October 1st, 2008
The Club des Cinglés du Mont-Ventoux is not just a club for grimpeurs, but anyone who is crazy enough to want to climb Mont Ventoux three times in one day.
The Club has been previewed already here, but my full report is now on Pez Cycling News.
In 1977, Geoffrey Nicholson’s book The Great Bike Race was published, a report on the 1976 Tour de France and one of the early works in a developing tradition of British writing on cycling that continues today. Nicholson is perhaps the doyen of this tradition, having opened up the reporting and literary possibilities of European cycling for English readers.
Many have followed in his footsteps, and pen strokes, to uphold the tradition and discerning readers still look to the UK for serious cycling writing. A few honourable mentions aside, such as Owen Mulholland and Samuel Abt, American writers on the European cycling have yet to establish a body of literature comparable to what Nicholson helped get underway. (more…)
