John Wilcockson is the current editor of VeloNews and has been writing about cycling since the 1960’s. In John Wilcockson’s World of Cycling are 22 of the stories he has written over the years. Much like Off To the Races by Apt this is a great collection of stories by on of the best cycling reporters.
The book is presented as a year with 1-5 stories for each month from January until November. Really to make it complete they should have found something for December. January starts with a story about the 10th of Anniversary of Moser’s hour record in 1994, when he tried to set a new one. Moser failed in his attempt but still beat his 1984 distance, which was remarkable for a man over 40. The book then goes through race of the season including the 1970 Milan-San Remo, the ’84 Paris-Roubaix. He writes about Robert Millar’s heartbreaking loss in the ’85 Vuleta, and Andy Hampsten’s wonderful ’88 Giro. I questioned his decision to use the ’96 edition to represent the Tour de France, but that is more because there were better years. Also included are the ’84 Olympics, LeMonds win in the ’89 World Championship, and many other races.
The book was published in ’98 so that was before Lance took center stage in the Tour. It does document his win in the ’93 US Pro championship.
Read anything by Wilcockson. His is a knowledgeable and compassionate point of view. I wouldn't say he is the type to ignore someone's warts, but he isn't the type to eviscerate anyone, either. Look for a film for which he was a consultant, also I believe the same title of a book by John, Twenty-three (23) Day in July. This one might be hard to find, but it is worth it. I recorded it on VHS eons ago on some cable channel. It mostly follows Phil Anderson in his quest to win the 1983 Tour. Unfortunately for him, he was on a French team, Peugeot, one of whose riders, Pascal Simon, took advantage of misfortune to Anderson to take the yellow jersey, thereby forcing Anderson to defend for him, until an injury to his collarbone forced him, Simon, to retire. The Tour that year was won by a young Laurant Fignon, a member of the French Renault squad, the same one Greg LeMond would ride for the following year in support of Fignon and even at that finish third! You know who else is in that film? A very young Phil Liggett!
Posted by: Scott Phoenix | August 17, 2010 at 10:41 PM
I questioned his decision to use the ’96 edition to represent the Tour de France, but that is more because there were better years. Also included are the ’84 Olympics, LeMonds win in the ’89 World Championship, and many other races.http://www.xtremebicyclist.com/
Posted by: Aixia300 | September 07, 2011 at 12:26 AM