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£10.99
Cyclist Beryl Burton dominated her sport much as her male contemporary Eddy Merckx, with a longevity that surpasses sporting legends like Muhammad Ali and Serena Williams. Practically invincible in time trials, Burton – also known as BB – finished as Best All-Rounder for 25 years and broke the record for the ’12-hour’ endurance race; an achievement unrivalled to this day. She won multiple world titles, but her achievements were limited by discrimination from the cycling authorities. Yet she carried on winning, beating men and – infamously – competing against her own daughter, whilst working full-time on a Yorkshire farm and running a household. With previously unseen material and through extensive interviews with family, friends, rivals and fellow sporting giants, Jeremy Wilson peels back the layers to reveal one of the most overlooked, yet compelling characters in cycling history.
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£10.99
In the 1990s, British cycling teams were on a par with the nation’s bobsled effort. Cycling was a continental sport, and the UK organisation was a shambolic affair run by a handful of eccentrics. However, by 2008, Team GB – boosted by massive lottery funding and a driven by a hungry new generation of leaders – began to dominate the sport, winning eight out of ten gold medals on the track at the Beijing Olympics. Soon, Team Sky, a British road racing squad with roots in that Olympic programme, would dominate the Tour de France. But now – in 2020 – disaster looms. Allegations of sexism, bullying and complicity with drug taking threatens British Cycling, the governing body. Was the success down to like-minded visionaries who got lucky with funding? Kenny Pryde investigates the chequered recent history of professional cycling in the UK.
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£20.00
Cyclist Beryl Burton dominated her sport much as her male contemporary Eddy Merckx, but with a longevity that surpasses even sporting legends like Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams and Sir Steve Redgrave. She was practically invincible in time trials, finishing as Best All-Rounder for 25 consecutive years and setting a world record in 1967 for the distance covered in 12 hours that beat the men. But her achievements were limited by discrimination from the cycling authorities, and by her strictly amateur status against state-sponsored rivals from the Eastern Bloc. In ‘Beryl’, Jeremy Wilson examines one of the most compelling characters in cycling history.
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£14.99
A London cycle courier with a taste for adventure, Emily Chappell entered an extraordinary new race – The Transcontinental – in which riders must find their own way, entirely unassisted, across Europe in the shortest time possible. On her second attempt, she won the women’s event, covering nearly 4000 miles in 13 days and ten hours, sleeping in short bursts wherever exhaustion took her. In the aftermath of a win that troubled as much as pleased her she worked with Mike Hall, the founder of the race, until his tragic death on the road. ‘Where There’s a Will’ is a book about a normal person finding the capacity to do something extraordinary; the paradoxes of comradeship, competition, vulnerability and will and the shock of grief, combined in a beautifully written and very human story.
