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Tour de France: The History, the Legend, the Riders
 
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Tour de France: The History, the Legend, the Riders (Hardcover)

by Graeme Fife (Author), Chris Boardman (Foreword)
2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)


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Editorial Reviews

Review
"Fife has an infectious enthusiasm for the Tour and it shows in every sentence... A difficult book to put down." -- THE INDEPENDENT --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
It is one of sport’s toughest ordeals and the ultimate test for professional cyclists. The Tour de France sees riders pitted against all kinds of terrain and weather, in unrelenting competition with their rivals for three weeks. This entertaining and highly-acclaimed book gives a compelling insight into the mystique of the race and the unique fascination it has always exercised on devoted bike fans and occasional enthusiasts alike. Graeme Fife’s Tour de France tells tales of great solo rides, amazing fortitude, terrible misfortune and triumph over the odds from the race’s remarkable history. Combining meticulous research with a pacy narrative style, Fife paints a colourful and memorable picture of the men whose exploits have give the Tour an enduring universal appeal.


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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Mainstream Publishing; Updated edition (May 1, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1840181923
  • ISBN-13: 978-1840181920
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,400,094 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #59 in  Books > Sports > Miscellaneous > Sports Events

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.9 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Hard to follow. Ego trip for the author., January 5, 2000
By A Customer
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".

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars A big let-down, July 19, 2000
By Mike van Niekerk (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Comes across a little opinionated, but..., February 19, 2002
By Richard (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Racing in the stream
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... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Kennethq S. Manning

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent and fun read, which brings the tour to life
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... Read more
Published on April 22, 2005 by A. Elgort

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Insights Interspersed With Turgid Prose
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... Read more
Published on June 27, 2004 by James121W39N

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing Emphasis on His Own Rides
Disappointing in it's emphasis on the authors rides of Tour routes followed by the exploits of British riders. Read more
Published on July 31, 2002 by Tom Gardosik

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad but . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A decent somewhat charming book about the Grand Boucle. One defect though is the treatment of Miguel Indurain. Read more
Published on August 3, 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best book ever on the Tour
Graeme Fife's scholarly yet personal appraisal of the Tour de France is an essential book for anyone coming to the Tour for the first time. Read more
Published on June 13, 2000 by Roj Elsgood

5.0 out of 5 stars We loved this book.
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 . Read more
Published on January 29, 2000 by janet Smith

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