“What are the best books about Cycling?” We looked at 233 of the top Cycling books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 30 titles, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Cycling” book lists, are ranked below by how many lists they appear on. The remaining 200+ titles, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!

Top 30 Cycling Books Of All-Time

30 .) 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs: A Road Cyclist’s Guide to Britain’s Hills by Simon Warren

Lists It Appears On:

• London Cyclist
• Sportive Cyclist

Cycling is Britain’s biggest boom sport and nowhere is the boom more evident than on the road: once seen as the preserve of serious racers, the road bike has recently found a new lease of life due to the popularity of challenge rides and Sportives. It is now possible for cyclists of all abilities to ride a well marked, well marshalled event just about any weekend of the year, usually based around one, two or sometimes as many as ten fearsome hills. For the first time, here is a pocket-sized guide to the 100 greatest climbs in the land, the building blocks for these rides, written by a cyclist for cyclists. From lung busting city centre cobbles to leg breaking windswept mountain passes, this guide locates the roads that have tested riders for generations and worked their way into cycling folklore. Whether you’re a leisure cyclist looking for a challenge or an elite athlete trying to break records stick this book in your pocket and head for the hills.

29 .) At Speed

Lists It Appears On:

• Sportive Cyclist
• Velopress

Mark Cavendish is quite simply the biggest thing in cycling and the biggest thing in British sport. With his self-belief and smouldering competitive fire, Cav has turned the animalistic hunger to win into an art form. As L’Equipe call him — the Mozart of the 12-wheel cog.

28 .) Bike Snob: Systematically & Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling

Lists It Appears On:

• Total Womens Cycle
• Trainer Road

Cycling is exploding in a good way. Urbanites everywhere, from ironic hipsters to earth-conscious commuters, are taking to the bike like aquatic mammals to water. BikeSnobNYC cycling’s most prolific, well-known, hilarious, and anonymous blogger brings a fresh and humorous perspective to the most important vehicle to hit personal transportation since the horse. Bike Snobtreats readers to a laugh-out-loud rant and rave about the world of bikes and their riders, and offers a unique look at the ins and outs of cycling, from its history and hallmarks to its wide range of bizarre practitioners. Throughout, the author lampoons the missteps, pretensions, and absurdities of bike culture while maintaining a contagious enthusiasm for cycling itself. Bike Snobis an essential volume for anyone who knows, is, or wants to become a cyclist.

27 .) Butcher, Blacksmith, Acrobat, Sweep: The Tale of the First Tour de France by Peter Cossins

Lists It Appears On:

• Penguin
• Road Cycling UK

Full of adventure, mishaps and audacious attempts at cheating, the first Tour de France in 1903 was a colourful affair. Its riders included characters like Maurice Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman, said to have been swapped for a round of cheese by his parents in order to smuggle him into France to clean chimneys as a teenager, Hippolyte Aucouturier with his trademark handlebar moustache, and amateurs like Jean Dargassies, a blacksmith who had never raced before. Dreamed up to revive struggling newspaper L’Auto, cyclists of the time were wary of this ‘heroic’ race on roads more suited to hooves than wheels, riding hefty fixed-gear bikes for three full weeks. ‘With a few francs you could win 3,000’, the paper declared in desperation, eventually attracting a field comprising a handful of the era’s professional racers and, among other hopefuls, a butcher, painter and decorator, and a circus acrobat. Would this ramshackle pack of cyclists draw crowds to throng France’s rutted roads and cheer the first Tour heroes? Surprisingly it did, and, all thanks to a marketing ruse, cycling would never be the same again.

26 .) Eric’s Big Day

Lists It Appears On:

• Rascal Rides
• Velopress

A boy named Eric rides his bicycle through his village to join his friend Emily for a picnic. Pedaling from his house, his trip is slowed as he aids wayward bike riders using helpful items from his backpack. The faster he rides to meet Emily, the more delays he encounters, until he tears off in a burst of speed. The cheers of a crowd surprise Eric; he has won a bike race! But where oh where is Emily?

