Cycling Books

topdeal4u

Anybody know any good cycling books(from fitness, to biography etc) to read that you would recommend........


thanks for the feedback

cerebus

topdeal4u wrote:

Anybody know any good cycling books(from fitness, to biography etc) to read that you would recommend........

Some suggestions:

Rough Ride by Paul Kimmage - great read, and a real eye-opener. Caused a bit of controversy back in the day...

French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour De France by Tim Moore. Very funny, very readable. I'm a fan of Moore's travel writing anyway, but I believe anyone would find this enjoyable.

Training/preparation wise, I have found The Cyclist's Training Bible by Joe Friel a reasonably good resource. Lots of stuff about everything from training plans to periodization to nutrition.

I'm sure others will have more ideas...

stephenoleary

Breaking the Chain, by Willy Voet is possibly one of the best cycling books ever written. It's very short, possibly less than 200 pages, and it's translated from French, but what a read.

Voet was the team doctor for Festina, the man who was caught crossing the boarder with a boot full of drugs.

His story is amazing.

topdeal4u

Yeah I have read "Rough ride" and "Breaking the Chain" ages ago...both very good books. Also I have read the following:

"Smart Cycling: Successful Training and Racing for Riders of All Levels" - Good, espcially for inexerpience sports cycling people.

"Bicycling Medicine: Nutrition, Physiology and Injury Prevention" - Good, espcially for aiding you to prevent you from injury from excercise and also gives information alot about injurys, nutrition etc.

"Bicycling Magazine's" Cycling for Health and Fitness" - Not that good, but worth a read, get it on www.amazon.co.uk for cheap.

"The Crooked Path to Victory: Cheating in Professional Bicycle Racing" - Very interesting about the early days of cycling, a bit like the pre-willy voet version, definite worth a read for a cycling fan,

"Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition (The Complete Guide to)" - Quite general view of a sports minded person, not cycling specific but you could take alot from it, layout is good but the only bad thing is the picture of "Tim Henman" on the front cover, dont think i would classify him as a top sports person, when was the last time he actually won a tournement?? I wonder....

Anyway must look into the other books you mention guys, there are quite alot of tour de france & lance armstrong books out now, was wondering if anybody has read any of them yet.

Must go.....have to start Marco Pantini biograpy book.

Thanks

stephenoleary

I was at a sports conference in Cork on Tuesday and David Walsh, the chief sports writer for the Sunday Times spoke about the doping scandal in cycling. It was really interseting and he has written a book about it, "LA Confidential" is te title I think (I know that's already the name of a movie, but I think that was what the book was called). From what Walsh spoke about, I think it would be well worth checking out.

Rossonero

Lance Armstrongs 7 weeks to the perfect ride, is one I have.

topdeal4u

Rossonero is the "Lance Armstrongs 7 weeks to the perfect ride" any good......sounds like it is for a already established fit cyclists..........

wideangle

I have both Sean Kellys and Steven Roaches autobiographies.
Want to get hold of Matt Hoffmanns and Lance Armstrongs autobiographies.
I havnt finished a whole book from cover to cover for years..I stick to mags and find it hard to make time to finish them!!

Capt'n Midnight

Richards Bicycle Book - Classic book for anyone who isn't into just racing

rossa101

They might be old but...

Richard's Bicycle Book is a classic and the Penguin Book of the Bicycle is not far behind.

Just not sure they are still in print.