Cycling books & quotations
Books:
The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien - utterly brilliant and off the wall fantasy about the relationship between people and their bicycles.
The Rider - Tim Krabbe - I don't race, but this is a gripping psychological tale of those that do.
Cols mythiques : Du Tour de France - L'Equipe - this is pure joy for the cyclo-climber: images that make you want to hit the ramp and keep riding till you drop.
One More Kilometre and we're in the Showers - Tim Hilton - an obsessive time-trial through British and Continental road racing history, very well crafted, impressive cadence, moving, thought-provoking, sensually rich. For example, the description of Eileen Sheridan's 1953 three day non-stop End to End (plus the extra miles to make up a round thousand) is spell-binding.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Crane brothers - a great cycle expedition book, in which two cousins, having drilled the surplus weight out of their spoke spanners, ride from Bangladesh to the middle of the Tibetan Plateau. Thrilling climax.
How I won the Yellow Jumper - Ned Boulting- An admirably self-depracating and amusing journey from ignoramous to authoritative voice about cycle sport. Especially enjoyed the chapter about camping on the mountain with the Basques.
It's All About the Bike - Robert Penn - A journey around the components of the safety bicycle, which he sources in person one by one in pursuit of the best custom-made bike money can buy. Artfully avoids the risk of being a nerdy book.
Death on the Mountain - Film BBC4 - Haunting account of Tom Simpson's demise on the Ventoux with an eerie Philip Glass soundtrack and some nostalgia-inducing footage of 60's road racing.
Besoin de Velo - Paul Fournel - Sumptuous series of short essays about just what it means to be obsessed with bicycle riding. The English (US) translation is a bit clunky but the beauty shines through.
Racing Through the Dark - David Millar - Ghosted autobiography of a man banned as a drug cheat who now campaigns for clean sport. At times, methinks he doth protest too much, but the ups and downs and insights into the pro-tour are fascinating.
Quotations:
I am indebted to the gang on the BBC 606 cycling message boards for starting off the following collection of quotes from other wise people who have appreciated the joys of cycling:
When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking. (Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle. (Ernest Hemingway)
The revolution will not be motorised (Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative)
Ride what you dig (Outback Bikes, Atlanta, Georgia)
After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go. You ride through Dreamland on wonderful dream bicycles that change and grow. (H.G. Wells)
This, my first [bicycle] had an intrinsic beauty. And it opened for me an era of all but flying, which roads emptily crossing the airy, gold-gorsy Common enhanced. Nothing since has equalled that birdlike freedom. (Elizabeth Bowen)
The world lies right beyond the handlebars of any bicycle. (Daniel Behrman)
I want to ride my bicycle; I want to ride my bike. I want to ride my bicycle; I want to ride it where I like. (Freddie Mercury)
"The gross and net result of it is that people who spend most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles over the rocky roadsteads of this parish get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them and you would be surprised at the number of people in these parts who nearly are half people and half bicycles." (Flann O'Brien in The Third Policeman)
Socialism can only arrive by bicycle. (Jose Antonio Viera Gallo)
When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. (H.G. Wells)
I simply haven't the nerve to imagine a being, a force, a cause which keeps the planets revolving in their orbits and then suddenly stops in order to give me a bicycle with three speeds. (Quentin Crisp)
When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised that the Lord doesn't work that way so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me. (Emo Philips)
The bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created: Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon. (Bill Strickland, The Quotable Cyclist)
Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride. (John F Kennedy)
Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle. (Elizabeth West)