25 .) French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France by Tim Moore

Lists It Appears On:

• Cyclist
• Sportive Cyclist

Not only is it the world’s largest and most watched sporting event, but also the most fearsome physical challenge ever conceived by man, demanding every last ounce of will and strength, every last drop of blood, sweat, and tears. If ever there was an athletic exploit specifically not for the faint of heart and feeble of limb, this is it. So you might ask, what is Tim Moore doing cycling it? An extremely good question. Ignoring the pleading dictates of reason and common sense, Moore determined to tackle the Tour de France, all 2,256 miles of it, in the weeks before the professionals entered the stage. This decision was one he would regret for nearly its entire length.

24 .) Gironimo!: Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy by Tim Moore

Lists It Appears On:

• Independent
• WHSmith

The 1914 Giro d’Italia: The hardest bike race in history. Eighty-one riders started and only eight finished after enduring cataclysmic storms, roads strewn with nails, and even the loss of an eye by one competitor. And now Tim Moore is going to ride it. And he’s committed to total authenticity. . . Twelve years after Tim Moore toiled around the route of the Tour de France, he senses his achievement being undermined by the truth about “Horrid Lance.” His rash response is to take on a fearsome challenge from an age of untarnished heroes: the notorious 1914 Giro d’Italia. History’s most appalling bike race was an ordeal of 400-kilometer stages, filled with cataclysmic storms, roads strewn with nails, and even the loss of an eye by one competitor—and it was all on a diet of raw eggs and red wine. Of the eighty-one riders who rolled out of Milan, only eight made it back.

23 .) Gravel Cycling: The Complete Guide to Gravel Racing and Adventure Bikepacking by Nick Legan

Lists It Appears On:

• Road Cycling UK
• Velopress

The popularity of riding and racing on unpaved roads has exploded in the last five years. With iconic events selling out in hours and field sizes for races in the thousands, the rural adventure of remote roads has resonated with a wide spectrum of riders and families. Over one-third of the roads in the U.S. are categorized as unpaved by the U.S. DOT, and cyclists are rapidly finding that the road less taken has fantastic opportunities for escaping traffic and discovering what lies beyond one’s backyard. In Gravel Cycling: The Complete Guide to Gravel Racing and Adventure Bikepacking, the author shares his love of riding dirt roads and gravel racing by telling the story of its history, its 21st century incarnation in North America, and its rapid spread to Europe, Asia, and South America. He speaks with founding members of the gravel racing scene and also looks at the cycling industry’s adoption of the category. Most of all, he will inspire others to seek out dirt and gravel roads by offering helpful tips on getting started, gear recommendations, riding tips, and successful outfitting strategies for bike and rider alike.

22 .) Higher Calling: Road Cycling’s Obsession with the Mountains by Max Leonard

Lists It Appears On:

• Penguin
• Road Cycling UK

Written with verve and enthusiasm, A Higher Calling explores why mountains have such a magnetic appeal to cyclists the world over. But Max Leonard, himself an accomplished amateur cyclist, does not forget the pain, the glory, the sweat, and the tears that go into these grueling climbs. After all, cycling up a mountain is hard. So hard that, to many, it can seem absurd. But for others, climbing a mountain gracefully (and beating your competitors up the slope) represents the pinnacle of cycling achievement. It is where legends are forged. Many books tell you where the mountains are, or how long and how high. None of them ask why. Why are mountain ranges professional cycling’s Coliseum? Why do amateurs also make pilgrimages to these high, remote roads? Why are the roads even there in the first place to lure us on to these obsession inducing climbs? Just why are mountains so enthralling? “This is real cycling, where the glory is and where dreams come true,” according to Bradley Wiggins. Mountains are where cycling’s greatest heroes have made their names. Every amateur rider wishes they could climb better, too. Are all these people addicted to the pain? To the achievement? Or to the allure of the peaks?

