You don’t have to understand the anatomy & physiology of flexibility to appreciate the value that Flexibility for Cyclists has to offer. You don’t have to sort through hundreds of stretches trying to figure out what to do!

You simply open this manual and follow the images and instruction from beginning to end and you will have a complete flexibility routine for all of your cycling needs. It couldn’t possibly get any easier than this.

Founded in 1981 by Jim Ochowicz and Olympic medalist Eric Heiden and sponsored by the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores, the team rounded up the best amateur cyclists in North America and formed them into a cohesive, European-style cycling team. As amateurs, they dominated the American race scene and won seven medals at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. As professionals, beginning in 1985, the team went to Europe and soon received invitations to the Tour of Italy and then the Tour de France, putting Americans on the podium in landmark victories that would change the face of American cycling forever.

Prepared with the enthusiastic cooperation of the team members and co-authored by the team’s founder, Jim Ochowicz, 7-Eleven is not only the most important missing piece in the story of American cycling, but the book that American cyclists have been waiting for ever since the 7-Eleven cowboys snagged that first yellow jersey.

There was American pro cycling before the Lance Armstrong era, and if you want to know about it, here’s your passport.

From Eric Heiden to Andy Hampsten, Ron Kiefel, Alex Stieda, Davis Phinney, Chris Carmichael, and Bob Roll, all the members of the first American cycling team to make it in European professional cycling are here, orchestrated by Jim Ochowicz. Eddy Merckx and Greg LeMond appear, along with other members of the peloton interacting with the 7-Eleven team.

The writing flows smoothly, holds your attention, and there are plenty of quotes from the riders. This history is personal: it’s about the riders, rather than the abstract forces of cycling history. Some nice photographs as well.

You can read it in a few hours, and you may well go back and leaf through for favorite passages from time to time.

When you finish this book, you’ll certainly know a lot more about where all these people in cycling came from.

This is a good book to cover the start of professional bike racing here in the U.S., but the writing leaves a lot to be desired. Lots of info on the startup, but once the story moves to Europe, it gets very spotty, and like many sponsorship breakups, it ends very abruptly and without a great deal of anaysis.

I enjoyed the reading, but it was very hit and miss. Would like to have seen a little more description of the racing history through more of the years the team was together. I think I was expecting something a little more like Bob Roll’s or Chris Carmichael’s memories; but the sudden wrap-up here leaves you a little confused and disappointed.

Robbie McEwen is a case in point.

Possessing the right physical attributes just isn’t enough to achieve over a long period of time – as he has done (you only have to point to the scoreboard for that: there’s an impressive list of his wins at the end of the book). To be a top athlete in any sphere, you also need be be single-minded and driven, ruthless (a touch of the mongrel), resilient, have a good work ethic, be sensibly fearless and have more than the normal dose of street smartness.

McEwen is a sprinter par excellence. We may all find great intrigue and thrill in the race for general classification, like the tussle for the Yellow Jersey in the Tour de France – but for my money the sprinters are the real excitement machines. Nothing gets the blood boiling more than watching a number of sprinters hurtling towards that line, defying danger in a runaway train of fast-twitch muscles and adrenalin.

McEwen is as forthright in this book as he is on his bike, taking us into the heart of the peleton and giving us a sneak look behind the scenes.

While he doesn’t dwell on some of the murkier sides of the sport, such as money changing hands, drugs and physical confrontations, he doesn’t ignore them.

I like the way that this book chronicles just about the whole of his cycling years from feisty youth to the twilight of his career and the realisation that it will all end soon. Although he has passed the sprinting baton to another generation (he talks about the first time “a little fat guy in pink”, Mark Cavendish, flashed past him and later likens him to a younger version of himself) he believes he still has something to contribute, perhaps imparting some of that deep well of knowledge on to younger riders.

He says he will enjoy going for the ride just for the pleasure of it. Though he admits that if the surf is up on the Gold Coast or a golf game beckons, he’s going to have to weigh it up.

McEwen admits he has a Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde image problem in cycling. Mr Hyde has had his day, now it’s time for Dr Jekyl to be front and centre more often.

This book is a two-part guide to healthy eating for every triathlete who wants to lead a healthier life.

Part one is an introduction to basic nutrition and shows you how to go from eating a poor diet to a healthy diet, while part two transitions the reader into what needs to be done to actually eat for training and competition.

Nutrition & Endurance: Triathlon makes for an informative read with some triathlon-specific information within and is a worthy addition to a cross-training, cross-discipline library.

