A path through cycling-specific information: slang, cycling stars, equipment, and nicknames
 
The essential A-to-Z compendium of everything there is to know about the bicycle, this sports reference is full of amazing facts and enthralling anecdotes. Numerous entries have been updated for this paperback edition. A world of death-defying feats and obscure mechanical oddities, the nature of cycling is both heroic and geeky, and the perils of vicious dogs are given the same attention as the perils of drug and sex scandals. From the history of the Tour de France and Lance Armstrong’s rise and fall to the origins of the quick-release system and Chris Hoy’s dominance of the Beijing Velodrome, no element is omitted from this exploration of the bicycle and its faithful riders. Cyclopedia has all the equipment, the races, and the faces needed to convert any amateur cyclist into a fully fledged bike expert.

“A thorough, well-written, and absorbing love tome to the bicycle.”  —Austin Chronicle

“A handy A-to-Z collection of facts and stories and quotes and people and places and ideas and beliefs and remedies and terms and history—good, bad, and honest—that have anything to do with [the] sport.”  —Bicycling magazine

“Catholicism, literature, sex, thieves, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec each rate an entry in Cyclopedia. Longtime cycling journalist William Fotheringham packs this grab bag with wacky characters, heated debates (is sex good or bad for racing performance?), and trivia (England in the early 20th century had bike-powered generating stations). He decodes cycling slang and weighs in on magic remedies for racers.”  —Boston Globe

“One of the few books that can genuinely be described as indispensable.”  —Washing Machine Post

“[A] fact-filled feast. . . . Top stuff.”  —Sport Magazine

“[Fotheringham] has a wry, deft writing style and peppers entries with amusing factoids . . . a hard book to put down.”  —cycling-books.com

William Fotheringham is the cycling correspondent at the Guardian newspaper, covering the Tour de France as well as the Olympic Games. He launched Cycle Sport magazine in 1993 and ProCycling magazine and website in 1998. He is the author of The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling; A Century of Cycling; Cycle Racing; Fallen Angel; Half Man, Half Bike: The Life of Eddy Merckx; and Put Me Back on My Bike.