Graham Watson: Twenty Years of Cycling Photography

By Graham Watson (Velopress, Boulder, 2000; paperback edition 2002)

If you are a photographer and a cyclist (or if you have one on your Christmas list) you (and they) will love this book! This is a wonderful testimony to the agony and ecstasy of bicycle racing and pedaling in general that will provide hours of vicarious enjoyment.

An Intimate Portrait of The Tour de France: Masters and Slaves of the Road

By Philippe Brunel (Buonpane Publications, no date; First published by Calmann-Levy in French, 1995)

This is a book about people as much as it is about The Race. But the photos are extraordinary, perhaps the best single collection of historic photos of The Race available. You’ve seen these photos as posters in your bike shop: the three leaders of the peloton sharing cigarettes (it was thought that smoking "opened up the lungs!"), of arch rivals Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali sharing a water bottle on the road, or of the bacchanalian festival of six riders "re-hydrating" on the Tour.

Richly illustrated, this book is really a series of essays on the "giants" of The Race, although the early French racers are conspicuously absent. The two leading essays are of the Italians Ottavio Bottecchia (the first Italian to win the tour, 1924 & 1925) and Gino Bartali (second Italian to win, 1938 and 1948). This is followed by a photo essay of Fausto Coppi (third Italian to win in 1949). Two Swiss racers are then featured, Ferdi Kubler (1950 winner) and Hugo Koblet (1951). A French racer doesn’t appear among the essays here until Jacques Anquetill (the first racer to win the tour five times: 1957, ’61, ’62, ’63 and ’64). In short, it appears that the selection of racers to include in this book is very eclectic and limited to those riders for whom the author had good photos.

Tour de Frane: The History, The Legend, the Riders

By Graeme Fife (Mainstream Publishing, 1999; review based on 2001 edition updated for the 2001 Tour)

I have yet to find a comprehensive English history of The Race that really delves into the social and cultural history of The Race. This is a shame because it is such a rich historical phenomenon. Some day, I’m sure, someone will write this and address the role the tour has played in creating a "bicycle culture" in France and in Europe. Just think of the impact this grueling event had on the technology of the sport, for example!

At any rate, for now we have Graeme Fife’s reminiscences of his own rides over some of the major mountain stages of The Race (and we have Samuel Abt’s book reviewed below). Fife weaves stories of his own rides on famous tour routes with well-known anecdotes related to The Race and to specific passes in the Pyrenees and the Alps. Like Abt’s book below this is not history or sociology, it is journalism. But it is well written and entertaining

Breakaway: On the Road with The Tour de France

By Samuel Abt (Random House, 1985)

This is an older publication, but it’s a good one. Order it used for $5-6 or find it at your library. Abt is a journalist on the staff of the International Herald Tribune in Paris. He covered cycling for them in 1985 when this book was published and he still does. He writes very well and he has that investigative journalistic eye that knows when to explain a little history, some politics, or pop culture. In this book he writes about the 1984 Race when Greg Lemond was a rising star and when Hinault and Fignon were vying for top spot. Indeed, Fignon took first in ’84, Hinault second and Lemond third. (A year later Fignon was sidelined with a knee operation and Hinault and Lemond moved into first and second place. In 1986 Lemond eclipsed Hinault). Look for this book. I think you’ll enjoy it.