Daniel Lee’s enthusiasm for the sport of professional cycling and the journey one takes to achieve his or her dreams makes the Belgian Hammer a must read for any junior (and their parents) along with anyone who is a fan of the competitive spirit. The factors that can influence that competitive spirit is closely examined by Daniel in a way that makes the Belgian Hammer a terrific read. The characters researched for this book are relevant for today’s enjoyment of professional cycling and will certainly help shape the future of the sport in a positive manner.

So take a look and enjoy! You won’t be disappointed.

It start with the desire of a teacher in a school in the UK to go to teach in a school in India. “Oh, how will you get there, Sir?” asked one of the children. It was an innocent question, you might think, except that Danny had been educating his class all about the environmental consequences of using different types of transport. And planes had been described as being a very bad idea indeed – they even merited a poster with a great big red cross all over it.

The humble bicycle, on the other hand, that was environmentally-friendly. Gulp! Well, could Danny destroy all his pupils’ trust in one lazy and inconsiderate action? No, he couldn’t. It was time to get on his bike and peddle away – peddle a very long way, in fact.

He decided to get his trip sponsored for the benefit of Action Aid and, in turn, for the benefit of a women’s group in India which was oppressed but had great potential if given an honest chance.

His stories strike me as being entirely honest too. I didn’t get the impression that anything was made up, or even played up, although a great deal happened. Luckily for us, Danny has a bit of the Peter Ustinov about him when it comes to being a story teller, and he also has the late Mr. Ustinov’s cheerful candor which results in his being sucked into far more local activities than would be availed to many of us.

If you could, for a moment, Peter Ustinov on a bike. Actually, that doesn’t work at all. Imagine a very slim bearded ginger-headed guy on a bike telling you entertaining and emotional stories of endurance and delight.

And what stories! I don’t suppose that all books recording the events of great adventures need to masquerade as how-to guides, but if you ever need to know how to drink goat soup made with pestilent water and survive the resultant food poisoning, or how to speed away from a determined bandit with a whip when 4,000 metres above sea level and suffering from oxygen deprivation, or how not to freeze to death camping out in the open during a Central Asian winter, or how to stay calm when a gun is pointing into your eyes or people all around you are staggering around with blood gushing from their heads, or how to go to the toilet in an exceedingly disgusting public utility bare-bottomed and open to the scrutiny of the entire town, or how to ‘skitch’, this is exactly the book for you.

As Danny crosses Central Asia, you realise just how tame Western Europe is, given that his toughest task there was to find a shop open in Belgium on a public holiday, but I also came to the conclusion that I wasn’t planning to visit some of the ‘Stan’ countries of Eastern Europe in an armoured car escorted by a tank division any time soon, never mind on a bike. Better Danny than me. He has the guts, he has the drive, he has the insanity and he has the warmth of heart that brought out the generous, friendly and hospitable best from so many people he met along the way.

Indeed, that is the real lesson of Danny’s book – that people across the world are decent and willing to go to huge lengths to help in a crisis, or even without one.

Danny’s journey is the result of a decision that took twenty years and one minute to make. For twenty years he had wanted to do something to raise money for charity. The one minute was when, as their teacher, he was put on the spot by his pupils.

Graham Watson has devoted his celebrated career to the art of cycling photography. His passionate work is internationally renowned and his reputation is founded on years of experience. Since his professional debut at the 1977 Tour de France, Graham Watson has not missed the chance to photograph the world’s most riveting sporting event.

Landscapes of Cycling offers another fantastic collection of competitive cycling images from around the World by Graham Watson.

Whether you’re a cyclist or a non-cyclists, the scenery is of such a spectacular nature that it makes a great book for the coffee table.

In Boy Racer, Mark Cavendish, one of today’s greatest young sports prodigies at just 25, tells his coming of age story in a speed-readingly riveting style. His battles with his opponents, coaches and, most of all himself in a voice very much his own. The story is cleverly weaved through each chapter – which begins with his story of each stage of the 2008 Tour De France and then shifts to a relevant part of his efforts to take himself from youth on the tiny isle of Man to the top of a sport in less than ten years.

It might seem absurd for a 25 year old to write an autobiography – but when you read it, you realise that the immediacy and freshness of the experiences make this almost a sportscasting style of biography with a rawness that is not possible if written through the lens of someone at the end of their career.

It’s a deeply personal story of massive ups and downs – of Cavendish’s inner battles with his own volatility and learning how to channel his often dysfunctional almost manic / depressive energy in ways that could be useful. From winning a world championship to sitting alone in a room eating endless bags of chips to joining a pro team to losing when he was expected to win, to his scally-waggish pranks on his team-mates to their punishment with hours riding.

