Tour de France/Tour de Force Updated and Revised 100-Year Anniversary Edition [Paperback]

James Startt (Author), Greg LeMond (Author), Samuel Abt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2003

To celebrate the 100th Tour de France anniversary in 2003, weve fully updated and reissued Tour de France/Tour de Force in paperback. Arranged chronologically and illustrated with hundreds of photographs dating back to the first race in 1903, Tour de France/Tour de Force offers a one-of-a-kind look at the Tours history. Tour insider James Startt shares stories of ingenuity (when Francois Fabers chain broke in the last kilometer of the 1909 Tour, he simply ran his bike across the finish line), tragedy (Tom Simpson collapsing and dying on the climb up Mont Ventoux in 1967), and triumph (Lance Armstrongs first of four consecutive victories after his battle with cancervictories that created a huge upsurge of interest in the sport). With an introduction by three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond, Tour de France/Tour de Force is the perfect way for fans everywhere to revel in the greatest bike race on earth.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Big, bold photographs and fast-pumping narrative, Startt offers a visual and visceral feast."

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books; 100 Anv edition (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811839060
• ISBN-13: 978-0811839068
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,186,257 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If You Can't Go To France To See The Tour Live ...., July 25, 2000

By 

"lescaret" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tour de France/Tour de Force: A Visual History of the Worlds Greatest Bicycle Race (Hardcover)

Then get this book, it's great. Great because it takes the reader through the history of the Tour, offering fun anecdotes, excellent vintage & contemporary photographs, interesting illustrations of Tour adverts & posters through time, etc. Plus, it lists all the Tour winners from the race's inception, including the 2nd & 3rd place finishers with their times. If you're into the Tour, if you always wondered what it looked like in the old days, riding through the Alps on dirt roads, shooing cows out of the way, then you won't be disappointed with this book. There's only one Tour de France per year, but you can peruse this book every day. Allez!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A matter of context, March 6, 2004

By 

Eric J. Lyman (Roma, Lazio Italy) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tour de France/Tour de Force Updated and Revised 100-Year Anniversary Edition (Paperback)

The 100th anniversary edition of the Tour de France/Tour de Force is a little hard to characterize. The volume's size and emphasis on photography make it seem like coffee table book, and yet the ambitious if not comprehensive text examining 100 years of history of the world's greatest bicycle race make it appear to be something of a reference resource.

That's not necessarily a good thing, because when something tries to do too much, it often ends up doing what it does badly. In the case of this book, "badly" may be too strong -- but it does leave something to be desired.

Much of the period between the wars are glossed over, for example, and the quality of the photography is uneven. The characterization of some riders (most notably, five-time champion Jacques Anquetil) can be a little patronizing, and the introduction by three-time winner Greg LeMond seems way off the mark (evidently, Mr. LeMond thought the assignment was to subjectively recount his victories rather than record his view of the Tour as a whole -- the second introduction by gifted cycling journalist Samuel Abt is much better, and the discussion of Mr. LeMond's career in the main part of the book is a fairer treatment of it).

But despite those faults, I find I still enjoy this book a great deal. Maybe it's a soft spot in my heart for this kind of history: to read that riders for many years sipped on champagne and puffed on cigarettes for energy, that the first Tour's riders rode more than 250 miles a day (albeit for one week rather than three), that they had to dismount their bikes to change gears by hand, and that the winning riders were once on their bikes for nearly 250 hours during the span of the race (compared to less than 100 hours in most modern editions). And while I was puzzled by the selection of some photos (several just show groups of unidentified riders from different points in the race's history), the best shots are very, very good.

In the end, the strong point of the book is the context it provides. For die-hard cycling fans, any book of this scope holds a certain attraction. But the case is more compelling when it comes to more recent cycling fans, many of whom came to the sport only after Lance Armstrong started his amazing string of Tour de France victories in 1999. For them, a book like this provides an invaluable way to understand the sport better and to meet the ghosts of the past champions Mr. Armstrong will ultimately be measured against.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book, April 5, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tour de France/Tour de Force: A Visual History of the Worlds Greatest Bicycle Race (Hardcover)

This book has wonderful old pictures of the tour plus a year by year history of the event. A "must have" for bicycle fans.