FRENCH REVOLUTIONS: CYCLING THE TOUR DE FRANCE

Okay, okay, how do I say this nicely? This book is all but unreadable. Period. But not for the reason(s) you might think. The author is British. I am a not, and frankly, half the time while toiling through this book, I didn't have a clue as to what this writer was talking about. You see, that's because the book is written a la "British humor". British humor combined with late 20th century British slang terms, references, in-country gossip, yada, yada,yada. It's a book written by a Y2K Brit for fellow Y2K Brits. While his stories of previous Tour races are interesting and well written, so much of the rest of the book, like I said before, had me more than once thinking, "What is this guy talking about??"

All you Anglophiles can turn up your noses if you wish, but I personally would not recommend this book. I am sorry I bought it; even used, it was not worth it.

If you have a sense of humor and ride a bike I doubt you'll find a better book.This book is the "Walk In The Woods" of cycling.I laughed until I cried and I'm not kidding!

It's not the best travel book ever written but I'd also say that it wasn't time wasted either. I had fun reading it and often laughed outloud (granted, the French make it easy for us to laugh at them). Enjoy the book if you buy it.

Existing comments encapsulate most of my thoughts about the book. I'm adding a review to support those comments and add a new perspective.

I used to do solo cycle long distance touring and I understand the rigors and difficulties. In many respects, the days get very repetitive; some parts of a trip can only be differentiated in one's memory by studying a map and remembering details.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first couple of chapters; he described his naivety in a clever way. Once he got rolling on the trip, the effectiveness of his humor started to diminish and the laughs became more scarce.

His journal evolved mostly into a daily cycle of: I ate poorly; I felt bad all day; people were rude to me; I was rude to people; then I found a hovel for that night's lodging. Also, when he encountered a cyclist going in the same direction or had a traveling companion, he often tried to upstage the other cyclist. It became a tiresome litany. The last third of the book became a chore to read; when I lost track of my place, it would be hard to find it again because every section read almost the same.

I expect that this repetitive cycle was his experience. I wish he (or his editor) had reduced the monotony of that cycle by focusing on the events that were more distinctive. Also, editing was needed to strip the clutter created by too many allusions to pop culture used as colorful allegories for simple conditions.

Without question, the redeeming quality of the book was his recounting of TdF history in the context of his current surroundings. Those were the gems that kept me motivated to complete the book.

One final thought: I expect that Moore accurately recounted his actual tour and that he didn't cheat (any more than he described in the book). I also expect that he was able to accomplish his ride because his performance and endurance greatly improved during the trip and he chose not to describe this. Instead, he told us about his bad nutrition...an area where I think he did exaggerate for literary effect. For example, I was incredulous that he could gain weight during the trip.

I have a hunch that Moore would be an excellent on-air commenter adding "color" to a Tour de France broadcast. His glibness would be delivered in manageable chunks and would be directly relevant to the action.

I loved this book. It was a little difficult to read as Moore is very British, but this also made the book entertaining.
It's was a slow read for me, but that gave me a chance to savor the trip!
I often felt I was right there with him on his journey around France.