Take A Race For Madmen: The History Of The Tour De France Formulated By Chris Sidwells File Ebook

history of the TdF is told in chunks that take in either incredible events on the Tour doping scandals, racing during WWor in biographical pieces on the big winners.
It is a reasonable introduction to the race, but where it does fall down is that it has no reference section with lists of the various category winners, All in all an alright read, Interesting material and life stories, but not really that well written and lacking engagement with the reader, A decent primer on Le Tour's history, but I'm sure there are other more inspiring histories out there, Accessible overview of the history of the Tour and its major players, Odd to read something written preArmstrong revelations ends just beforetour amp I felt it rather glossed over the doping generally, Enjoyable though. A Race For Madmen as a history of the Tour de France suffers badly from inconvenient timing, Its release date was, two years before the bomb dropped on Lance Armstrong, It also suffers from a brutal naivete that, in all honesty, was probably a selfpreservation technique considering litigationhappy Lance Armstrong and his ohsowillinglawyers that are no doubt taking him to the cleaners as we speak.
A further epilogue that covers events fromto today might help make the book slightly more relevant, but not much,

The Lance Armstrong revelations those of his teammates and other parties included have demonstrated once again the cognitive dissonance and outright selfdelusion of the sport of professional and likely elite amateur cycling.
Drugs are rife in the sport and are not going to be making an exit anytime soon, Anyone who thinks the sport of cycling is clean is a wideeyed innocent who is far too easily duped, The sport of bodybuilding has a saying to end any argument about druguse in that sport: “Freaky big sells, ” For a long time it did, For cycling enthusiasts, freaky fast sells, and the tour hasnt slowed down, not matter how much the organizers and certain teams maintain that they are “clean, ”

Even though the author states that he is not naïve about drug use in the book, he demonstrates time and again that his is, Most of the evidence can be found in the last couple of chapters, specifically those involving Lance Armstrong, There is reference to his having to answer charges of drug use including a reference to David Walshs book LA Confidential, but it seems that the author didnt take the time or was too afraid to really investigate the evidence that David provides in his book.
All this does not reflect well on an author that can recount a quote from a cyclist in thes ands stating that there is “Cocaine for our eyes, chloroform for our gums, pills for strength.
We run on dynamite. ” and not connect that with the sport to this day of pharmaceutical sophistication, page

Ive stated in other reviews why I was sure that Lance was a drug user when I first heard of him in the earlys and why I didnt really care, so I will let the reader of this review refer back to my many other reviews of books concerning the Tour de France.
However, what always struck me as very illogical was how everyone skirted around the argument that it was simply statistically unlikely that someone who competes and wins against drug users is not themselves using them, and using more of them or a better combination.
However, we are talking about sports “science” which can still maintain that drugs dont provide a large advantage, Yeah, sure, then why do so many cyclists take the chance

Again the author was likely avoiding a deep discussion or investigation for survival reasons, However, that is still a bit surprising considering the unique perspective of the author, the nephew of Tom Simpson, a British rider that died climbing Mont Ventoux inwhose death has been inextricably tied to amphetamine use whether that was a prominent factor or not.
It is difficult to square the suspensionofdisbelieve that pervades this book when in pagewe learn from a former Belgian national cycling champion that EPO “can make a racehorse from a donkey and when donkeys start winning, that is wrong.
” This assertion casts much doubt on Lance Armstrongs claim that he still one his seven Tours because everyone was using therefore, it was a levelplaying field, Well, if your drug use is more easily hidden with a suspicion of assistance from eyeaverting associations and better devised, scheduled and delivered than everyone elses, you could be that donkey, simply a far more clever donkey.


Before I leave off the topic of drug use in the book and Tour de France cycling in this review, There is a telling bit of psychology written in the book if one considers what is now known in the light of Lance Armstrongs confession and comments made about his personality by friends.
On page, the author is describing French cyclist Louison Bobet, but he could easily be talking about Lance Armstrong: “Like most great champions, Louison was insecure, but its that insecurity that helps make them what they are.
They should worry about the rivals, its their job, its what gets them up in the morning and sends out training, ” Similar sentiments are repeated throughout the book concerning other cyclists, Its almost as if the true impetus is simply “beating the other guy, ” There is something about this type of personality in sport and the entitlement both taken and conferred thus that ought to be studied,

Stylistically this was not really a scintillating read, Although there is nothing truly negative about the writing style, it is a little dry and factbased without a handsome eloquence that can make up for a dataintense read.
I must say that I found an even older book “Blazing Saddles” by Matt Rendell to be a far more interesting Tour de France history, It gives most of the same information as this book in a short chapter form with far more skepticism about the “cleanness” of a sport that has been proven again and again to be “dirty.
” Blazing Saddles not preachy, however, its just a statement of the facts and a willingness to not overlook the brutally strong implications, I would recommend that book over this one,

The absolute best part of the book, and almost worth reading the whole book for just to get to it was a reference to a brutally satirical Dutch comedy television shows sketch concerning the “whereabouts” scandal of Michael Rasmussen.
If I had known about the scandal and then saw the sketch, I would have been in stitches laughing for days,
As an avid cyclist Ive been surprisingly not that interested in the Tour de France, The cloud of doping and drugs hangs over the race, and Ive lost the interest I had since the days of Lance Amstrongs remarkableTour victories,
What changed this year was the spectacular coverage of this years Tour, This, coupled with a growing interest I have in French and France caused me to pick up this book,
Overall “A Race for Madmen” was a good read covering the history of this extraordinary event, The book covers its highs literally and figuratively and lows starting inand concludes with theso it is not completely up to date,

I learned a few interesting things including the purpose of the Yellow Jersey, as well as the Green, Poccadot, White and White/Red ones as well, While I grew up following Eddy Merckx I was not as aware of many of the other great cyclists including Bernard Hinault “The Badger”, Jacques Anquitel and Prudencio Indurain all five time winners.
This book help with this,

While it was a good history, and one written by someone who clearly loves the sport, I was looking for more, Im not sure what that “more” is, but perhaps what it is really like to be part of the event as a rider, support team or spectator, Perhaps I should just follow the advice of the author Chris Sidwells and go see “The Greatest Show on Earth” in person!
A brilliant book about the haitory of the tour de France.
Brilliant anecdotes about the tour and really articulates why people who love the tour, love the tour,

Read to coincide with my annual interest in the Tour this book is a perfect way to catch up onyears of the race, Tells some of the intriguing stories from the earlier races brilliantly, Skims the modern years a little but still a great primer, .