Riding High: Shadow Cycling the Tour de France

by Paul Howard

The Tour de France is a world-renowned, almost mythical sporting competition. The demands on the riders are so great that the achievements and rivalries of those involved have passed into sporting legend. Recently, however, the event has been tarnished by the institutionalised doping of some riders and teams. As a result, the authenticity of these very achievements and rivalries has been called into doubt. To find out whether an increasingly sceptical public could once again laud the exploits of the past century with conviction, club cyclist Paul Howard set out to complete the Tour on level terms with today's riders. But instead of teammates, mechanics, and possibly the contents of the local pharmacy as support, he had a handful of friends, his dad and a sense of humour to see him through. With only three weeks to complete over 2,000 miles, was it possible to put a human face on a super-human undertaking?

Genres: Cycling

237 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 2003

About the author

Paul Howard is a journalist with The Irish Times on Saturday.
Howard is best known as the author of the paper's Ross O'Carroll-Kelly columns and has written a series of books based on the the character of Ross.

Howard is the former chief sportswriter for the Sunday Tribune, and a former Irish Sports Journalist of the Year. He has written several nonfiction books, including The Joy, an account of life in Mountjoy Prison, The Gaffers: Mick McCarthy, Roy Keane and the Team they Built, an account of the McCarthy–Keane clash during the run-up to the 2002 World Cup. He also co-authored Steve Collins' "autobiography", Celtic Warrior.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Johnny De Berggeit · Rating 3 out of 5]

better than expected (or were my expectations low...)
The guy has some self-mockery, which I can appreciate

[Douglas Lord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elite cyclist Howard (Eat, Sleep, Ride: How I Braved Bears, Badlands, and Big Breakfasts in My Quest to Cycle the Tour Divide) chucks his life out the window for a month and fulfills a lifelong dream by riding the exact same route—on the exact same days—as the 2003 Tour de France. In all it is a journey of 2,131 miles spread over 21 days (termed “stages”). That is a lot of bike riding, peeps. If it sounds superhuman, well it sort of is. But even up to about 100 years ago the TdF and other major races opened racing slots to normal schmoes. Most of these riders, called ‘touriste-routiers,’ would do the stage, then find some grub and cheapo lodging, and go again the next day. Most were flat broke, performing tricks for the crowds to earn money for their supper. Any cobbler, school teacher, policeman, bike shop owner, or librarian who had enormous, stupid balls could ride it. In 1927 one of these amateurs squirted out the front and damn near took the stage from the pro riders! Just before WWII race organizers stopped offering these slots (which need to be returned, btw). For Howard, the day to day grind sees him mounting up many hours before the racers and facing innumerable challenges to his body, his willpower, and the complicated logistics of bringing off such a trip. While oddly light on cycling details, like, “I was in my small ring when I realized…” it’s long on details that the very audience he writes for (other cyclists) are hoping to read— the quality of the hotels, rest, food, and who he encounters on the trip. As an elite cyclist, he’s a bit egotistical (e.g., he feels happy when performing faster than the other athletes who are also shadow riding) and also a pain-loving madman, shrugging off a symptom that sounds like a meniscus problem. VERDICT This trip is every cyclist’s dream, and Howard’s journal will have massive appeal to them; others, well, perhaps not.
Find this review and others at Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal. Copyright Library Journal.

[Simon Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books shows how hard the Tour de France really is, from the point of view of an amatuer following the route. Also an excellent travelogue around the many and varied regions of France.

[Mark Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant read

Highlights the difficulty of organising a challenge like this but also inspires you to do something similar. He meets some interesting people and scenarios on the journey.