21 .) Indurain

Lists It Appears On:

• Penguin
• WHSmith

Miguel Indurain is Spain’s greatest cyclist of all time and one of the best Tour racers in history. He is the only bike rider to have won five successive Tours de France, as well as holding the title for the youngest ever race leader in the Tour of Spain. This is his story. As the all-conquering hero of the 90s, Indurain steadfastly refused to be overwhelmed by fame; remaining humble, shy and true to his country roots. Along with his superhuman calmness, iron will-power and superb bike handling skills, he was often described as a machine. Yet 1996 saw Indurain, the Tour’s greatest ever champion, spectacularly plummet, bringing his career and supremacy to an abrupt end. In Indurain, Alasdair Fotheringham gets to the heart of this enigmatic character, reliving his historic accomplishments in vibrant colour, and exploring how this shaped the direction taken by generations of Spanish racers – raising Spanish sport to a whole new level.

20 .) My Time

Lists It Appears On:

• Sportive Cyclist
• Velopress

I made a conscious decision to cheat on my husband. Now, before you judge me, hear my story. Hear how much I’m like you, how similar my thoughts are to your own. Yes, I’m a horrible person. Yes, I’ve done horrible things. Yes, I don’t deserve forgiveness. Yes, bad things happened because of my actions. But I’m willing to bet I’ve done things that maybe, just maybe, you have thought of doing. Maybe, just maybe, you’re not as innocent as you’d like to think. Or maybe I’m not so guilty …

19 .) My World

Lists It Appears On:

• Velopress
• WHSmith

James Thurber reported the world as he saw it. But what a world! Only Thurber could picture a seal peering nearsightedly over a headboard or a former husband crouched atop the armoire.

18 .) Racing Weight: How To Get Lean For Peak Performance by Matt Fitzgerald

Lists It Appears On:

• Sportive Cyclist
• Trainer Road

In this title, sports nutritionist Matt Fitzgerald offers the first comprehensive and science-based approach to weight management for runners, cyclists, triathletes, swimmers, rowers, and cross-country skiers. For endurance athletes, the power-to-weight ratio is critical. After all, an extra 10 pounds demands more than 6 per cent more energy at a given pace. “Racing Weight” explores weight management as a means to better performance. Losing those last few pounds can seem impossible, but “Racing Weight” will help you hit your fastest numbers. Endurance sports coach and certified sports nutritionist Matt Fitzgerald offers a safe and healthy 5-step plan to help you get leaner and lighter for competition. By improving the quality of your diet, managing your appetite, and timing important nutrients, you can perform better – and look and feel great. After finding your ideal off-season and racing weights, you will learn how to improve diet quality; balance your intake of carbohydrate, protein, and fat; time meals and snacks; manage appetite; and train for lean body composition.

17 .) Robert Penn, It’s All About the Bike: The Pursuit of Happiness on Two Wheels

Lists It Appears On:

• Simply Cycling
• The Guardian

Robert Penn has saddled up nearly every day of his adult life. In his late twenties, he pedaled 25,000 miles around the world. Today he rides to get to work, sometimes for work, to bathe in air and sunshine, to travel, to go shopping, to stay sane, and to skip bath time with his kids. He’s no Sunday pedal pusher. So when the time came for a new bike, he decided to pull out all the stops. He would build his dream bike, the bike he would ride for the rest of his life; a customized machine that reflects the joy of cycling. It’s All About the Bike follows Penn’s journey, but this book is more than the story of his hunt for two-wheel perfection. En route, Penn brilliantly explores the culture, science, and history of the bicycle. From artisanal frame shops in the United Kingdom to California, where he finds the perfect wheels, via Portland, Milan, and points in between, his trek follows the serpentine path of our love affair with cycling. It explains why we ride. It’s All About the Bike is, like Penn’s dream bike, a tale greater than the sum of its parts. An enthusiastic and charming tour guide, Penn uses each component of the bike as a starting point for illuminating excursions into the rich history of cycling.

