This weekend the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup takes place in Fort William.
Here are ten books about bikes and their riders.
Bicycle Thieves
By Luigi Bartolini
Most people know the film, but it was adapted from the painter and writer's heart-wringing novel, about a man father searching Rome for his bike, which has been stolen. Without it, he cannot keep his job, on which his family depends.
Three Men on the Bummel
By Jerome K Jerome
In Jerome's follow-up to Three Men in a Boat, the hapless late-Victorian trio set out to cycle through the Black Forest, handlebar moustaches and all. "There is a lot of uphill about a bicycle tour," said George, " and the wind is against you." "So there is downhill, and the wind behind," said Harris.
The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclis
By Arthur Conan Doyle
One of 13 tales in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, it features a genteel young woman troubled by a stranger who follows her on his bicycle, at a distance, on a lonely stretch of road whenever she cycles to and from the railway station. Events move into a higher gear when she is abducted.
The Third Policeman
By Flann O'Brien
"You can tell a man with a lot of bike in his veins by his walk," writes O'Brien in this magical realist detective story. He envisions a future in which man and bike are fused, to the betterment of humankind.
It's Not about the Bike
By Lance Armstrong
The now disgraced athlete told his remarkable story of recovering from cancer to win the Tour de France which, after this book was published, he did another six times. He was later stripped of these honours when he was discovered to have been doping, but his almost superhuman resilience is still admirable.
Lantern Rouge
By Max Leonard
The last man in the Tour de France is awarded this coveted trophy, named it is thought for the red light on the end of a train, as it disappears into the night. Leonard follows the history of the award, and the plucky losers who win it.
Roule Britannia
By William Fotheringham
A vivid history of professional British cycling in Europe, as we raced to the top, with vignettes of those such as Sean Yates. "By this time, there was no mistaking him. No other cyclist had a vast mass of varicose veins that looked as if a plate of spaghetti had spilled on his lower right leg."
Wide Eyed and Legless
By Jeff Connor
Journalist Connor was press-ganged by his sports editor into joining the British team on the first leg of the Tour de France in 1987. "I was the only one who was reasonably fit while the rest on the desk were smokers and drinkers. They picked on someone who would survive." He did, but only just. A rivetting account of a gruelling defeat.
The Wheels of Chance
By HG Wells
Wells's romance has at its heart a clerk called Hoopdriver who, when on a cycling holiday, saves a damsel in distress. The idea is fine, but the plot is less than buoyant, more like a deflating tyre.
Cat
By Freya North
Too few women write about bikes. North wrings maximum girlie humour out of the sport's fanaticism when her journalist heroine is sent to cover the Tour de France.
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