Too engrossed in the televised coverage of the Tour de France to actually go out on your bike?
Well, the next best thing is to pick up one of the many cycling genre books on the market and become immersed in the facts, fictions, follies and thrills of the Grand Tours, the characters and the tactics.
Here is my list of favourite bits of writing in no particular order;
The story, inspiring and tragic of Dave Rayner, a Sheffield rider who rode on the continent and was destined for great things only to be killed in a city centre incident.
His legacy, The Dave Rayner Fund, has given the chance of European competition to many British cyclists with its
beneficiaries now performing at the Elite Pro level.
A coffee table book with route maps of all of the Tours de France up until the Yorkshire Grand Depart in 2014.
I enjoyed using the maps to try to work our where on earth I saw the 1984 race from the roadside astride my own bike.
I am none the wiser but have some 35mm prints to prove that I was there.
A chance to look up all of those team and national jerseys across the years that you came across in the pages of Cycling Weekly and other bike magazines.
Some classics and some shockers.
One of the first candid and honest factual works by a rough, tough Irish Rider, Paul Kimmage.
He was a domestique or general support rider at a time when non-Europeans were a rarity and a novelty in the peleton.
A text book covering the basics of getting into cycle racing.
Useful for those thinking about competition but of course nothing can really prepare you for the reality of a lung busting, leg aching and terrifying experience in that first event on the road.
This guy must have been good at the text book theory to have been so exceptional in dominating the racing scene for so long.
A one in a million athlete.
A great story of genius, perseverance, success against the odds with a backdrop of personal trauma by and about a very single minded character.
His battles with Chris Boardman on the track are things of legend.
The enigmatic Irishman figured amongst the emerging non-European riders in the Grand Tours with Kelly, Millar, Peiper, Anderson and the Americans of Lemond and Hampsten.
Roche achieved the triple of the Tours of France and Italy and the World Championship in the same year.
A fascinating book about the rivalry between these two greats and with modern day interviews on what really went on in what has been called the greatest ever Tour de France.
The darkest side of pro cycling is depicted in this confession style book by Tyler Hamilton, one of the former team mates of the disgraced Lance Armstrong.
The book blows open the doping epidemic in the peleton which was known but suppressed from the public.
I just find myself coming back to re-read this book about an ordinary man taking on and riding the route of the Tour de France.
There are some real laugh out loud moments between the sympathetic emotions and tears.
For those thinking about starting from scratch this book is inspirational.
Just finished this backstage account of the 2004 Tour de France by the former manager of The Clash.
Wandering freely around the race village and press centre there are some opportunities for mischief and mayhem.
The writer, his son and a lawyer friend get hold of an Official Pass and make the most of the buffet and freebies as well as putting 5000 miles on the odometer of a hire car.
A warts and all account which is eye opening and refreshing.
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