Cafe Bookshelf

Cycling Novels – Beyond HG Wells and Tim Krabbé

Mythologies: Assassins of the Aubisque!

The 1910 Tour has given rise to no end of nonsense, not least the claim that Octave Lapize called the race organisers assassins as he crossed the Col d’Aubisuqe an hour behind schedule + 15 minutes behind a nobody.

Mythologies: Alphonse Steinès and the Invention of the Pyrénées

Mythologies: Major Taylor, Henri Desgrange and a Wheelbarrow Full of Centimes

When Josephine Baker Sprinkled Her Stardust on the Tour de France

From 1933 to 1938 the American star of the Jazz Age played a role in the Tour’s grand départ and in doing so helped reshape the Tour for a new audience.

Revolutionary Times – The Birth of the Women’s Hour Record

The First Hours - The Hour Record Before Henri Desgrange

A brief history of the Hour record before it was reinvented by Henri Desgrange

The Penny Hour - The Last Hour Record Set On A High-Wheeled Bicycle

Where There’s a Will, by Emily Chappell

Emily Chappell’s account of some of her ultra-cycling experiences and her friendship with Mike Hall.

Sprinting Through No Man’s Land, by Adin Dobkin

The story of the 1919 Tour de France, the first held after the end of the First World War

Climbers, by Peter Cossins

Well worn stories about wearers of the polka dot jersey

God is Dead, by Andy McGrath

A biography of Frank Vandenbroucke, winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 1999

End to End, by Paul Jones

A history of the Lands End to John o’Groats record

Raincoats are for Tourists, by Isabel Best

Dirty Feet, by Les Woodland

A brief history of the Tour de France from the veteran cycling historian Les Woodland