Great Cycling books

+1 to "It's all about the Bike" by Robert Penn
+1 "How I won the Yellow Jumper" by Ned Boulting

Oh yes to Tim Moore 'French Revolutions' I had some very strange looks in the hospital reading that one

Dave Barter - Obsessive Compulsive Cycling Disorder - funny and scarily familiar short essays on MTB and road obsessions.

Ned Whatsisname - How I won the yellow jumper - no great literary classic but a good holiday read.

+1 Escape Artist

Chasing the Chimney Sweep by Selwyn Parker. http://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Chasing_the_Chimney_Sweep.html?id=... Quite enjoyed reading about a couple's tour around France following the 1903 route. Interspersed with bits of the history of that race.

Agree about "French Revolutions" and "A Bike Ride". They really inspire the reader to spread their own wings a little wider. "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" by Richard and Nicholas Crane is also well worth a read for those who are bikepacking masochists, and those who are glad they're not.

Best one I've read is not road but mtb.

Two wheels on my wagon by Paul Howard.

Utterly brilliant.

You started with a cracker.

+1 for Laurent Fignon.

'In Pursuit of Stardom', Tony Hewson's account of his adventures of continental cycling, is as good as it gets. It gives a real insight into what it was really like for three talented young English lads who had a real adventure on a shoestring.

Will Fotheringham's books about Coppi, Simpson and Merckx plus Tomorrow We Ride... by Jean Bobet about his life riding alongside brother Louison are good if you want to understand the history of the sport. Bobet's is a particularly touching account.

To see the modern Tour de France rider's experience A Significant Other by Matt Rendell documents Colombian Victor Hugo Pena riding for Lance with US Postal. A very different team tale at the Tour is that of ANC-Halfords in Wide Eyed and Legless. Calling it chaotic and a shambles doesn't come close.

For a vivid (and apparently accurate) insight into the mind of a racer: The Rider by Tim Krabbe. Matt Seaton's emotional rollercoaster The Escape Artist is similarly personal but factual. As is The Flying Scotsman. Amazing bloke.

Also factual and very funny - French Revolutions by Tim Moore. In fact, I think I'll read this again between now and the Tour start.

I wouldn't bother with mini-autobiogs by Cavendish or Wiggins. Too dull. However, David Millar's account of his life, including lots on his doping and its aftermath, is riveting.

And something completely different - A Bike Ride by Anne Mustoe. Headteacher at a posh girls' school just buys a Condor more or less on a whim and rides off around the world not even knowing how to mend a puncture.

Consumed by Jonathan Budds
http://consumed-novel.com/

The Death of Marco Pantani: A Biography. Very moving but also very interesting.

The secret race , Tyler Hamilton very interesting read in the light of LAs recent confessional

'Its not about the bike.' - Lance Armstrong*
Fiction Category.

*joke

We were young and carefree by Laurent Fignon! Especially for the quote "m'seiu, are you not the man who lost the tour by 9 seconds?" "Non m'seiu I am the man who won it twice!"

Its all about the bike (The pursuit of happiness on two wheels) - Rob Penn