A funny and irreverent look behind the scenes at the 2014 Tour de
France
Join Ned Boulting as he reports on his dozen-th Tour de France, an event
in which blokes do amazing things on bikes, and, we're oft told, the
biggest annual sporting event in the world. This account is a chance to
relive the 2014 race, stage for stage, fall after fall, tantrum by
tantrum; just the good parts, mind you, without all the aerial shots of
castles. Or sunflowers. (Though it does wax lyrical about some stunning
Alpine scenery . . . and, with the race starting in Yorkshire, even some
stunning scenery not far from Bradford). From Leeds to Paris (how often
do you say that?), Ned details the minutiae of his encounters with the
likes of Vincenzo Nibali, David Millar, Chris Froome, Chris Boardman (or
"Broadman" as some would have it), Marcel Kittel, Mrs. Cavendish (Mark's
wife), Peter Sagan, and the rest. Their endeavors, achievements, humor,
and occasional rancor sit alongside his own decade-long quest for the
ideal end-of-race T-shirt. Ned weaves together the interesting, amusing,
and unheralded threads of the race itself, and reflects on his own
perennial struggle to get round, get on, and get by. 101 Damnations
encapsulates all that is incredible--and incredibly ordinary--about the
greatest race on earth.
