pickabook books with huge discounts for everyone
pickabook books with huge discounts for everyone
Visit our new collection website www.collectionsforschool.co.uk
     
Email: Subscribe to news & offers:
Need assistance? Log In/Register


Item Details
Title: BUTCHER, BLACKSMITH, ACROBAT, SWEEP
THE TALE OF THE FIRST TOUR DE FRANCE
By: Peter Cossins
Format: Hardback

List price: £16.99


We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for further information.

ISBN 10: 0224100653
ISBN 13: 9780224100656
Publisher: VINTAGE PUBLISHING
Pub. date: 8 June, 2017
Pages: 368
Description: Full of adventure, mishaps and audacious attempts at cheating, the first Tour de France in 1903 was a colourful affair. Peter Cossins takes us through the inaugural Tour de France, painting a nuanced portrait of France in the early 1900s, to see where the greatest sporting event of all began.
Synopsis: Full of adventure, mishaps and audacious attempts at cheating, the first Tour de France in 1903 was a colourful affair. Its riders included characters like Maurice Garin, an Italian-born Frenchman, said to have been swapped for a round of cheese by his parents in order to smuggle him into France to clean chimneys as a teenager, Hippolyte Aucouturier with his trademark handlebar moustache, and amateurs like Jean Dargassies, a blacksmith who had never raced before. Dreamed up to revive struggling newspaper L'Auto, cyclists of the time were wary of this 'heroic' race on roads more suited to hooves than wheels, riding hefty fixed-gear bikes for three full weeks. 'With a few francs you could win 3,000', the paper declared in desperation, eventually attracting a field comprising a handful of the era's professional racers and, among other hopefuls, a butcher, painter and decorator, and a circus acrobat. Would this ramshackle pack of cyclists draw crowds to throng France's rutted roads and cheer the first Tour heroes? Surprisingly it did, and, all thanks to a marketing ruse, cycling would never be the same again. Peter Cossins takes us through the inaugural Tour de France, painting a nuanced portrait of France in the early 1900s, to see where the greatest sporting event of all began.
Publication: UK
Imprint: Yellow Jersey Press
Returns: Returnable
Some other items by this author:

TOP SELLERS IN THIS CATEGORY
Lands End to John O' Groats (Paperback)
Challenge Publications
Our Price : £5.07
more details
Piglettes (Paperback)
Pushkin Children's Books
Our Price : £7.29
more details
Cycling the Canal du Midi (Paperback)
Cicerone Press
Our Price : £10.91
more details
Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike (Paperback)
Vintage Publishing
Our Price : £9.48
more details
Lost Lanes Wales (Paperback)
Wild Things Publishing Ltd
Our Price : £10.94
more details
BROWSE FOR BOOKS IN RELATED CATEGORIES
 SPORT, TRAVEL AND LEISURE INTERESTS
 sports & outdoor recreation
 cycling, skateboarding, rollerblading
 cycling


Information provided by www.pickabook.co.uk
SHOPPING BASKET
  
Your basket is empty
  Total Items: 0
 






Early Learning
Little Worried Caterpillar (PB) Little Green knows she''s about to make a big change - transformingfrom a caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. Everyone is VERYexcited! But Little Green is VERY worried. What if being a butterflyisn''t as brilliant as everyone says?Join Little Green as she finds her own path ... with just a littlehelp from her friends.
add to basket

Early Learning
add to basket

Picture Book
All the Things We Carry PB What can you carry?A pebble? A teddy? A bright red balloon? A painting you''ve made?A hope or a dream?This gorgeous, reassuring picture book celebrates all the preciousthings we can carry, from toys and treasures to love and hope. With comforting rhymes and fabulous illustrations, this is a warmhug of a picture book.
add to basket