16 .) Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape: The Remarkable Life of Jacques Anquetil, the First Five-Times Winner of the Tour de France by Paul Howard

Lists It Appears On:

• Bicycle Adventures
• Cycling Weekly

Jacques Anquetil remains one of the most outstanding figures in the history of cycling. He was the first man to the win the Tour de France five times; the first to win all three grand tours (the Tour de France, Vuelta a España, and Giro d’Italia); and the first to win both the Tour and Vuelta in the same year. The fame Anquetil received for his cycling success was matched only by the infamy of his complex and unconventional private life. As this engaging biography reveals, between his races Anquetil seduced his doctor’s wife and acted as stepfather to her children before asking his stepdaughter to bear him a child. He maintained a ménage à trios with his wife and stepdaughter for several years until the threesome fell apart, after which—in a bid to inspire jealousy in his two former lovers and encourage their return—he seduced his stepson’s ex-wife and had a child with her. Containing exclusive contributions from Anquetil’s family, friends, teammates, and rivals, this engaging biography unveils the astounding public and private lives of one of cycling’s greatest legends.

15 .) The Climb: The Autobiography by Chris Froome:

Lists It Appears On:

• Independent
• WHSmith

The Climb by Chris Froome – the revealing, inspirational memoir from the British winner of the 2013 centenary Tour de France The Climb tells the extraordinary story of Chris Froome’s journey from a young boy in Kenya, riding through townships and past wild animals, and with few opportunities for an aspiring cyclist, to his unforgettable yellow jersey victory in this year’s Tour. A journey unlike any other in the history of cycling, Froome has crossed continents, overcome the death of his mother and conquered debilitating illness to follow his dreams and represent Team GB and Team Sky. He has experienced soaring triumphs, humbling defeats, a public rivalry with Bradley Wiggins and, most recently, the pressures of Lance Armstrong’s legacy.

14 .) The Escape Artist: Life from the Saddle by Matt Seaton

Lists It Appears On:

• Condor Cycles
• Independent

For a time there were four bikes in Matt Seaton’s life, a training bike, a track bike, a mountain bike and a racing bike. His evenings were spent doing the miles on the roads between South London and the North Downs. Weekends were taken up with Club meetings, road races and time trials – rides that took him to cold village halls at dawn and out onto the empty bypasses of Southern England.

13 .) The Hour: Sporting Immortality The Hard Way by Michael Hutchinson

Lists It Appears On:

• Independent
• Total Womens Cycle

The story of the only cycling records that matters, by one of our cleverest, funniest new writers The Hour. It’s the only cycling record that matters: one man and his bike against the clock in a quest for pure speed. No teammates, no rivals, no tactics, no gears, no brakes. Just one simple question – in sixty minutes, how far can you go? Michael Hutchinson had a plan. He was going to add his name to the list of record-holders, cycling’s supermen. But how does a man who became a professional athlete by accident achieve sporting immortality? It didn’t sound too hard. All he needed was a couple of hand-tooled bike frames, the most expensive wheels money could buy, a support team of crack professionals, a small pot of glue, and a credit card wired to someone else’s bank account. Still, getting the glue wasn’t a problem… Michael Hutchinson became a full-time cyclist in 2000 after becoming disillusioned with an academic career. Over the following six years he has won more than twenty national titles, and the gold medal in the Masters’ Pursuit World Championships.