Cavendish is, of course, the brash hero – but he is self deprecating and appreciative of the people that brought him to where he is. Those that didn’t help, of course, get a bit of a Manx-style smack-down.

Hats off to you, Mr. Cavendish. You can write nearly as well as you ride.

From lung busting city centre cobbles to leg breaking windswept mountain passes, this guide locates the roads that have tested riders for generations and worked their way into cycling folklore. Whether you’re a leisure cyclist looking for a challenge or an elite athlete trying to break records stick this book in your pocket and head for the hills.

Simon Warren has lived and breathed bikes and cycling for over 20 years. He’s won a few races, held a first category racing licence and competed – and struggled – at the highest level in the UK, but most of all he loves to ride his bike uphill.

He spent seven years working as a designer at Cycling Weekly before leaving to broaden his horizons in 2003, although he still regularly contributes event reports to the magazine.

Get more information about: 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs: A Road Cyclist’s Guide to Britain’s Hills.

Bicycle Road Racing: The Complete Program for Training and Competition is a great book.

Sure it’s out-dated, but, why mind? This book has a LOT of good advice for any racing cyclist. It covers a lot of aspects in cycling, and most of them in reasonable depth. There are valuable tips abound, including tips for sprinting, climbing, playing with the others’ mind, how to manage a cross-wind, a breakaway.

There is perhaps one flaw and that is the training season approach to a training program. That was where there was a fixed season and fixed number of hours for all types of riders. We now know that everyone is different and therefore need a different training approach. While this approach may not be as effective as others, chances are, the less elite of us riders probably won’t notice the difference.

If you are elite, then I would probably recommend hiring a coach to help you anyway.

Some other chapters are outdated, like bike positioning and equipment but his team time trial techniques are great if you are in a breakaway. You’ll learn many good techniques for dropping the peleton.

There’s a mention about teamwork and what needs to happen to get the job done.

Fresh off the back of a Grand Tour, preparing for you next competitive race or just someone wanting to know a little more about the discipline that goes into elite cycling, Bicycle Road Racing: The Complete Program for Training and Competition makes for a great read.

This book was written for professionals who work on cycling matters, and for the cyclists who want to properly advise and influence them. It should be said that Bicycle Transportation does not make good bedtime reading.

John hits the pavement spinning by defining the two incompatible hypotheses regarding cycling transportation, the vehicular cycling principle and the cyclist-inferiority superstition. The scientifically valid evidence supports the vehicular principle, but governments and the general public accept the superstition. Hence, this book includes psychology and politics as well as engineering. The vehicular principle is “cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles.” The cyclist-inferiority superstition says that “the roads are too dangerous for cyclists, … therefore, … safer facilities must be made for cyclists, so that they can ride safely to wherever they might wish to go.”

This is a book for those who want change: change in their own attitudes to bicycling, and, more importantly, change in the attitude of transportation authorities. Bicycle Transportation will be a valuable resource for cycling advocates and for those few professionals who can overlook the shower of insults that accompanies the words of a real expert in the field.

A weight-loss program for people who want to drop pounds of fat while learning a new sport, this book offers training plans that turbocharge metabolism along with complementary nutritional advice. Each chapter is seasoned with anecdotal tips, success stories, pitfalls, and other advice from real people who have ridden themselves lean.

Ride Your Way Lean advocates cycling as an exercise and lifestyle choice to lean up. It begins with very basic information: why cycling, how to buy a bike, equipment – and my fear was that it would be too simplistic for my needs. It gets a bit more helpful though, with good discussions of basic nutrition, eating plans, ride plans, indoor trainer exercises, off-bike exercises and other goodies.

I would recommend this book to somebody who’s considering or just getting into cycling. For more seasoned riders wanting more depth of content, see Base Building for Cyclists by Chapple, or The Time Crunched Cyclist by Carmichael.

The only part that I found not good was the training season. That was the old way of training, with a fixed season and fixed number of hours for all types of riders. Everyone is different and therefore need a different training method. I do not advice to follow 100% his training plan, specially if you’re a beginner. Hire a coach to help you or do it at your own risk. Eddie has a “iron hand” on his way of coaching and says: my way or no way. I don’t believe this, but hey!, he was grown in the eastern-old-world. This may stop you, take care.

Some other chapters are outdated, like bike positioning, equipment choices and the now almost defunct team-time-trial, but his TTT techniques are great if you are in a breakaway.

He has a very clear way of writing and thinking. Some might suggest this book is MUCH better than those of Greg Lemond, Bernard Hinault and their compatriots. You’ll learn many good techniquess for dropping your companions and competitors which always provides for a sense of achievement.

