Product Description

"The Treasures of the Tour de France" comprises an authoritative narrative account of each major era in the sport up to and including the 2007 Tour. The reportage is complemented by features on the superstars and the memorable moments for each of the eras. It also contains over 30 facsimile items of rare sporting memorabilia integrated into the pages of the book. The reader can relive the dramatic events that have entranced the watching millions by holding and examining souvenir brochures, period newspapers, posters, stickers, postcards and items of correspondence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #274333 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 64 pages

About the Author
Serge Laget has covered the race as a journalist for L'Equipe since 1987. He has written many books on cycling, including Le Cyclisme, La Saga du Tour de France and La Belle Epoque du Cyclisme. He lives in Paris. Luke Edwardes-Evans is a freelance writer who regularly contributes articles to Cycling Weekly and is the author of two WH Smith Tour de France guides. He lives in Tonbridge, Kent and had rare pleasure of watching the 2007 Tour go within a few kilometres of his home.

Customer Reviews

Every Second Counts!
For three weeks every July little else that can be called serious goes on in France. Everything is on hold whilst a great sporting event takes place. With a duration longer than Wimbledon, the Test Matches, the Open Golf championship and even the Olympic Games. It's the `Tour de France'. Bicycling in extremist!
The TdeF is as French as the Guillotine, Baguettes and Bardot! Around two hundred super fit human beings pedal their arduous, and often perilous, way through pretty villages, vineyards and sunflowers, mountain passes and stray dogs for some two and a half thousand miles all aiming to get to Paris in the shortest time and in one piece. Usually half of them don't make it! Just to cross the line at the Arc d'Triomphe would be considered by most of the surviving competitors to be a career highlight, let alone to win the event. And the whole affair is completely free of charge for the many thousands of spectators that line the route eagerly waiting to spot these multi-coloured, lyrcra clad mobile billboards as they sweep past on machines that can cost the price of a decent family car.

It's all here in this glorious book. The history, the heroes, the rules (lots of these) - and oft the sabotage! Within the pages of this superb tome will be found inserted a couple of dozen and more facsimiles of memorabilia. Artefacts from the history of this iconic event. Rulebooks, competitor application forms. postcards from way back and scribbled notes. For TdeF enthusiasts the book surely is a must have item. For the rest of us mere spectators it is a terrific, hugely interesting read. The book, contained in a slipcase, is a tribute to the authors and a remarkable piece of construction by the publishers. It is worth the full price but can usually be found for much less. My copy was a bit under half-price. A bargain.

If you like bikes and enjoy `Le Tour' you'll love this! Do get a copy, you won't regret it !

The most amazing book I have ever bought or ever will.
Always difficult to buy a book that sealed and expect not to be dissapointed.
Not this one.
The work and attention to detail is simply breathtaking.
Rather than give away all the surprises the book contains copies and other memorabilia of parts of the Tour De France through history and thankfully an English translation in a separate booklet is included, so you can understand in the true spirit of the TDF each item.
The painstaking work that went into this book is worth anyones money.


Simply perfection.

An absolute must.

It's no good - I'll just need to buy another copy
This is not a definitive history of the Tour, but instead a living, breathing impressionistic set of artefacts linking the various themes "the Great Climbs", "The Publicity Caravan", as well as a roughly chronologically arranged narrative right up to "The Era of Zero Tolerance".

If you like that sort of thing (and I certainly do - that's why I want a second copy, to frame and put them on my wall), the beautifully produced facsimiles of all sorts of Tour ephemera are what brings the book to life. My favourite at the moment is a map of the 1953 tour - weighing in at a mere 4468km!!

Superbe!