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Blazing Saddles: The Cruel and Unusual History of the Tour de France by Matt Rendell For more than a century, the Tour de France has captured the world's imagination as the ultimate test of man's strength and willpower. Blazing Saddles is a riotous tale of the inspiring and sometimes astonishing history of cycling's most famous race and its whimsical mishaps and astounding feats. Award-winning sports writer Matt Rendell plunges into "La Grande Boucle," describing everything from the clothing of the first Tour winner (white blazer, black trousers, wool socks) to the earliest method of cheating (riding the train). Blazing Saddles recounts the famous rivalries and riders that contested the Tour, setting the score straight with complete records of every podium finisher. Rendell's vivid storytelling is complemented with more than one hundred classic black and white photographs, portraying cycling's heroes and martyrs from Jacques Anquetil to Lance Armstrong. Fans young and old will marvel at this delightful compilation of cycling's greatest capers and most amazing superstars. Hardcover with jacket. B&w photos throughout. 5 1/2" x 8", 320 pp.
201BS, $24.95
978-1-934030-25-7 "Lively and insightful writing…an entertaining resource for any racing fan. If you could have only one book on the history of the world's greatest bike race, you couldn't do better than Blazing Saddles." —RoadBikeRider.com"This book earned Podium Cafe's first ever five-star rating! Blazing Saddles takes a brief look at each edition of the Tour and tries to ferret out a story or two that adds color to the sport. Call it 92 stories about the Tour de France, if you will. The book's essential value lies in bringing many of these lost stories back to life. Rendell carefully picks out those stories which lend both color and insight into the world's greatest race and the utterly abnormal people destined to ride it." —PodiumCafe.com To read the full review, click here."What sets Blazing Saddles apart is Matt Rendell's unwillingness to worship at the Tour de France altar and his enthusiasm to hold up elements that are ridiculous, unsporting or even unsavoury to the light. Read this book, enjoy its often hilarious photos, and ponder this rich event that mixes so much of the human condition, for better and for worse, into three immortal weeks." —Pezcyclingnews.com"A concise and thrilling year-by-year history of the Tour de France. Blazing Saddles is great for road race buffs, but it's also perfect for anyone with even a passing interest in the Tour." —Out There Monthly"Mr. Rendell reigns in the endless stories and anecdotes that abound concerning le Tour and presents them in a way that engages and satisfies. The book is particularly enjoyable and eminently readable, with a writing style that verges on the jocular." —thewashingmachinepost.netMatt Rendell is the author of Kings of the Mountain and A Significant Other. His biography The Death of Marco Pantani was the 2007 National Sporting Club Best Biography and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. View the Table of Contents (500 kb pdf). View a Sample Chapter (500 kb pdf).
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