""A carefully maintained record of training is a great tool for improving racing,"" writes Joe Friel in the introduction to this cyclists' training diary. He shows how to record daily workout details and how to plan a season. The book includes photos, worksheets, and charts for weight changes and bike measurements. ""Joe Friel is arguably the most experienced personal cycling coach in the U.S."" -- Bicycling

The VeloNews Tour de France Guide is your best companion to enjoying the 2019 Tour de France! Offering the deepest preview coverage of the Tour, the VeloNews Tour de France Guide will help you enjoy every stage of bike racing action even more. The editors and sports journalists of VeloNews draw from nearly 50 years of cycling journalism and Tour de France race coverage to offer the most complete analysis of this year’s Tour de France. The 2019 VeloNews Tour de France Guide includes: · Geraint Thomas: VeloNews exclusive interview with the 2018 Tour winner. · Anniversaries of the Tour: VeloNews looks back at the races that transcended cycling and brought the sport into the mainstream—1989, 1999, and 2009—with perspectives from the sports journalists who were there: Sam Abt, Rupert Guinness, and Andrew Hood. · VeloNews Television Viewing Guide: Few people have time to watch all 100 hours of televised Tour de France racing action. Our editors tell you which stages not to miss and which ones you can probably skip. Plus, our guide for viewers who have 20 hours, 10 hours, and just 5 hours of available TV time. · The Stages and Favorites: We analyze every stage and provide our expert analysis and opinion on the role each stage will play in the overall race. Look for in-depth info on key stages, climbs, and roads that will decide the race. · Special Tech for Special Stages: We take you inside the cutting-edge specialty bicycles, wheels, clothing, gear, and tires to see how tech will affect specific stages. The race runs July 6-28, 2019. Once the racing action begins, your VeloNews Tour de France Guide will become your essential daily guide for all 23 days of the race, from stage profiles to sprints, climbs, descents, and grueling mountaintop finishes. Want more VeloNews? Get the print edition of the VeloNews Tour de France Guide at half price with a one-year subscription through VeloPress.

The editors of VeloNews, all cyclists themselves, are fanatical about the sport - but they're also sticklers for the details. This compact handbook of stats showcases that combination of passion and knowledge, making it an ideal carry-along for participants and a tasty read for fans. Each race listing includes a brief description and history of that particular race along with significant facts, including record number of wins, record times, and any unusual circumstances. Also featured are lists of the winners (first three places) for each year it was run, plus other jerseys and awards for the grand tours and bigger events. Included are profiles on Hors Category, Category 1.1, The World Championships, The Grand Tours, The Great Stage Races, Category 2.1 Races, and more.

Since the dawn of athletic competition during the original Olympic Games in Ancient Greece, athletes, as well as their coaches and trainers, have been finding innovative ways to gain an edge on their competition. Some of those performance-enhancement methods have been within the accepted rules while other methods skirt the gray area between being within the rules and not, while still other methods break the established rules. In modern times, doping - the use of performance-enhancing drugs - has been one method athletes and their trainers have used to beat their competition. The history of sports doping during the modern era can be traced through the events and scandals of the times in which the athletes lived. From the use of amphetamines and other stimulants in the early 20th century, to the use of testosterone and steroids by both the USSR and the United States during Cold War-era Olympics games, to blood doping and EPO, to designer drugs, the history of doping in sports closely follows the medical and technological advances of our times. In the early 21st century, the possibility of genetically engineered athletes looms. The story of doping in sports over the last century offers clues to where the battle over performance enhancement will be fought in the years to come.

In 1980, there were exactly four professional bike racers in America. Six years later, an American cycling team would wear the coveted yellow jersey of the Tour de France. And that same team would go on to win Italy's greatest race--the Giro d'Italia--only two years later. Team 7-Eleven is the extraordinary story of how two Olympic speed skaters, Jim Ochowicz and Eric Heiden, pulled together a small group of amateur cyclists and turned them into one of the greatest cycling teams the sport has known. From humble beginnings in a barn in Pennsylvania to soaring victories in the French Alps, Team 7-Eleven is the complete history that has never been fully told--until now. The 7-Eleven Cycling Team--Team 7-Eleven for short--launched the careers of American cycling superstars Andy Hampsten, Davis Phinney, Bob Roll, Ron Kiefel, and many more. It also changed the cycling world, creating a new team structure based on multiple stars, unified goals, and personal sacrifice for the greater good. And yet at the time it was formed, the number of American cyclists with world-class experience could be counted--literally--on one hand. And the number of American teams that competed in Europe's biggest races was exactly zero. Team 7-Eleven is the amazing story of how two cycling fans found one exceptional sponsor and created the greatest American cycling team of its era. Written with the enthusiastic cooperation of the team members, Team 7-Eleven will impress cycling fans with behind-the-scenes stories of the team's founding, its growing pains, and its lasting success as the team that established America as a powerhouse in the world of professional cycling.

From the author of the cult favorite Pro Cycling on $10 a Day and Ask a Pro, the story of one man’s quest to realize his childhood dream, and what happened when he actually did it. Like countless other kids, Phil Gaimon grew up dreaming of being a professional athlete. But unlike countless other kids, he actually pulled it off. After years of amateur races, hard training, living out of a suitcase, and never taking “no” for an answer, he finally achieved his goal and signed a contract to race professionally on one of the best teams in the world. Now, Gaimon pulls back the curtain on the WorldTour, cycling’s highest level. He takes readers along for his seasons in Europe, covering everything from rabid, water-bottle-stealing Belgian fans, to contract renewals, to riding in poisonous smog, to making friends in a sport plagued by doping. Draft Animals reveals a story as much about bike racing as it is about the never-ending ladder of achieving goals, failure, and finding happiness if you land somewhere in-between.