Les Woodland
Autor von The Yellow Jersey Companion to the Tour de France
Über den Autor
Les Woodland is a freelance writer who has published many books and articles on the subject of cycling. He was born in 1947 in London and recently moved from rural Norfolk, England, to rural France, the country of his choice -- and also perhaps the best one for cycling
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Paris-Roubaix, The Inside Story: All the bumps of… von Les Woodland
Enjoyed the history. I will be reading it again every spring
Love the details. Love the history.
Unknown TDF
The second Tour de France, held in 1904, was ripped apart by a toxic combination of rampant cheating by the riders and rioting and sabotage by partisan spectators. The result was a decision by the French cycling federation to disqualify several of the riders, including the winner, Maurice Garin. Garin, who was also the winner of the first Tour, maintained a steady insistence that he was innocent and that he was the victim of a grave injustice.
Les Woodland set out to learn more about Garin and journeyed to Garin’s hometown and found an old friend of his. Woodland found that Garin’s public stance regarding the 1904 Tour was quite different from what he told his friends in private.
The story of Garin would be enough reason for any Tour fan to buy this book. But that is just the appetizer. Each chapter looks at some aspect of the Tour from Woodland’s always-original point of view. Among other subjects he takes on the Tour’s origins, the first mountain stages, cheating, interesting riders of past Tours and the bikes of the early Tour. In keeping with the book’s title, almost all are subjects that aren’t dealt with in other cycling books, making it particularly enlightening and enjoyable.
Time spent with a Les Woodland cycling book is always time well spent and this book is no exception. I highly recommend it to even the most knowledgeable cycle racing fan. It’s a good, fun read.… (mehr)
The second Tour de France, held in 1904, was ripped apart by a toxic combination of rampant cheating by the riders and rioting and sabotage by partisan spectators. The result was a decision by the French cycling federation to disqualify several of the riders, including the winner, Maurice Garin. Garin, who was also the winner of the first Tour, maintained a steady insistence that he was innocent and that he was the victim of a grave injustice.
Les Woodland set out to learn more about Garin and journeyed to Garin’s hometown and found an old friend of his. Woodland found that Garin’s public stance regarding the 1904 Tour was quite different from what he told his friends in private.
The story of Garin would be enough reason for any Tour fan to buy this book. But that is just the appetizer. Each chapter looks at some aspect of the Tour from Woodland’s always-original point of view. Among other subjects he takes on the Tour’s origins, the first mountain stages, cheating, interesting riders of past Tours and the bikes of the early Tour. In keeping with the book’s title, almost all are subjects that aren’t dealt with in other cycling books, making it particularly enlightening and enjoyable.
Time spent with a Les Woodland cycling book is always time well spent and this book is no exception. I highly recommend it to even the most knowledgeable cycle racing fan. It’s a good, fun read.… (mehr)
1 
BillMcGann | Aug 16, 2008 |
BillMcGann | Aug 16, 2008 | 
Winning at Any Cost
Cyclists have used drugs to improve their performance almost since the invention of the bicycle. At first the pharmacopoeia was primitive: ether, wine, cocaine, strychnine. The riders used anything they thought would ease the misery of the impossibly long distances that characterized racing in the early twentieth century.
Over time, as the drugs grew more effective, the riders adopted them. In the 1930s amphetamines were synthesized, followed by steroids, EPO and now human growth hormone. Almost always the riders have stayed 1 step ahead of the detectors.
Going back to nineteenth century original sources, Les Woodland has put together a riveting and distressing chronicle of cheating in bicycle racing. His discussion of the 1998 Festina scandal is simply superb.
As with all of Woodland’s books, it is written with style and authority. This man knows the sport as few others.… (mehr)
Cyclists have used drugs to improve their performance almost since the invention of the bicycle. At first the pharmacopoeia was primitive: ether, wine, cocaine, strychnine. The riders used anything they thought would ease the misery of the impossibly long distances that characterized racing in the early twentieth century.
Over time, as the drugs grew more effective, the riders adopted them. In the 1930s amphetamines were synthesized, followed by steroids, EPO and now human growth hormone. Almost always the riders have stayed 1 step ahead of the detectors.
Going back to nineteenth century original sources, Les Woodland has put together a riveting and distressing chronicle of cheating in bicycle racing. His discussion of the 1998 Festina scandal is simply superb.
As with all of Woodland’s books, it is written with style and authority. This man knows the sport as few others.… (mehr)
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