Books: Cycling Biographies

Cycling biographies on this page: Fausto Coppi | Eddy Merckx: The Greatest Cyclist of the 20th Century | Frances Willard: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle

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Fausto Coppi, by Jacques Augendre. New hardcover, $95.00/each

Part# 978053172962

We have two in stock.

From the book's jacket:
The former butcher's delivery boy, who rose to the elevated position of a cycling super-star, was a hero adored and loved for his legendary exploits and dramatic misfortunes. Having experienced all of the emotional highs and lows that sport can bring, Fausto Coppi then suffered a painful decline in his personal and sporting life from which he could not recover.
The Campionissimo was a tragic hero. Fate decreed that he would die at forty years of age, and so he became the object of a myth, as much as our memory of him is surrounded by mystery. The paradoxes of his personality and the significant moments of his existence are laid out by the pen of Jacques Augendre, and through magnificent and often very moving images, the defining moments from his life are presented here.

Forty years after his death, the warmth, aura and melancholy personality of the incomparable Fausto Coppi come alive in these pages. A former journalist with the French newspaper L'Equipe and an editor of Cycle, Jacques Augendre works today as an archivist with the Société du Tour de France. He is the author of ten books on cycling.

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Eddy Merckx: The Greatest Cyclist of the 20th Century, by Rik Vanwalleghem. New paperback, $29.95/each

Translated by Steven Hawkins

Part# 9781884737725

Combing through years of cycling literature and press archives, and seeking out friends, rivals, and the man himself, the author pieces together the disparate elements of Eddy Merckx's life. Cycling icons recollect Merckx's Tour de France victories, World Hour Record, doping scandal of 1969, and physical setbacks.

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Info about the book on the inside front flap

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How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle: Reflections of an Influential 19th Century Woman, By Frances E. Willard. New paperback, $6.95/each

Part# 9708933271050

The book is a charming and insightful parable that relates women's mastery of 'machinery' to the mastery of their own lives. . .Willard was clever enough to see a parallel in her struggle to ride a bicycle with the larger struggle of her WCTU sisters to control their lives. Corsets and long skirts curtailed the potential for freedom a bicycle could bring; women's mental bondage of dependence and subservience in Victorian society were equally prohibitive. . .Willard's subtlety in linking her bicycling experience to the broader issue of women's rights was her gift to her contemporaries, as well as to the generations of women that followed. As she wrote, 'I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.' (Sacramento Bee, March 13, 1991)

About the author: Frances E. Willard (1839-1898) was widely known in the United States and abroad for her social reform efforts. Her causes included temperance, women's suffrage and education, eight hour workday, prison reform and public kindergarten. She served as president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union from 1879 until her death in 1898, building it into the largest women's organization of its time. She also founded the World WCTU, the first international organization of women. She was a popular and prolific writer, outstanding educator, astute politician and strong advocate for the emancipation of women.

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