12 .) The Race Against the Stasi: The Incredible Story of Dieter Wiedemann, the Iron Curtain and the Greatest Cycling Race on Earth by Herbie Sykes

Lists It Appears On:

• Cyclist
• Independent

Cycling Book of the Year – Cross British Sports Book Awards When the `Iron Curtain’ descended across Europe, Dieter Wiedemann was a hero of East German sport.ÿA podium finisher in The Peace Race, the Eastern Bloc equivalent of the Tour de France, he was a pin-up for the supremacy of socialism over the `fascist’ West.ÿ Unbeknownst to the authorities, however, he had fallen in love with Sylvia Hermann, a girl from the other side of the wall. Socialist doctrine had it that the two of them were `class enemies’, and as a famous athlete Dieter’s every move was pored over by the Stasi. Only he abhorred their ideology, and in Sylvia saw his only chance of freedom. Now, playing a deadly game of cat and mouse, he plotted his escape. In 1964 he was delegated, once and once only, to West Germany. Here he was to ride a qualification race for the Tokyo Olympics, but instead committed the most treacherous of all the crimes against socialism. Dieter Wiedemann, sporting icon and Soviet pawn, defected to the other side. Whilst Wiedemann fulfilled his lifetime ambition of racing in the Tour de France, his defection caused a huge scandal.

11 .) The Time-Crunched Cyclist

Lists It Appears On:

• Velopress
• Velopress

The Time-Crunched Cyclist reveals the fastest way to get fit for road racing, century rides, cyclocross, Gran Fondos, mountain bike events, and multi-day cycling tours. With elite cycling coach Chris Carmichael’s innovative, time-saving approach, busy cyclists will develop fitness, speed, and power in just 6 hours a week. Through his popular endurance coaching service, Carmichael noticed that many busy cyclists are unable to make performance gains using conventional training methods; they simply don’t have enough time to train. Carmichael Training Systems developed a new approach–the Time-Crunched Training Program–to help cyclists achieve competitive fitness and power without the impossible time demands of traditional training methods. The Time-Crunched Cyclist shows cyclists how to build fitness on a realistic schedule by tapping the power of high-intensity interval (HIIT) workouts. Cyclists learn the science behind this alternative approach to training before performing the CTS field tests to get a baseline reading of their fitness. 8 comprehensive training plans include effective time-crunched workouts, nutrition guidelines, and strength training to develop the speed and endurance for a wide variety of cycling races and events. New programs for this second edition bring cyclists up to speed for cyclocross racing, mountain bike endurance rides, and show bicycle commuters how to turn their twice-a-day rides into effective time-crunched workouts.

10 .) Ask A Pro by Phil Gaimon

Lists It Appears On:

• Road Cycling UK
• Velopress
• WHSmith

9 .) Land of Second Chances: The impossible rise of Rwanda’s cycling team by Tim Lewis

Lists It Appears On:

• Cyclist
• Sticky Bottle
• Velopress

Hailed as “the sports book of the year,” Land of Second Chances is the astonishing true story of four men determined to rebuild the hopes of a broken nation. Meet Adrien Niyonshuti, Tom Ritchey, Jonathan Boyer, and Paul Kagame. In a land desperate for heroes, they confront impossible odds as they struggle to put an upstart cycling team on the map—and find redemption in the eyes of the world. Nearly two decades after the 1994 genocide that tore the country apart, the African nation of Rwanda remains haunted by its dark past. Yet modern Rwanda, a tiny, landlocked country dropped like a pebble on the equator, is a lush and beautiful land fertile with hope and searching for heroes who can help it forge a new identity. “Hero” is a heavy burden to lay on the slim shoulders of Adrien Niyonshuti, who was only seven years old during the genocide. Yet Rwanda’s best young cyclist is obsessed with earning a slot to compete in the London Olympic Games. Supporting Adrien is his coach, Jonathan Boyer, the first American to race in the Tour de France and a controversial figure whose hopes for Rwanda mirror his own personal struggle. Tom Ritchey is an inventor of the mountain bike who comes to Rwanda with money and a vision but who bears the weight of a personal crisis that threatens to undo the good he brings to Africa.