He tells a lot of how a team should work to get their job done. A great book for the aspiring racing cyclist.

Brandt’s advice faces challenges from within the bicycle industry, which is always looking for a new selling point. Wheels with low spoke counts, trendy now (2006) are more tolerable with deep-section aero rims than with shallow rims and can make sense for racers, who are willing to sacrifice reliability for a very slight increase in performance — but for most bicyclists, it is much more important not to get stranded or crash than to increase speed by half a percent.

Some of the newer types of wheels may sell because they look different, but provide little actual advantage. Wheels with thick aluminum or polycarbonate spokes decrease weight slightly but at a major expense in air drag. Carbon-fiber spokes have a very poor record of reliability and safety, though carbon-fiber-epoxy composite material has been used successfully in rims and in single-piece formed wheels. Still, brake shoes wear carbon-fiber-epoxy quickly, so a metal braking surface is preferable.

Jobst Brandt is an engineer who has been a consultant to the bicycle industry for many years, having been involved in the creation of Avocet’s line of road tires, among other products. Those who have corresponded with him or read his posts on rec.bicycling know him as an opinionated, seemingly gruff fellow who does not suffer fools lightly. Quite a reputation.

But what Jobst is probably best known for is this book, The Bicycle Wheel. In it, he demolishes myths, and gives actual engineering data to support his contentions about bicycle wheels materials and construction. He tells you why butted spokes are better and longer lasting than straight gauge spokes, and why tying and soldering spokes doesn’t make a wheel any stronger (and why it was nonetheless a useful thing for track racers to do). He explains why radial spokes don’t really make for a rougher ride, as some claim, and he gives actual figures on elongation and strain to back up his claims And he teaches you how to build good bicycle wheels, too.

This is a book for any serious bicycle rider. If you choose to build your own wheels, Brandt will teach you to that. If you buy your wheels, Brandt will teach you to spec and maintain them. And if you’re simply interested in better understanding the function and physics of bicycle wheels, he’ll teach you that as well. Not a bad deal for one small volume.

Sharp shows how much engineering knowledge was known about bicycles at the early parts of the 20th century. No wonder bikes were the precursors to –the automobile, –the airplane, –Harleys!
Concerns about bottom-bracket flex, weight distribution, climbing efficiency, transmission systems, steering control, comfort, stability at speed, etc. are all covered. Various materials and their pros and cons are covered (but back then exotic materials were bamboo and heat treated rolled steel!).
If you are an engineer or have a good background in math, you will be entertained by the incredible amounts of analysis presented in the text.

One of Sharp’s goals was to debunk the truly awful designs of his day, and hopefully bring about their demise. When the book was written, the “ordinary” had only recently given way to the “safety,” and the proliferation of designs described here is truly mind-boggling. As a historical record of early bicycle design, no other book even comes remotely close.

The technical section is thorough enough to qualify as an engineering textbook, and needs no updating. The section on the design of individual components is of course limited by what was available at the time, but nevertheless is still of interest. After the numerous references to this book in Mike Burrows’ “Bicycle Design,” I had searched unsuccessfully for years for a used copy. The reissue of Sharp at a reasonable price shouldn’t be passed up by anyone with even a passing interest in bicycle design and history. Be forewarned: this is a faithful facsimile of the original, and as such, the typeface isn’t as clear as what we’re used to nowadays. We’re lucky that the book is available at all, and the most recent edition is undoubtedly superior in appearance to the original (if you can even find one).

If you are just a techie bike geek like me you will still enjoy it without breaking out the calculator to verify the formula. There are lots of ‘pretty pictures’ and well explained concepts to inform and entertain anyone interested in the fundamental engineering principles and concerns of bicycles.

See all winners of the Tour de France since 1947.

Winners of the Big Three National Tours — Since 1947:

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/bicycles-faq/part1/section-21.html#ixzz0rHIbcOKB

The authors have presented much of the material in the book at seminars around the country. I attended one of those in 2005 in Sacramento, CA, so I was already familiar with much of the material in the book even before reading it. Also, much of the material has been presented and discussed in the Wattage discussion list on topica (lists.topica.com/lists/wattage/). The beauty of this book is that it collects all this valuable information, and much more, and presents it in a well organized manner in one place.

An early chapter describes each of the four major presently available commercial power meters (SRM, PowerTap, Polar and ergomo). It covers their relative advantages and disadvantages. The same chapter covers the software that is included with each power meter plus other standalone software offerings including CyclingPeaks which was developed by the coauthors along with Kevin Williams. Many examples from the book include screen shots and examples from CyclingPeaks but the ideas they convey are explained in the text so no prior knowledge of CyclingPeaks is necessary. If you are contemplating buying a power meter, this chapter alone is worth the price of the book.

