was held in 1919, less than six months after the end of the First World War. It covered 2,000 kilometres and was raced in appalling conditions across the battlefields of the Western Front, otherwise known as the Zone Rouge. The race was so tough that only 21 riders finished, and it was never staged again. With one of the most demanding routes ever to feature in a bicycle race, and plagued by appalling weather conditions, the Circuit des Champs de Bataille was beyond gruelling, but today its extraordinary story is largely forgotten. Many of the riders came to the event straight from the army and had to ride 18-hour stages through sleet and snow across the battlefields on which they had fought, and lost friends and family, only a few months before. But in addition to the hellish conditions there were moments of high comedy, even farce. The rediscovered story of the Circuit des Champs de Bataille is an epic tale of human endurance, suffering and triumph over extreme adversity.