8 .) Put Me Back on My Bike: In Search of Tom Simpson by William Fotheringham

Lists It Appears On:

• Bike Chaser
• Cyclist
• Sportive Cyclist

The best cycling biography ever written’ – Velo Tom Simpson was an Olympic medallist, world champion and the first Briton to wear the fabled yellow jersey of the Tour de France. He died a tragic early death on the barren moonscape of the Mont Ventoux during the 1967 Tour. Almost 35 years on, hundreds of fans still make the pilgrimage to the windswept memorial which marks the spot where he died. A man of contradictions, Simpson was one of the first cyclists to admit to using banned drugs, and was accused of fixing races, yet the dapper “Major Tom” inspired awe and affection for the obsessive will to win which was ultimately to cost him his life. Put me Back on my Bike revisits the places and people associated with Simpson to produce the definitive story of Britain’s greatest ever cyclist.

7 .) Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar by David Millar

Lists It Appears On:

• Cyclist
• Sportive Cyclist
• Sticky Bottle

By his 18th birthday David Millar was living and racing in France, sleeping in rented rooms, tipped to be the next English-speaking Tour winner. A year later he’d realised the dream and signed a professional contract with the Cofidis team, who had one Lance Armstrong on their books. He perhaps lived the high life a little too enthusiastically — high on a roof after too much drink, he broke his heel in a fall, and before long the pressure to succeed had tipped over into doping. Here, in a full and frank autobiography, David Millar recounts the story from the inside: he doped because ‘cycling’s drug culture was like white noise’, and because of peer pressure. ‘I doped for money and glory in order to guarantee the continuation of my status.’ Five years on from his arrest, Millar is clean and reflective, and holds nothing back in this account of his dark years.

6 .) The Cyclist’s Training Bible

Lists It Appears On:

• Sportive Cyclist
• Velopress
• WHSmith

The Cyclist’s Training Bible is designed to help amateurs create a training plan and refine the skills needed to succeed in the sport. Divided into five parts, the book covers commitment and common sense, general concepts, training with a purpose, designing a yearlong plan, and practical strategies for reinforcing training. Dozens of photos, charts, tables and worksheets are featured in this edition that includes 25 percent new and updated material.

5 .) The Man and His Bike by Wilfried de Jong

Lists It Appears On:

• Penguin
• Penguin
• WHSmith

The world as seen from a bike ‘Understated, comic and melancholic… It’ll inspire you to get back on your bike.’ Martin Love, The Guardian ‘One of the most entertaining sports books I have ever read’ Joe Short, The Daily Express In this award-winning collection of cycling tales, Wilfried de Jong uncovers the true soul of cycling – why we do it, why we watch it, why we hate it, why we love it – stripped bare. With his distinctly comic and melancholic charm Wilfried ponders life, love and death on his trusted bike, chasing the essence of our existence against the backdrop of major cycling events or while roaming alone in nature. Whether he is describing being ejected from Paris-Roubaix, a terminal incident with a bird while out riding, or explaining why he is standing stark naked on Belgian cobbles with a tyre in his hand, Wilfried unlocks a sport that involves so much pain, punishment, and a high probability of failure, but that will always liberate and inspire us.

4 .) Training and Racing with a Power Meter by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan PhD

Lists It Appears On:

• Trainer Road
• Velopress
• Velopress

Power meters are rapidly becoming an invaluable part of training and racing among professional cyclists and triathletes, amateurs looking for a competitive edge, and gear fiends. For coaches and athletes, these devices offer enormous potential for targeting and timing training to realize a rider’s goals. Yet few athletes or coaches understand how to interpret the data for optimal results, and few do more than consider the possibility of wattage training. “”Training and Racing with a Power Meter decrypts the layers of information and explains how to begin a program that effectively integrates power. Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan have conducted extensive research and consulted with manufacturers to deliver the most sophisticated and scientific approach to training on the market, allowing riders to tap every last watt of power. The book includes cogent case studies, sample power workouts, and a chapter on the future of training and racing with these indispensable devices.

