Tour de France/Tour de Force: A Visual History of the Worlds Greatest Bicycle Race

This is a perfect book for the cycling enthusiast, especially if they follow the greatest bicyling race of them all, The Tour de France. This book is a good compliment to another entitled Inside the Tour de France: The Pictures, the Legends, and the Untold Stories of the World's Most Beloved Bicycle Race. Not only is this book well written, in a simple and concise format but it is higly informative without bogging you down with too much information. This is a highlight book, kind of like a sports edition highlight package of the TDF. This is a historical document that presrves the legends of cycling who came before the more familiar recent names like Lance Armstrong and the other competitive American entries of late. I think the history of the TDF is fascinating, complete with legendary figures and a mystique of it's own. The hardships the old atheletes must have endured is almost unbelieveable if it hadn't really happened. All the legends are here from the modern era as well, beginning with the first five time TDF winner Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, Eddy Merckx, LeMond Miguel Indurain and Lance Armstrong. The real selling point of this book are the amazing photographs, especially those that are from the early days of the TDF. Seeing the men climbing alone on dirt roads, full of rocks is priceless. One photograph stands out especially in my mind of a rider with three gigantic glass bottles(requiring a bottle opener no less) stuffed into the rear pockets. The bottles practically reach the riders shoulder blades they are so huge! Another classic is Maurice Garin, the chimney sweep turned racer who wins the first TDF. I guess his lungs weren't full of enough gunk from his job so he is posing with his bike with a cig dangling from his lip!! They werer amazing atheletes. They should do a book of just old photographs. The outfits were insane, essentially full on suits, like Sunday's wardrobe for gentlemen in the innagural race. Get this book to learn more about the TDF and the heroics of the world's greatest bike race. Highly recommended for the bicycling enthusiast.

This book has wonderful old pictures of the tour plus a year by year history of the event. A "must have" for bicycle fans.

Every saga has a Beginning...Like the Tour de France. I think that only this book need more details about the other champions like Pedro Delgado, Laurent Fignon, Stephen Roche, Felice Gimondi,Marco Pantani, Jan Ullrich, Denmark Riss, same as the others super champions with more tour victories, because any rider that won the tour...All of they..are monsters and then, they have the honor that the world know the name of them. Congratulations to James Startt for this excelent book of the Tour de France History. Zomar.

I picked up this book after reading Lance Armstrong's autobiography, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The text is well-written, covering all aspects of the Tour's history, and the pictures are terrific. It's inspiring to see that while current Tour riders are heroic, the men who did this 50+ years ago completed a course that was even longer, and did so with primitive equipment and without the same levels of celebrity. A fun and inspiring read.

Then get this book, it's great. Great because it takes the reader through the history of the Tour, offering fun anecdotes, excellent vintage & contemporary photographs, interesting illustrations of Tour adverts & posters through time, etc. Plus, it lists all the Tour winners from the race's inception, including the 2nd & 3rd place finishers with their times. If you're into the Tour, if you always wondered what it looked like in the old days, riding through the Alps on dirt roads, shooing cows out of the way, then you won't be disappointed with this book. There's only one Tour de France per year, but you can peruse this book every day. Allez!