Climbers: How the Kings of the Mountains conquered cycling

by Peter Cossins

When, during the Pyrenean stages of the 1998 Tour de France, a journalist asked Marco Pantani why he rode so fast in the mountains, the elfin Italian, unmistakeable in the bandanna and hooped ear-rings that played up to his "Pirate" nickname, "To shorten my agony."Drawing on the fervour for these men of the mountains, Climbers looks at what sets these athletes apart within the world of bike racing, about why we love and cherish them, how they make cycling beautiful, and how they see themselves and the feats they achieve.Working chronologically, Peter Cossins explores the evolution of mountain-climbing. He offers a comprehensive view of the sport, combining contemporary reports with fresh one-to-one interviews with high-profile riders from the last 50 years, such as Cyrille Guimard, Hennie Kuiper and Andy Schleck. And, unlike many other cycling books, Climbers also includes the stories of female racers across the world, from Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and Annemiek van Vleuten to Fabiana Luperini and Amanda Spratt.Climbers analyses the personalities of these racers, highlighting the individuality of climbing as an exercise and the fundamental fact that it's a solitary challenge undertaken in relentlessly unforgiving terrain that requires unremitting effort.Captivating and iconic, Climbers is the ultimate cycling book to understand what it takes both physically and mentally to take on the sport's hardest stages.

Genres: Cycling, Sports, Nonfiction

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 23, 2022

Reviews

[Anahid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to follow. This book isn’t beginner friendly. I found myself looking words and people up for most of the book. This book is so in depth and well researched, the authors writing is impressive with his knowledge. But at times it felt like he was trying to fit everything in one chapter without properly introducing people and definitions well enough to follow what the chapter is taking about. Suitable for those with lots of previous knowledge on the tours inception. I found the anecdotes very interesting to read.

[Emma Steffan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very dense and history heavy for about 2/3 of it. I got bogged down a bit there but then flew through the last 100 pages (the Merckx era to today).

[Daniel Hernandez Rivera · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good anthology of the history of the climbing in pro cycling. I'm an avid cyclist and I love climbing. The first part of the book was pretty interesting. It covered the beginning of when cyclist first started climbing and really gives perspective to how ridiculous of a feat it seemed at a time before modern planes. It also covers the introduction of climbing into the grand tours and their development.

However, I found it to be a bit dry at times, particularly in the middle chapters covering world tour riders that I didn't really know. There were just a lot of names and it got a bit dry for me so I had to take breaks.

The last third was again great. It was my favorite part starting with covering Pantani and then the rise of Colombian cyclist and talking about modern climbers. I think this is because I was much more familiar with them.

I want to say this book is specifically for fans of pro cycling. I'm not sure if someone who is just a cyclist and not into pro racing would even enjoy it, but if you are, knock yourself out.

[Filip Olšovský · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expected much more than this. It is an ordinarily structured collection of newspaper stories and statistics that are difficult to follow. There are couple of useful insights and quotes but you would expect a book of such kind to have a stronger narrative than a chronological order of best climbers and their most famous stages.

[Joe O'Donnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lucid and insightful exploration of the most enigmatic figures in cycling’s peloton: the daredevil mountain climbers. As the cycling writer Peter Cossins argues here, climbers can most frequently be characterised as loners, outsiders, mavericks, and risk-takers; as competitors “too individualistic in their approach to racing to command the commitment and loyalty of a team”.
They are “eternal tilters-at-windmills” as Federico Bahamontes was once memorably described.

‘Climbers’ profiles the ultimate kings of the mountains from cycling’s last century; hard men like Fausto Coppi, ‘the Eagle of Toledo’ Federico Bahamontes, José Manuel Fuente, the Colombian greats of the 1980s, and, of course, the incomparable Marco Pantani. For a sport that is increasingly subject to scientific calculations, regimented team tactics, power outages and the notorious ‘marginal gains’, Peter Cossins is astute in writing “that it is on the climbs where cycling’s magic happens”, and it is these maverick climbers who are the magicians.

