Cycling's 50 Craziest Stories
A new paperback by Les Woodland, the popular European correspondent for RBR's Premium Site, has just been published. "Cycling's 50 Craziest Stories" is Les's 24th book. Within its 160 pages he entertainingly delves into the absurd side of pro racing. For a hundred years the sport has produced a rich supply of human folly, and Les is simply the best there is at telling the tales. As often as possible he does so after meeting with the characters involved (or their descendants) to learn things no other writer knows.  -- RoadBikeRider.com, March 25, 2010Told instructionally, as a blueprint for strangeness, a how-to of memorable, these stories beguile comprehension. Charles Terront won a 1000km race on the velodrome. That's not even the strange part. Terront is said to have won the race by an inner tube, but not in the fashion you might guess.The temptation is to recount bits of this book, but in doing so, I'd be doing nothing so much as spoiling the surprises and I could do nothing crueler in my recommendation of the volume than spoil the fun.For those who climb into bed tired, this is the ideal bedside reading, not more than four of five pages to an anecdote. I defy you to drift off during the exploits too strange not to have happened. -- Redkiteprayer.com, April 1, 2010