FRENCH REVOLUTIONS: CYCLING THE TOUR DE FRANCE

I didn't like the flippancy or overly Brit humor at first. But I grew to like the author as he morphed into a credible athlete by book's end. If you love the Tour or if you've toured by bike or foot in Europe, then you'll identify with many of his stories. It did stir a longing to have a go at some of those climbs.

What a miserable read - all the author did was whinge and moan about the french, the countryside, cycling and the food. I know Bill Bryson can offer his share of complaints in his travel books but at least his are tinged with humor.
Tim Moore is just miserable throughout.
He gets disgusted when a french town is not pretty and then disgusted when it is. He hates cycling the mountains but gets bored on the flat stretches. He gets drunk at lunchtime and drunk again in the evenings. What a bore.
The only redeeming feature was the bits of history about the Tour that are interspersed throughout.
I don't think I'll even finish it.

I recently bought this book on vacation... a little light reading. I enjoyed it for just that. It had interesting historical facts about the Tour without succombing to a history lesson. His writing style is very...British. Be aware Mr Moore describes his European neighbors and their habits in a particularly british light. Overall it was an enjoyable read.

The best part about this book was the concept: the author (an in-experienced cyclist) would ride the same route as the 2000 TourDeFrance, a few weeks in advance of the peloton. This seemed like an incredible idea to me and I was especially anxious to read the book since the reviews compared Moore's writing to one of my favorite authors - Bill Bryson. Unfortunately, the comparison escaped me. The writing just wasn't as witty and the story-telling was more "stream of conciousness" style than BB-style.
I will congratulate the author on completing the task he set out to accomplish (particularly the 270km stage at the end), but I was just not as captivated with the telling of this adventure as I had hoped. I was also disappointed that he did not bother to thank his wife for providing the support without which he would NOT have completed this journey. Rather, he claimed a "solo achievement".... Yeah. Right.
Still, it was a good cycling story - not intended for the technical cyclist, but more in the travel genre. The things I really liked about the book was it provided some good history lessons and background of the TDF for the casual race fan (the drug stories were amazing). And it also inspired me to try an adventure like this. If Mr. Moore can do it, then I guess I could too - IF my wife would agree to drive the sag wagon.