Cossins is excellent on why cycling fans find mountain stages – and the climbers who surmount them - so compelling. He writes about “the incomparable majesty of the mountains as a setting for sport … an arena where the competitive challenge and the joy of spectating is thrillingly amplified”. And he suggests that climbers have an almost mystical relationship with the mountains they seek to conquer, and that their characters are forged by enduring the suffering that the peaks inflict on them (mountain climbing in cycling essentially amounts to “self-inflicted violence”).

Strangely, Cossins doesn’t quite land on a working definition of a mountain climber in cycling (despite having a chapter titled ‘What is a Climber?’). The issue of Doping is only really addressed in passing, which is curious seeing how large a role performance-enhancing substances play in alleviating suffering in professional cycling. ‘Climbers’ is, however, an enjoyable and informative read, and it manages to end on a note of optimism by arguing that we’re currently living through a new golden age of mountain climbing in cycling.

[Paul Convery · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different twist on the history of professional road cycling that isn't just focused on one big event or a single rider, but instead it charts the history of cycling by looking at the exploits of the riders who specialise in the most dramatic terrain, the high mountains.

The subject matter means we get a look at some of the fascinating developments that brought the high mountains into what would become the biggest cycling race in the world in the form of the Tour de France, but also how the organisations fear of the mountains impact meant no summit finishes for decades.

The book is structured around each chapter telling the story of how a particular rider who specialised in climbing rose to prominence due to their exploits in the mountains, even without having a chance to compete for the overall win due to the race being structured in favour of others. A real standout for me was the Queen's of the Mountains chapter which instead of neglecting women's cycling highlighted some extremely talented women who have been over looked far to often.

The one slight downside is that the book is very heavily focused on the Tour de France, while the sport and the riders who have left their marks mountains are not just confined to the Tour and the history is much broader than that.

[Nicholas Salmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book looks at the emergence of climbing as a specialist skill and focus, and the development of
the “king of the mountains” concept, from the earliest days of cycling through to 2022. I didn’t realise
that the first Tours didn’t go into the mountains (fair enough as riders had one or sometimes two gears
– the second gear achieved by flipping the rear wheel round). After a rather boring Tour in 1909, in
searching for ideas to liven it up to improve circulation of the sponsoring newspaper, one of the
organisers said “What if we made the riders go through the Pyrenees?”. The Tourmalet followed, then
the high alps and rest became history. The first few chapters on the early years were a bit turgid to
read, but very quickly the book became far more interesting and I started to race through the
chapters. Overall, a very insightful book into climbing and the ways in which the Tour de France in
particular changed to give climbers a chance against roulers. For example, big early climbs were often
followed by long flat stages to the finish of a stage, giving the roulers a chance to catch back up – and
the first summit finish didn’t come until the 1950s.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a through recounting of cycling's great climbers. Maybe a bit too in-depth for me as I had trouble maintaining my interest. The last few chapters talking about the rise of the Columbian climbers and how their love of climbing is so tied into all aspects of their culture and provided some insight into their thinking. Having.excerpts of interviews was a great addition.

[Max Deacon-Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Les grimpeurs sont les artistes

[Mike Corgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good history of Climber cyclist by Peter Cossins.

[Matt Keen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really struggled to read it

It’s a bit all over the shop. If you love endless names & stats you’ll love it, but it’s a tough read.

[Nicholas King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent

Really brings to life the bygone eras and stages some of us are too young to have experienced. Building from the beginning of climbing on bikes and ending up in the modern peloton was a climb of its own!

[Steve Chilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book concentrates on arguably the most exciting element of modern cycle racing - the mountain stages. It concentrates on the battles, and personalities of the riders who are at their best when on the way to the summits. a through recounting of cycling's great climbers. It is a fairly thorough review of cycling's great climbers, although it does rather duck 'the drug years'.

[Gruffudd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable and enlightening. Decent balance between history of climbers and some analytical, nearly philosophical bits. Certainly a thorough exploration.