History of the Tour de France Book

For three weeks each July, millions of fans from around the world descend upon the French countryside to cheer on the "forats de la route," or slaves of the road-the riders competing in the Tour de France. Covering over 2000 miles in 21 days, the cyclists make a grand circuit of the country, crossing over both the Alps and the Pyrenees mountains before racing to the finish line along the Champs Elyses in Paris. Now almost a century old, the legendary bicycle race-the world's largest annual sporting event-has a rich and colorful past. Tour de France/Tour de Force offers a one-of-a-kind look back at the Tour's history and its heroes. Arranged chronologically and illustrated with hundreds of wonderfully evocative photographs dating back to the Tour's beginning in 1903, it documents the great victories and the harrowing disasters, the glory and the agony of this amazing competition. From the astounding stories of early cyclists who looped around France on rudimentary two-wheelers to contemporary chapters emphasizing the tactics and winning moves employed in recent races, the drama of the Tour comes to life in these pages.

Featuring race results from 1903 all the way through to 1999, plus an introduction by three-time Tour winner Greg LeMond, and special sections on the evolution of the Tour de France bike and the controversial issue of performance-enhancing drugs, Tour de France/Tour de Force is the consummate guide to this truly extraordinary event in the world of sport.