Le Tour: A History of the Tour de France, 1903 -- 2003

by Geoffrey Wheatcroft

When Henri Desgrange began a new bicycle road race in 1903, he saw it as little more than a temporary publicity stunt to promote his newspaper. The 60 cyclists who left Paris to ride through the night to Lyons that first July had little idea they were pioneers of the most famous of all bike races, which would reach its centenary as one of the greatest sporting events on earth. Geoffrey Wheatcroft's masterly history of the Tour de France's first hundred years is not just a hugely entertaining canter through some great Tour stories; nor is it merely a homage to the riders whose names—Coppi, Simpson, Mercx, Armstrong—are synonymous with the event's folly and glory. Focusing too on the race's role in French cultural life, it provides a unique and fascinating insight into Europe's 20th century.

Genres: Cycling, Nonfiction, Sports, History, France

389 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Geoffrey Albert Wheatcroft (born 23 December 1945 in London) is a British journalist and writer.

He was educated at University College School, London, and at New College, Oxford, where he read Modern History.

Publishing and journalism
He started work in publishing in 1968, working for Hamish Hamilton (1968–70), Michael Joseph (1971–73), and Cassell & Co (1974–75).

In 1975 he became the assistant editor of The Spectator, moving to the post of literary editor, which he occupied from 1977 to 1981. During the period 1981–84, he worked as a reporter in South Africa before becoming editor of the Londoner's Diary gossip column in the London Evening Standard, 1985–86. He was a Sunday Telegraph columnist 1987–91, freelance 1993–96; feature writer on the Daily Express, 1996–97; and has since written for The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, the Boston Globe, the Atlantic, The American Conservative, and other publications on both sides of the Atlantic.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

A dull and tedious book that fails to capture the cultural and historical richness of the Tour de France. It has its better parts but mostly one is left treading water in a sea of chronologically ordered facts with little context. The attempts to place the race in French culture and history are faint and awkwardly disconnected. The book is strewn with feeble attempts to add color, but these "side streets" generally prove to be irrelevant and pointless detours. For instance, when the author attempts to frame the race route through southern France he merely gives a laundry list of all the 20th century (English) literary greats that have made there home there. Really? What does this have to do with The Tour passing through Provence? What about the multitude of people than line the route and the countless individuals and towns that play a roll in the tour? And what about the roads, the weather, the terrain, the machines? Surely the author has spent little time on a bike for this narrative is devoid of the most basic experiences of cycling and seems borne more out of cold newspaper research than a passion for the sport.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luin aikaisemmin tänä vuonna Tapio Keskitalon kirjoittaman kirjan Tour de France - Enemmän kuin pyöräilykilpailu, joka jätti kuitenkin sen verran toivomisen varaa, että nappasin hyppysiini Geoffey Wheatcroftin "Le Tour: A History of the Tour de France" (Simon & Schuster, 2013) -opuksen.

Englantilaistoimittaja onkin tullut polkaisseeksi (haha!) kasaan ihan kohtalaisen kiinnostavan tietopaketin, jossa maailman kuuluisimman pyöräkilpailun sata ensimmäistä vuotta niputetaan kronologisessa järjestyksessä samojen kansien sisään. Se saattaisi käydä puuduttavaksi, ellei kokonaisuutta olisi höystetty hyppysellisillä Ranskan historiaa, politiikkaa, kulttuuria ja maantiedettä. Lienee kyllä silti syytä mainita, että kirjailija tuntuu sortuvan välillä yliyrittämiseen, eikä ihan jokaiseen kappaleeseen olisi ollut tarvetta sijoittaa jotakin kääntämättä jäävää ranskankielistä ilmausta.

Niukka neljä tähteä!

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good but I was reading the 2003 edition and the adulation of Lance Armstrong made my skin crawl. (As I was reading this, the Swiss cyclist Gino Mader was killed in the Tour de Suisse - live every day.)

[Harry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the history. It was unexpected

[Jim Dennison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good in parts but rather dense and verbose. It fails to capture the drama and human interest aspects and is somewhat dry as a result

[Soph · Rating 2 out of 5]

If Alan Partridge wrote about cycling… it would probably read better than this

[T100martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book.
I read Greame Fife's book 'Tour de France' a while back and was disappointed.
This book gives a complete picture of the history of the Tour, along with details of the landscape, history, culture and even the food of France and its regions, which gives a real depth to this great race and its place in world sport and french culture.
In addition, there is a complete listing of every race up to 2003, with details of distances, placings and times.
The last five races featured in this book were won by Lance Armstrong and the scandal that followed was yet to unfold, but it is clear from this book that all was not well with the Tour (or sport in general), as far as drugs were concerned.
I'm sure that a lot more has yet to be revealed about this issue and perhaps more names will be erased from the Tour's hall of frame, but any book will only capture the story of it's time.
This is a very good one.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this. Very comprehensive and full of original angles on which to comment on the Tour's place in the sporting and social history of France in particular and Europe in general. Renewed my appreciation of the Tour's greatest legends such as Merckx, Coppi, Ocana, and Poulidor. I have an especially new-found reverence for the great Gino Bartoli. Vive le Tour!

[Akin]

An entertaining, comprehensive overview of Le Tour

[Nick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never have I read such turgid rubbish about such a wonderful subject. I love cycling but this book is almost unreadable. anyone want my copy?

[Kenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were few high points to this long and boring read.