Showing titles in Cycling

Brought to you by Penguin. A rare insight into the heart of pro cycling and the inner workings of the peloton, from Team Sky and Ineos Grenadiers legend, Luke Rowe. There’s one well-established truth in professional cycling: the strongest always wins. Yet in a sport of champions, victory is...

Everybody has heard the SAS motto that who dares wins, but Special Forces warrior Dean Stott also lives his life by another powerful mantra - that of the relentless pursuit of excellence. In 16 years of service, Dean rose to the top of Britain's fighting force, taking part of some of the most daring and dangerous operations in the war on terror. But then, following a horrific parachuting accident, Dean's dream career was cut short, and his ethos was put to its toughest test.  

He's ridden for World Tour teams for 10 years. He's achieved top 10 finishes in Grand Tours. He likes coffee. These are just a few details about the professional rider who wants you to know what the view looks like from the centre of the peloton. What do the riders really make of Team Sky? How does the pay structure work? Why should you never trust a kit endorsement from a professional? Is doping still an issue? The Secret Cyclist tackles the big questions head-on, revealing a side to cycling that fans have never seen before.

In One-Way Ticket: Nine Lives and Two Wheels he describes a journey from driven teenage prodigy, travelling to races in the back of his dad's station wagon, to an obsessive determination to make it big in European racing - whatever the cost. He tells the story of his transformation from poacher to gamekeeper, detailing his painful decision to finally come clean about his own descent into doping - and to persuade others to do likewise - by providing more than enough shocking testimony to USADA (US Anti-Doping Agency) to explode the Armstrong myth.

Sharp, resourceful and a permanent outsider; for nearly 20 years Steve Cummings determinedly blazed his own winning trail in international cycling. A maverick who defied the dominant teams, to record a sequence of gloriously improbable victories, he has lived and raced with legends of the sport—Cavendish, Wiggins, Froome, Thomas and others—about whom he has strong views and untold stories.

Brought to you by Penguin. The final word on a record-breaking career from cycling's most formidable sprinter Mark Cavendish is the stand-out British cyclist of our most golden generation. With his 35th Tour de France win in 2024, he became the outright all-time record holder for the most stage...

When, during the Pyrenean stages of the 1998 Tour de France, a journalist asked Marco Pantani why he rode so fast in the mountains, the elfin Italian, unmistakeable in the bandanna and hooped ear-rings that played up to his 'Pirate' nickname, replied: 'To shorten my agony.' Drawing on the fervour for these men of the mountains, Climbers looks at what sets these athletes apart within the world of bike racing, about why we love and cherish them, how they make cycling beautiful and how they see themselves and the feats they achieve.

For over a decade Alex Dowsett had been one of Britain’s best cyclists. He has ridden Grand Tours and Classics for elite teams including Sky and Movistar and broke the iconic World Hour Record – the ultimate time trial challenge. With humour, insight and brutal honesty, Alex tells of the challenges he has faced in his struggle to reach the top and his years as a pro-cyclist.

For a race as long as the mighty Tour (three weeks of testing the limits of human endurance), to have the ultimate victory decided by a margin of just eight seconds almost boggles the mind. But that's exactly what happened between American legend Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon. After more than 2,000 miles in the saddle, it remains the smallest margin of victory in the Tour's 100-plus-year history.

In 2008 Sean Conway set off on a 1,000 mile bike ride that would shape the next 10 years of his life, as he became obsessed with the idea of becoming a real ultra cyclist. This is his story, how he tried and failed many times to break a cycling world record, and the story about his final world record attempt, cycling 4,000 miles across Europe. Sean nearly gave up on his dream after tragically losing two of his ultra cycling friends, but decided to continue in their honor with his quest to chase big miles on two wheels.

Chasing the sun south from his home in Cornwall, bestselling author and environmental campaigner Martin Dorey follows in the footsteps of the pioneers who discovered Europe’s best waves. On an epic journey that could take mere days by train or campervan, Martin and his wife Lizzy opt for the steady route across these 3000 miles – by eBike with their surf boards in tow.

His cheeks are as tender as raw meat on a butcher's block. And those are just the cheeks of his face. As he slumps in the saddle, watching the road disappear into the distance, he aches in parts of his body that he's only just discovering he has. When Mark travels to Ecuador to go hiking and climbing, he discovers a land of dramatic volcanoes rising through the clouds and wide-open horizons rich in history.

Before Bradley Wiggins, there was Sean Yates. Behind Bradley Wiggins, there was Sean Yates. One of only five Britons to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, Sean Yates burst onto the cycling scene as the rawest pure talent this country has ever seen. After turning professional at the age of 22, he soon became known as a die-hard domestique, putting his body on the line for his teammates.

At the start of the 137-kilometre Tour de Mont Aigoual, Tim Krabbé glances up from his bike to assess the crowd of spectators. ‘Non-racers,’ he writes. ‘The emptiness of those lives shocks me.’ Immediate and gripping from the start, we race with the author as he struggles up the hills and clings on during descents in the unforgiving French mountains.

Getting older does not mean getting slower. Improving your performance is achievable despite the advance of the years. If you are a midlife rider who wants to ride faster and for longer, Full Gas Forever provides the complete guide. Ed Clancy OBE, a three-time Olympic gold-medal winning cyclist and stretching and flexibility expert Lexie Williamson, are the ideal people to guide you through the strategies, training, benefits and pitfalls of going full-gas in your fourth or fifth decade.

Covering interesting and varied philosophical terrain, Cycling - Philosophy for Everyone explores in a fun but critical way the rich philosophical, cultural, and existential experiences that arise when two wheels are propelled by human energy.  

The autobiography of a cycling legend that will become a much-loved classic. The much-anticipated autobiography of the greatest Australian cyclist of all time. Famous in the sport for his meticulous preparation and an athlete who prided himself on his ability to leave it all on the road, Evans writes about the triumphs, the frustrations, the training, the preparation, the psychology of the sport, his contemporaries, the legends and his enduring love of cycling. A riveting and forensic account of his life on the bike....

Still living in the shadow of a global pandemic, George and Rachel attempt some of their toughest events so far. Rachel decides to sign up to her first iron-distance triathlon. But a broken bone threatens to derail George’s chances of joining her. They take on their longest ever run, most challenging swim, their first swim-run event, and a backyard ultra—a race that can only have one finisher. Ludo—the family’s hairy four-legged friend—gets in on the action as an official competitor in a muddy fun run.

For 60 minutes this summer, the British public stopped what they were doing, switched on their radios and their TVs, refreshed their Twitter feeds, and followed Bradley Wiggins' attempt to break one of sport's most gruelling records: The Hour. The premise is simple enough: how far can you cycle in one hour? But it is thought to be one of the toughest events an athlete can endure, both physically and psychologically. Eddy Merckx, cycling's über-champ, called it the hardest thing he ever did.

From 2015 to 2017, Peter Sagan achieved the seemingly impossible: he won three road race World Championships in a row, ensuring his entry into the history books as one of the greatest riders of all time. But to look at Peter’s record in isolation is to tell only a fraction of his story, because Peter doesn’t just win: he entertains. Every moment in the saddle is an opportunity to express his personality, and nobody else has succeeded in making elite cycling look so much fun.