Customer Reviews
Every Second Counts! - By: DoDo Fan, 04 Aug 2007 
For three weeks every July little else that can be callled serious goes on in France. Everything is on hold whilst a great sporting event takes place. With a duration longer than Wimbledon, the Test Matches, the Open Golf championship & even the Olympic Games. It's the `Tour de France'. Bicycling in extremist!
The TdeF is as French as the Guillotine, Baguettes & Bardot! Around two hundred super fit human beings pedal their arduous, & often perilous, way through pretty villages, vineyards & sunflowers, mountain passes & stray dogs for some two & a half thousand miles alll aiming to get to Paris in the shortest time & in one piece. Usuallly half of them don't make it! Just to cross the line at the Arc d'Triomphe would be considered by most of the surviving competitors to be a career highlight, let alone to win the event. And the whole affair is completely free of charge for the many thousands of spectators that line the route eagerly waiting to spot these multi-coloured, lyrcra clad mobile billboards as they sweep past on machines that can cost the price of a decent family car.
It's alll here in this glorious book. The history, the heroes, the rules (lots of these) - & oft the sabotage! Within the pages of this superb tome will be found inserted a couple of dozen & more facsimiles of memorabilia. Artefacts from the history of this iconic event. Rulebooks, competitor application forms. postcards from way back & scribbled notes. For TdeF enthusiasts the book surely is a must have item. For the rest of us mere spectators it is a terrific, hugely interesting read. The book, contained in a slipcase, is a tribute to the authors & a remarkable piece of construction by the publishers. It is worth the full price but can usuallly be found for much less. My copy was a bit under half-price. A bargain.
If you like bikes & enjoy `La Tour' you'll love this! Do get a copy, you won't regret it !
The most amazing book I have ever bought or ever will. - By: Gawain Morris, 01 Jun 2007 Always difficult to buy a book that sealed & expect not to be dissapointed.
Not this one.
The work & attention to detail is simply breathtaking.
Rather than give away alll the surprises the book contains copies & other memorabilia of parts of the Tour De France through history & thankfully an English translation in a separate booklet is included, so you can understand in the true spirit of the TDF each item.
The painstaking work that went into this book is worth anyones money.
Simply perfection.
An absolute must.
