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In Pursuit of the Yellow Jersey
Bicycle Racing in the Year of the
"Tortured Tour"
by Samuel Abt and James Startt
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| Format: |
6 x 9 inch trade paperback |
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Description: |
192 pages with
16-page full-color photo
insert |
| ISBN: |
1-892495-16-3 |
| Price: |
US$16.95 |
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An insightful account of the
season in which the Tour de
France lost its innocence,
to which the authors refer
as “the Tortured Tour”
In light of the recent
suicide death of Marco
Pantani, the winner of that
Tour, amid rumors of more
doping scandals unfolding,
this book should be read by
anyone interested in the
sport. |
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Read all about
the Tour de France that started in
Ireland and almost ended in chaos… |
About the book
"The Tortured Tour" is the way
the 1998 edition of the Tour de
France, the world’s most important
professional bicycle race, has been
described.
It began with a bang: Even before
the race had started in Dublin,
Ireland, a doping scandal involving
the number-one rated team, Festina,
upstage the sporting aspect. And it
never calmed down after that, as
daily stage results and the fortune
of the race’s favorites were pushed
off newspaper front pages by reports
of police raids, rider expulsions,
arrests, and strikes.
Yet by the time the Tour had wound
its way through much of France and
ended in Paris, we saw some great
racing. While Marco Pantani, the
Italian star, was clearly the man of
the moment, he shared the limelight
with Bobby Julich, a rising American
racer, and Jan Ullrich, who was the
defending champion in the Tour.
In and around the Tour, we also find
such new faces as George Hincapie,
the American national champion, his
teammate Tyler Hamilton, and
Australian champion Stuart O’Grady.
And we meet old friends, like
three-time Tour de France winner
Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong,
first struggling and then succeeding
in his comeback from cancer.
This personal account by Samuel Abt
and James Startt illuminates the
Tour de France and the sport of
bicycle racing itself.
About the authors
Samuel Abt
is associate editor of the
International Herald Tribune, based
in Paris, and has written about
bicycle racing for that paper and
the New York Times for over
two decades. He has written
seven previous books about the sport
and is the only American awarded the
Medal of the Tour de France for
distinguished service to the sport.
James Startt is a
photographer and writer based in
Paris. He has been following
European bike racing for many years
and regularly reports on the sport
for U.S. cycling publications. He is
editor of the English-language
version of the Tour de France
Internet Web site. His photos have
been prominently exhibited at major
photo galleries in Paris and were
selected for the 1999 Oakland
(California) Museums bicycle
exhibition. In this book, we don't
only get to see his photographs, but
also his writings.
Table of Contents
Prologue:
Voices in the Crowd
Part I: All Roads Lead to
the Tour
1. Spring Warm-Up:
Saturday in the Park with
Jaja
2. The Feisty Lance
3. A Visitor
4. Back to Square One
5. Square Two
6. An Ardennes Classic
7. The Little Corporal
8. Forty-One Years and
Counting
9. Back in the Hospital
10. A Helping Hand
11. Not Much Luck
12. He Had Some Fun
13. Missing a Good Time
14. Michelin Man
15. Looking for Another Big
One
16. Champion for an Hour
Part II: The Tortured
Tour
17. Mario the
Magnificent
18. On a Roller Coaster
19. The Festina Case: Part
One
20. On the Sidelines
21. The Prologue
22. Stage One: Steels Starts
His Collection
23. Stage Two: King Kelly
Day
24. Le Tour à France
25. Stage Three: Vain Hopes
26. The Festina Case: Part
Two
27. Stage Four: Doing Their
Best
28. Stage Five: The Lion
King Roars
29. The Festina Case: Part
Three
30. Stage Six: A Lesson in
Team Tactics |
31. The
Festina Case: Part Four
32. Stage Seven: An American
Dream
33. Stuart O’Grady’s Big
Kahuna
34. The Festina Case: Part
Five
35. Stage Eight: Glory for a
Lesser God
36. Stage Nine: Getting
Ready for the Mountains
37. Stage 10: The Natural
Order of Things
38. Stage 11: Pantani Comes
Out
39. The Festina Case: Part
Six
40. Stage 12: The Tour in
Doubt
41. Stage 13: The Tour
Survives Itself
42. Stage 14: What Doping
Scandal?
43. Nails for Breakfast
44. Stage 15: Into the Alps
45. Stage 16: A Great Rider
46. Stage 17: Time to
Protest
47. A Spectator’s View
48. Stage 18: Time for
Reflection
49. Stage 19: The Longest
Day
50. Stage 20: His Own Merckx
51. Stage 21: Homecoming
PART III: Along the Road
to the Tour
52. A Furtive Outsider
53. The Man in the Yellow
Jersey
54. Jaja’s Last Stand
55. Tyler Hamilton’s Quiet
Fight
56. Post-Tour Tummy Troubles
57. Night in Jail
58. Drug Talk: Taking Testa
to the Limit
59. Getting On: Festina
Riders Reflect
60. Sponsors Shift Gears
61. The Next Tour
62. From Here On
Index |
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From the contents |
American rider Bobby Julich stretching
before the Stage 7 time trial
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Austrian rider Georg Totschnig hard at work for
Germany's Telekom team
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Lance Armstrong during
his "first career," before his cancer
diagnosis.
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