Put Me Back on My Bike : In Search of Tom Simpson

by Unknown

• ISBN13: 9780224061872
• ISBN10: 0224061879
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2003-06-01
• Publisher: Yellow Jersey

Summary

The cyclist Tom Simpson was an Olympic medallist, world champion and the first Briton to wear the fabled yellow jersey of the Tour de France. He died a tragic early death on the barren moonscape of the Mont Ventoux during the 1967 Tour. Almost 35 years on, hundreds of fans still make the pilgrimage to the windswept memorial which marks the spot where he died. A man of contradictions, Simpson was one of the first cyclists to admit to using banned drugs and was accused of fixing races, yet the dapper "Major Tom" inspired awe and affection for the obsessive will to win which was ultimately to cost him his life. This is an authoritative evaluation of Simpson's death, and of the life that led to it, revisiting the places and people associated with him.

Table of Contents

`Something to Aim At'	1	(20)
`You Don't Have to be Mad to Go Up the Ventoux, But You're Mad if You Go Back'	21	(22)
`PS I'm 19th Overall Now'	43	(24)
`Unstable Dynamite'	67	(22)
`Roule Britannia'	89	(26)
`A Kind of Expatriate Dick Whittington'	115	(22)
`If It Takes Ten to Kill You, I'll Take Nine'	137	(18)
The Past is a Foreign Country	155	(22)
`It is Not Natural . . .'	177	(18)
`Your Neighbours Are the Unknown Stars'	195	(20)
Epilogue	215	(2)
Tom Simpson: Race Record	217	(4)
Bibliography	221	(2)
Index	223