3 .) Slaying the Badger by Richard Moore

Lists It Appears On:

• Condor Cycles
• Sportive Cyclist
• Sticky Bottle
• Velopress

The Tour de France is sport’s most compelling battle — an annual cauldron of heroism and treachery, spectacle and controversy, mind-games and endurance. But the 1986 Tour stands out as the year in which a show-stopping rivalry had spectators across the world gripped. When Greg LeMond — a blue-eyed, blonde-haired Californian boy, dubbed ‘L’American’ — won the 1986 Tour, he made history. The first non-European to win the Yellow Jersey, he broke the Old World stranglehold and changed the face of the competition. But LeMond’s victory was hard won. It was seemingly snatched from the jaws of the man ominously dubbed ‘The Badger’. Frenchman Bernard ‘Le Blaireau’ Hinault was five times winner of the Tour and as tough as boots. After winning the 1985 Tour, in which LeMond came a close second, Hinault vowed to return for one final Tour, and with a single purpose: to help LeMond win. But could Hinault be trusted? As the race circled France, he repeatedly attacked LeMond. Hinault claimed to the press that his apparent treachery was merely intended to make LeMond stronger. But LeMond, who didn’t believe him, became increasingly fearful, anxious and paranoid. The Tour is renowned for its psychological complexity – but what played out in 1986 was unheard of.

2 .) The Rider by Tim Krabbé

Lists It Appears On:

• Bicycle Adventures
• Bike Chaser
• Cyclist
• Independent
• Sportive Cyclist
• Sticky Bottle

A literary sports classic, finally available in the U.S. Originally published in the Netherlands in 1978, The Rider became an instant cult classic, selling over 100,000 copies. Brilliantly conceived and written at a breakneck pace, it is a loving, imaginative, and, above all, passionate tribute to the art of bicycle road racing. Not a dry history of the sport, The Rider is beloved as a bicycle odyssey, a literary masterpiece that describes in painstaking detail one 150-kilometer race in a mere 150 pages. We are, every inch of the way, inside amateur biker Tim Krabbé’s head as his mind churns at top speed along with his furious peddling. Privy to his every thought-on the glory and vagaries of the sport itself, the weather, the characters and lineage of his rival cyclists, almost hallucinogenic anecdotes about great riders of the past-the book progresses kilometer by kilometer, thought by thought, and the reader is left breathless and exhilarated. A thrillingly realistic look at what it is like to compete in a road race, The Rider is the ultimate book for bike lovers as well as the arm-chair sports enthusiast.

1 .) The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle

Lists It Appears On:

• Bike Chaser
• Condor Cycles
• Cyclist
• Penguin
• Sportive Cyclist
• Sticky Bottle
• Trainer Road

The Secret Race is a definitive look at the world of professional cycling—and the doping issue surrounding this sport and its most iconic rider, Lance Armstrong—by former Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton and New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle.Over the course of two years, Coyle conducted more than two hundred hours of interviews with Hamilton and spoke candidly with numerous teammates, rivals, and friends. The result is an explosive book that takes us, for the first time, deep inside a shadowy, fascinating, and surreal world of unscrupulous doctors, anything-goes team directors, and athletes so relentlessly driven to succeed that they would do anything—and take any risk, physical, mental, or moral—to gain the edge they need to win.Tyler Hamilton was once one of the world’s best-liked and top-ranked cyclists—a fierce competitor renowned among his peers for his uncanny endurance and epic tolerance for pain. In the 2003 Tour de France, he finished fourth despite breaking his collarbone in the early stages—and grinding eleven of his teeth down to the nerves along the way. He started his career with the U.S. Postal Service team in the 1990s and quickly rose to become Lance Armstrong’s most trusted lieutenant, and a member of his inner circle. For the first three of Armstrong’s record seven Tour de France victories, Hamilton was by Armstrong’s side, clearing his way. But just weeks after Hamilton reached his own personal pinnacle—winning the gold medal at the 2004 Olympics—his career came to a sudden, ignominious end: He was found guilty of doping and exiled from the sport

The 200+ Additional Best Books For Cyclists

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