Published: 22/06/2023
In this engaging melange of sports writing, history, travelogue and detective story, ITV's head cycling commentator and author of On the Road Bike explores a short piece of film footage from the 1923 Tour de France and shares his fascinating investigations into the riders featured.
Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2023
Winner of the Sunday Times Sports Book Awards Love Reading Cycling Book of the Year 2024
The story of an obsession. When cycling commentator Ned Boulting bought a length of Pathe news film featuring a stage of the Tour de France from 1923 he set about learning everything he could about it - taking him on an intriguing journey that encompasses travelogue, history and detective story.
In the autumn of 2020 Ned Boulting (ITV head cycling commentator and Tour de France obsessive) bought a length of Pathe news film from a London auction house. All he knew was it was film from the Tour de France, a long time ago.
Once restored it became clear it was a short sequence of shots from stage 4 of the 1923 Tour de France. No longer than 2.5 minutes long, it featured half a dozen sequences, including a lone rider crossing a bridge. Ned set about learning everything he could about the sequence - studying each frame, face and building - until he had squeezed the meaning from it. It sets him off in fascinating directions, encompassing travelogue, history, mystery story - to explain, to go deeper into this moment in time, captured on his little film.
Join him as he explores the history of cycling and France just five years after WWI - meeting characters like Henri Pelissier, who won the Tour that year but who would within the decade be shot dead by his lover using the same pistol with which his wife had killed herself. And Theophile Beeckman - the lone rider on the bridge.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 9781399401548
Number of pages: 288
Dimensions: 234 x 153 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
[a] fascinating and often touching book… Wonderful - The Times
An absorbing mix of historical sleuthing and travel writing - The Telegraph
Spellbinding - Daily Mail
A captivating journey of discovery into a lost world. A real joy to read. - Tom McTague
Witty, discursive, and tons of fun, Ned Boulting has the Tour de France under his skin, and you will too by the time you've read this - Al Murray, comedian, author and presenter of history podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk
Ned's captivating book explores one man's obsession with this magnificent event and casts an intriguing light on a tiny fragment of a race long gone by - Alexei Sayle
Ned has created a rich tapestry from the finest of threads ... I felt transported back with him to the very origins of bike racing and the world that created it - David Millar
one of the most intelligent sporting books i have come across…the writing is compulsive, eloquently conveying the twists and turns of the story as it unfolds…excellent - thewashingmachinepost
There has never been a cycling book quite like this one. A scrap of newsreel film, a century old and two and a half minutes long, sweeps Ned Boulting back not just into the world of a forgotten hero of the Tour de France but into the forces that shaped that world: a collision of sport, war, family and destiny. And as he searches for the tiniest clues among the faded celluloid shadows, he carries us along with him, making us his companions on a remarkable mission of rediscovery - Richard Williams, music and sports journalist
Delightful - Dara Ó Briain, Twitter
utterly captivating…an amazing concept and a truly fascinating adventure into cycling, history and people… a truly addictive read. - Cyclist
Beginning with a fragment of a century-old race, Ned has written a ‘biography of the unknown rider’. And in honouring him he’s told us more about bike racing, the Tour and about Europe in the years between the wars than we’d ever have learned from a book about a star - Michael Hutchinson, racing cyclist and writer
This is a wonderful piece of writing that transcends sport. - New European
Boulting’s enthusiasm for the footage is catching. [He] is a sympathetic writer and an extremely knowledgeable historian. - Times Literary Supplement
Witty, discursive, and tons of fun, Ned Boulting has the Tour De France under his skin, and you will too by the time you read this - Al Murray
An engaging melange of sports writing, history, travelogue and detective story... Fascinating - Waterstones
An exceptional book - Pez Cycling News
A great example of what constitutes the best longform writing about sport - The New European
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“A cycling fans must have”
From his cycling commenting to his one man shows Ned has shown himself to be one of Pro cyclings biggest fans. This enthralling read takes you with him down a rabbit hole of his love for cycling, and the Tour de... More
“Award winning?”
Mr Boulting, the author, would be well advised to start preparing his acceptance speech for the sports book of the year awards.
“Peeling an orange.”
I couldn’t out this down. I expected an in-depth review of a 100-year old race, but this was only one aspect of a brilliant book. Not only is it expertly researched, but the story of the research itself, and the... More
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