French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France

Funny. Funny. Funny. I like that Moore's writing is unapologetic snarky. If you are sensitive to sarcasm and foul language, stay away! This book is lightly peppered with words only a hearty rant could benefit from. Take a slightly out-of-shape, thirty something year old British guy who gets it into his head he can ride the Tour-de-France. Outfit him with a bike and ridiculous clothes and the fact he has no idea what he's doing. Suddenly you've got a beyond hilarious story. Tim Moore ignores all common sense reason and sets out to bike all 2,256 miles of the race before the actual professionals take the stage. Each chapter is a different leg of the Tour and what's great about Moore's account (aside from his incessant bellyaching) is the show more historical perspective he gives along the way. He isn't shy about providing graphic descriptions of the trials and tribulations of the male body after eight to ten hours in the saddle, either. I could open French Revolutions any page and find something hysterically funny, and more often than not, off color. show less

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.

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 show more 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 tellies off the roof." - p. 225 show less

Only the drunk, mad or those in search of a topic would cycle the Tour de France with no prior training. Moore fits into, at least, the third category.

So Moore greases up the bicycle, almost gets himself killed before leaving London, and rides the Tour de France, mountains and all. Moore has always been one for self-deprecating remarks so it's hard to tell how much is exaggeration and how much is indeed Moore incredibly out of his depth and near death in the Alps. Whatever the case, a good laugh is the result.

Moore combines an account of his own journey over the 2000 Tour de France route with reflections on the Tour and Tour riders, France (mostly) and Switzerland (a bit), and a lot of pain and suffering. His achievement, if it is to be believed, is not insignificant but it isn't lauded much on the page. Instead his wry and deprecating humour drives the reader's journey, and a very enjoyable journey it is. 1 Jan 2018.

Another cycling book for the Tour de France. However this is less a cycling book than a humorous travel book through France, along the lines of Bill Bryson. Moore isn't a serious cyclist, and deliberately sets himself up for failure. Possibly he didn't prepare because he was hoping for a book deal, and figured it would be more interesting this way? I found it a bit annoying, just as much as his faux naivete or dishonestly hyperbolic descriptions (or that he skipped a lot of the Tour route). Readable, and, if you set low expectations, occasionally humorous.

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.