The first Tour de France : sixty cyclists and nineteen days of daring on the road to Paris
(Book)

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Average Rating
Published
New York : Nation Books, [2017].
ISBN
1568589840, 9781568589848
Physical Desc
ix, 358 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
Status
Adult Nonfiction (3rd floor)
NF 796.62 COSSINS 2017
1 available

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Published
New York : Nation Books, [2017].
Format
Book
Language
English
ISBN
1568589840, 9781568589848

Notes

General Note
"First published in the United Kingdom by Yellow Jersey Press in 2017"--Copyright page.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 341-342) and index.
Description
The first Tour de France was a far cry from the polished international sporting event we see on television today. Organized by the financially free falling L'Auto magazine, the desperate editors thought that organizing a grand cycling tour was the only thing that could save their publication. But in 1903, cyclists weren't enthusiastic about what was pitched to them as a heroic race through roads more suited to hooves than wheels, with bikes weighing up to forty-four pounds, on a single fixed gear, for three full weeks. Assembling enough riders for the race meant bribing unemployed laborers from the suburbs of Paris, including a butcher, a blacksmith, a chimney sweep, and a wrestler. Through these characters' backstories, Cossins paints a nuanced portrait of France in the early 1900's. The race itself is packed with mishaps and adventure--in part due to the fact that water was scarce at the time, so the men drank wine and beer throughout, often keeling over from their bicycles in a drunken stupor. There was no indication that a ramshackle cycling pack would draw crowds to throng France's rutted roads and cheer the first Tour heroes. But they did, and cycling would never be the same again.
Action
2017-10-11,SB

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Cossins, P. (2017). The first Tour de France: sixty cyclists and nineteen days of daring on the road to Paris . Nation Books.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Cossins, Peter. 2017. The First Tour De France: Sixty Cyclists and Nineteen Days of Daring On the Road to Paris. Nation Books.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Cossins, Peter. The First Tour De France: Sixty Cyclists and Nineteen Days of Daring On the Road to Paris Nation Books, 2017.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Cossins, Peter. The First Tour De France: Sixty Cyclists and Nineteen Days of Daring On the Road to Paris Nation Books, 2017.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.