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 Tour de France is a race like no other, so perhaps it's no surprise that it attracts racers like no other. The winner of the second Tour actually came fifth – but the four racers before him were disqualified for cheating. The 1932 champion credits his win with saving him from capture by the Nazis, as the soldiers recognised him from the podium. One of Britain's best cyclists of the modern era only got into European racing by forging an email. Tour de France Champions is a journey to the summit of cycling, looking at those who have taken on the roads and mountains of France to prevail above all others and win cycling's greatest prize. Giles Belbin presents the stories of all those who have claimed the original and greatest Grand Tour, the one race that still transcends the sport of cycling: the Tour de France.

A plain-English guide to the world's most famous-and grueling-bicycle race Featuring eight-pages of full-color photos from recent Tour de France races, this easy-to-follow, entertaining guide demystifies the history, strategy, rules, techniques, equipment, and competitors in what is arguably the most grueling and intriguing multiday, multistage sporting event in the world. Cowritten by the most popular English-speaking cycling commentator on the planet, this book is great reading for both experienced and the new bicycle racing fans alike.

In this beautifully illustrated guide to travelling across France by bike you will discover hidden lanes, stunning gorges, amazing places to eat and stay, plus the best of French cycling culture.

This beautifully designed and illustrated essential guide to the Tour de France from Motorbooks' Speed Read series will make you an instant expert on its history, its winners and rivalries, the tactics necessary to win it, and the technology of its bicycles. Le Tour has sometimes been called “chess on wheels” because of the complicated strategies used by the race's 22 teams and 176 riders. This book—written by award-winning cycling journalist John Wilcockson, who has covered the Tour 45 times—will help you understand those tactics, along with informing you about the race’s century-plus history, its famed winners and rivalries, and the technology that has gone into creating the modern racing bicycle and determining how today’s athletes train. Among the questions answered are: Who owns the Tour? How are the course’s 21 stages selected? What are the most famous mountain climbs? How is the overall winner determined? What is a peloton, a soigneur, or an echelon? How big are the prizes? What are time bonuses? Who was the first American to compete in the Tour, and who was the first one to win it? How fast do the racers go down mountain descents? What speeds can the riders reach in sprint finishes? Why are the teams known by the names of their sponsors and not their countries? What do the riders eat, and where do they sleep every night? What are all those motorcycles doing among the cyclists? How do the organizers deal with doping scandals? And is it true that, one year, the top four finishers were all disqualified? You will find the answers to all these questions, and many more, in this informative, beautifully illustrated, fun-to-read book: Speed Read Tour de France. With Motorbooks’ Speed Read series, become an instant expert in a range of fast-moving subjects, from Formula 1 racing to car design. Accessible language, compartmentalized sections, fact-filled sidebars, glossaries of key terms, and event timelines deliver quick access to insider knowledge. Their brightly colored covers, modern design, pop art–inspired illustrations, and handy size make them perfect on-the-go reads.

Recapping all the grit and glory of this year's crowning cycle event, the editors of VeloNews bring cycling fans up to speed with riveting reportage on the Tour de France: who was there, what the course was, and how Lance Armstrong (racing for Bhonak team) fared going out for his sixth straight win. The book begins with follow-up coverage from last year's race that brings the reader up-to-date, and it reviews every stage of the three-week long race through some of the most beautiful countrysides and extreme terrain in France and surrounding countries. The editors detail the people and events that make each year's race unique: the contenders and their teams - including Jan Ullrich, Joseba Beloki, and Tyler Hamilton - as well as a course map with stage elevations and race descriptions complete with anecdotes. Meanwhile, world-renowned cycling photographer Graham Watson take readers to the sidelines, bringing the event to life from start to finish. The book also features daily journal entries by Tyler Hamilton, a member of the USA/CSC-Tiscali cycling team.