The starting point to train using a power meter is to determine your Functional Threshold Power (FTP). The book explains several alternative methods to do this. Once FTP is known, the authors present a system of seven defined training levels. The explanation of why seven levels are chosen, what the purpose of each is and power and heart rate ranges (where those are appropriate) for each level are given. The power ranges are expressed for each level as a percentage of FTP. For example, level 4 is the lactate threshold level with power range of 95-105% of FTP. The justification for selecting these seven levels (sometimes called “zones” in other books on cycling training) is the clearest I’ve ever read on the subject. The rationale for and benefits of training at each of the levels would be valuable information even to a cyclist who wasn’t training with a power meter.

Many novel concepts are introduced in the book. The concept of “power profile” is one example. This involves measuring the maximum power that you can sustain for four selected time intervals – 5 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes and FTP. These are then converted to watts per kilogram. A table in the book (separate for men and women) allows you to see where you stand on a scale ranging from untrained to world class level. By determining your own profile and monitoring it over the course of time, you can see better your strengths and weaknesses as a cyclist.

There is simply too much novel material in Training and Racing With a Power Meter to do it justice in a review of reasonable length. Just to mention, in the most cursory way, other novel concepts introduced and covered in detail the book are Normalized Power (NP), Intensity Factor (IF), Training Stress Score (TSS), “sweet spot” training and Quadrant Analysis. NP and IF are introduced to define TSS. TSS is proposed as a method to quantify and monitor the total training load that a cyclist carries.

Other chapters in the book tell how to develop a training plan based on power. Sample workouts and sample multi-week training blocks are given.

If you’ve gone to the trouble and expense of putting a power meter on your bike, you owe it to yourself to get this book and read it.

Thanks to James Turner (Menlo Park, CA USA) for this review.

In this lively and informative book, Dodge charts the history of a remarkable invention, which moved not only the body but also the intellect and the imagination. It affected the social, economic and moral spheres of everyday life.

The Bicycle explores the rich and varied history of cycles and cyclists – beginning in the early 19th century, when “running machines” caught the fancy of the fashionalbe world in Europe. It goes onto explore the bicycle’s “Golden Age” in the 1890s.

By the early 20th century, bicycle technology was also being used in the auto-mobile and aviation industries, while ironically, the popularity of the bicycle itself declined.

Today, however, the overcrowding and pollution of our cities has shown the auto-mobile to be a dangerous and unviable solution to the future of transportation and the bicycle clubs and pressure groups have once again presided over a book in leisure cycling.

The Bicycle is a beautifully designed volume, an extraordinary compilation of visual material drawn from the author’s collection of antique bicycles, posters, prints and memorabilia – one of the largest private collections in the world.

Whether you’re reading this during one of the most famous bike races (posted during the 2011 Tour de France) or at any other time, it is truly a remarkable book and a timely tribute to one of the greatest inventions of the modern era..

I was delighted to learn that it had just been republished for the first time since 1902. Yes, 1902 – although Stevens started his trip in 1884. This intrepid wheelman (note: “wheel” is singular because Stevens’ cycle was so dominated by the 50 inch front wheel he would often just refer to it as his “wheel”) recorded his adventures and thoughts about the people and lands he visited during 13,500 miles of cycling.

As you might expect from a bicycle journalist, Stevens carefully describes the riding quality of most of the roads and trails he followed, comments on his many headers, and joked about the amount of food he could eat at the end of a long day pedalling a 41 pound bicycle.

The book is far more than a cycling story. It is a glimpse into a world that is long-gone yet still relevant today.

More than 100 years ago he saw the hostility between different ethnic groups in the Balkans, he visited Kurdish nomads in what is now northern Iraq, commented on how the mullahs were preventing Iran from modernising, etc.

Truly a classic traveller’s tale, one that you’d been tempted to pay $100+ for. This is an excellent reprint of the original, with all its illustrations, plus some of Stevens’s other writings on his trip, with a well-footnoted introduction.

Anybody’s Bike Book is the book you’ll want if you want a straight fixit manual that is low-priced and low-key.

Cuthbertson gives you a list of tools to buy, then provides understanding and understandable step-by-step procedures for maintenance and for simple repair jobs. Cartoon-like drawings are clear and helpful.

Perhaps not as detailed as Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance or any of the other, now famous, Zinn books but it is illustrated with fun, funky and extremely helpful drawings that describe how to troubleshoot when out on the trail.