Customer Reviews

Tour de France: The History, the Legend, the Riders

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First, let me say that I love the tour. I follow it with fanatic closeness and read as much about the tour as I possibly can. Now let me say that I really didn't like this book. The book jumps around from rider to rider in differnt time periods and then interjects the author's comments on climbing a particular hill (mountain). It is really hard to see what the organization of the book is. The author also says some really cruel thing. For example he calls big mig "Lovely man. No brain." and puts down LeMond.

The most irritating part is the author has written his thoughts on climing some of the classics, but not in a race. He climbs them as part of a tour. It comes across as an ego trip and adds nothing to the book, particularly when this part is interjected in the middle of a writeup on a totally different subject.

I'd really rather read a book from Abt. He is a supremely better author. The photos are also somewhat poor, especially when compared to Watson's photos in such books as Lance Armstrong and the 1999 Tour De France (which is a significantly better book).

The book does have some good insites into older battles in the tour, but they really don't merit buying this book.

One last nit is the author's use of French phrases with little or no explaination. I don't read very much French. Guess the author figured "Cest la Vie".

Agree with A Reader from Colorado: the book does not live up to its title - more like "some history, some legends, some riders", a scattered, piecemeal collection of description and historical anecdote, with more about the author's own daytrip cycling up a couple of mountain climbs than I was interested in: personal diary entries that don't segue successfully with the other content.

Despite his unfair treatment of Miguel Indurain's great career and Paul Kimmage's great book ("A Rough Ride"), this book does give the reader an interesting glimpse into the history of this great race. As others have commented, it is not comprehensive, the content being driven by the author's own passion for parts of the event's history.

Worth a read if only to help understand the origins of the drugs scandals of recent years which can be traced back to the early years of the sport.

While I do not disagree with the people who find this book incomplete, perhaps unfair to Indurain, too flowery, or perhaps leaning too heavily on the author's own trips up the great climbs of the tour, I found it thoroughly enjoyable. Fife does have his own personal view of what good racing is, as anyone does, but I found it quite fun to see how tough these climbs are for the layman (he interupts his coverage of the history of the tour to bring you his own exploits on the col du telegraphe and Mont ventoux). I found the flowery language to be just a lot of fun, actually. And I found his treatment of the more ancient history of the tour to breathe life into the old photographs and old stories in a wonderful way. Perhaps this should not be your one book on cycling, but it is an excellent addition to your cycling library. You should certainly have tim krabbe's 'the rider', also, which is an absolutely fantastic book.

Disappointing in it's emphasis on the authors rides of Tour routes followed by the exploits of British riders. Only then does he deal with other riders in an extremely disjointed way. Extremely opinionated view dismissing many of the great riders due to percieved personality faults or (in the case of Indurain) lack of intelligence. This does not add up to a treatment of the History of the Tour. It is more just a collection of unrelated anecdotes.

A decent somewhat charming book about the Grand Boucle. One defect though is the treatment of Miguel Indurain. Fife downplays to the point of ridicule Indurain's contributions to cycling. Sadly his treatment of one of the greatest cyclists of all time calls his understanding of cycling and the book into question.

This book is just what you need if you have all the recently pubished tour de France books but have never had the chance to climb all those famous cols .Really is one for the true lover of the tour .It gets right into the feel of this historic race .Both my husband and I have read it several times over and bought it as presents for christmas .

Herein lie some of the greatest stories of athletic heroism you will ever read. Learn the rules and history of the Tour de France and the deep cultural meaning behind it while Fife leads you over every classic climb. The stories in this book are cinematic in their drama and their unbelievable feats. You will come away with a great appreciation for tour riders, their grace and class in the face of the torture they endure for their sport. These are stories of gentleman warriors, heroes of a modern saga. In Fife's expert weaving of tales and facts, he certainly rivals the great commentators Ligget and Sherwen. Heart-pounding and inspiring.

I love the Tour (TIOOYK), and I love the tales and the tradition. This book was stream of consciousness writing, wherein the author just spews forth whatever pops into his head about any of the climbs, stages, years, riders, managers, sponsors, or towns that happen to be remotely connected (even if only in his own mind) with the subject at hand.

The pictures were few and not particularly helpful. And since they were black and white it was funny when he referred to Landis as the rider in the "green, yellow, and white strip"!

Graeme Fife's "Tour de France" is not a chronological history of the Tour. It is a series of little stories loosely woven around famous mountain passes and legendary riders, alternating with personal anecdotes of the author's own experiences in climbing the same passes.

There are some excellent passages in the book that give some glimpses into the personalities of the Tour. I was fascinated by Fife's portrayal of Henri Desgranges as both a stern and somewhat sadistic Tour director, how he shaped the Tour in its early days but also had the wisdom to bend with the times which allowed the Tour to grow into the premier event that it is today. There are gripping stories of what the early riders had to endure: attempted poisonings, poor nutrition, breaking bikes, trickery and sabotage.

Unfortunately the reader pays a price. One has to wade through some paragraphs of overly flowery writing that will make you cringe. For example, Fife writes about the Col du Glandin:

"Cloud pours over its rim, as it were from a hidden chimney serving the troll furnaces in the mountain's heart. Billows of smoke as white as steam, enough to herald a whole consistory full of new Popes. A diabolic machine stoking up ready for the engorging of the lone, the intrepid, Knight of the Campagnolo Gears advancing to meet the Dragon of the Mount Vicious in its swirls of inspissated mist."

See what I mean? Sometimes it's difficult to peer into Fife's writing, as if it is indeed obscured by swirls of inspissated mist.

Bottom line: if you can bear some overly romantic writing as well as some strong opinions, then this book may be worthwhile to get a series of unique glimpses into Tour history.