Customer Reviews

The Unknown Tour de France: The Many Faces of the World's Greatest Bicycle Race (Cycling Resources Book)

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The second Tour de France, held in 1904, was ripped apart by a toxic combination of rampant cheating by the riders and rioting and sabotage by partisan spectators. The result was a decision by the French cycling federation to disqualify several of the riders, including the winner, Maurice Garin. Garin, who was also the winner of the first Tour, maintained a steady insistence that he was innocent and that he was the victim of a grave injustice.

Les Woodland set out to learn more about Garin and journeyed to Garin's hometown and found an old friend of his. Woodland found that Garin's public stance regarding the 1904 Tour was quite different from what he told his friends in private.

The story of Garin would be enough reason for any Tour fan to buy this book. But that is just the appetizer. Each chapter looks at some aspect of the Tour from Woodland's always-original point of view. Among other subjects he takes on the Tour's origins, the first mountain stages, cheating, interesting riders of past Tours and the bikes of the early Tour. In keeping with the book's title, almost all are subjects that aren't dealt with in other cycling books, making it particularly enlightening and enjoyable.

Time spent with a Les Woodland cycling book is always time well spent and this book is no exception. I highly recommend it to even the most knowledgeable cycle racing fan. It's a good, fun read.
-Bill McGann, author of "The Story of the Tour de France: How a Newspaper Promotion Became the Greatest Sporting Event in the World".

I loved this book! I've always been a history nut and a cyclist, so this book was perfect. Lots of black & white photos from the old days and great stories from an insider. Makes me want to go to France to see the greatest sporting event in the world more than ever now. I just wish the book was longer, or a sequel is published soon.

If you're already familiar with Les Woodland's work, then he needs no introduction. If you're not, then you need to know that he's one of the most respected cycling writers in the business -- right up there with Richard Yates and Sam Abt.
In this book Woodland draws upon his considerable store of knowledge about the great race to bring us several very interesting, but little-known tales of the experiences of some well-known, and some not-so-well-known riders who have had the honor of suffering in the world's greatest bicycle race.
The stories in this book show the human side of the day-to-day struggles of competing in the event, with some of the riders just trying to survive to the day's finish. While some of the tales are funny, and some not, all of them are so interesting that you don't even have to be a fan of the race to really enjoy this book. If you are a fan of the Tour de France (and why wouldn't you be?) then so much the better.