I laughed out loud all the way through this book; it's a menace to society. ( )

Interesting account of a journey around the route of the Tour. Very funny observational comedy about his own short comings and those of people he meets. He mixes this will anecdotes about the tour and its riders and some marvellous stories. You could feel the effort he put in. ( )

Hilarious in spots, but with long dry spells in the middle. I put this down for several months before finishing it. Story of a 33-year old writer who decides to hop back on a bike for the first time in 20 years and ride the entire route of the tour de fra

A non-athletic Englishman attempts to ride the entire course of the Tour de France at his own pace in 2000 and this book is the result: part French travelogue, part Tour de France history and part journal of a personal challenge. Moore manages to complete 3000 kilometers of cycling, cheating a bit along the way, but in the end managing to impress himself with his accomplishment. Moore's observations on France, cycling, and his own challenges are honest and very funny.

"Yesterday the bicycle had been a monstrous invention, and absurdly impractical device that I'd looked at with the same amused scorn normally reserved for Reliant Robins and the wearers of platform trainers. But not now. Now it was a superlative machine, the ultimate synthesis of form and function, a part of my body." - p. 159

"The architect Le Corbusier had been born in Switzerland … and so could perhaps be forgiven for failing to predict that real-life global inhabitants of his fatefully modular concrete estates would not behave in this [orderly] fashion, choosing instead to interact with their environment by weeing in lifts and throwing tallies off the roof." - p. 225 ( )

Like Bill Bryson, Tim Moore offers a great "here's an idea, let's try this..." story. I watch the Tour de France each year, totally awed by the athleticism of the riders (forget the doping issue - how many of us could load up on EPO and STILL make it up the Alps on a bike??). The idea of just hopping on a bike and riding the route, sans any preparation, is so absurd it HAS to be funny. Moore's British humor is terrific. The only drawback to it is that on occasion his vocabulary is so British, I need a reference book. Recommended for laughs. ( )