Dispatches from the 101st Tour de France

101 Damnations

A funny and irreverent look behind the scenes at the 2014 Tour de France, which starts in Yorkshire, from the author of How I Won the Yellow Jumper.

Boulting’s behind-the-scenes tales provide a unique experience that won’t be found elsewhere

This is easily Ned Boulting's finest work to date…there is a maturity of writing here that raises the author several levels above that of (mere) pundit

You can’t hide Boulting’s genuine almost innocent enthusiasm for the sport and the Tour de France

If you’re a cycling fan looking to stay in touch with the summer as daylight dims, 101 Damnations will keep the madness and majesty of the Tour de France close

101 Damnations encapsulates all that is incredible – and incredibly ordinary – about the greatest race on earth

A joy to read both for the memories and a vision of what sport could be minus the commercial overdrive and corrupt governance

This is a worthy successor to Ned Boulting's other books; entertaining, informative, and often funny

Dispatches from the 101st Tour de France, 101 Damnations is a chance to relive the 2014 race, stage for stage, fall after fall, tantrum by tantrum; just the good bits mind, without all the aerial shots of castles

Ned Boulting started his broadcasting career at Sky in 1997, working as a reporter alongside Jeff Stelling on the now legendary show Soccer Saturday. In 2006 he was given the Royal Television Society’s Sports Reporter of the Year Award. In addition to his work as a football reporter for ITV, he has now presented seven Tours of Britain, the Vuelta España, the Tour of California as well as the Tour Series and the inaugural Women’s Tour. He has contributed features and live reports on twelve Tours de France. He is the author of the much-loved books How I Won the Yellow Jumper and On the Road Bike.

Join Ned Boulting as he reports on his dozen-th Tour de France, an event in which blokes do amazing things on bikes, and, we’re oft told, the biggest annual sporting event in the world. 
 
101 Damnations is a chance to relive the 2014 race, stage for stage, fall after fall, tantrum by tantrum; just the good bits mind, without all the aerial shots of castles. Or sunflowers. (Though it does wax lyrical about some stunning Alpine scenery . . . and, with the race starting in Yorkshire, even some stunning scenery not far from Bradford). 
 
From Leeds to Paris (how often do you say that?), Ned details the minutiae of his encounters with the likes of Vincenzo Nibali, David Millar, Chris Froome, Chris Boardman (or ‘Broadman’ as some would have it), Marcel Kittel, Mrs Cavendish (Mark’s wife), Peter Sagan and the rest. Their endeavours, achievements, humour and occasional rancour, sit alongside his own decade-long quest for the ideal end-of-race T-shirt. 
 
Ned weaves together the interesting, amusing and unheralded threads of the race itself, and reflects on his own perennial struggle to get round, get on and get by. 101 Damnations encapsulates all that is incredible – and incredibly ordinary – about the greatest race on earth.

The Search For a Nation’s Cycling Soul

On the Road Bike

*Now with a brand new chapter* 
 
An amusing and personal exploration of the austere, nutty soul of British cycling from Ned Boulting, the author of How I Won The Yellow Jumper.

Funny, fascinating and frequently touching ... will be enjoyed by anyone with even a passing interest in cycling. No bib shorts required

Don't expect to read a better sports book this year. Funny, serious, quirky, hard hitting.

Quirky, insightful, soulful. Could be subtitled 'cyclists are odd - discuss'

It's very funny, surprisingly insightful and features telling  observations from a litany of engaging personalities along with Ned's amusing take on his own cycling experiences

Boulting is a delightful narrator, amusingly preoccupied by his own middle-class roots

An amusing and personal exploration of the austere, nutty soul of British cycling

Reading  this book, you are treated to a number of laugh-out-load anecdotes, you get to meet  the most eccentric characters and you will read some surprisingly  moving tales…sure to enlighten and entertain

Boulting is a deliciously funny companion

Heartwarming and often downright hilarious

‘British cyclist. It used to be an oxymoron, a sort of silliness. Like French Cricket’ 
 
 Ned Boulting has noticed something. It’s to do with bikes. They’re everywhere. And so are their riders. Some of these riders seem to be sporting sideburns and a few of them are winning things. Big things. Now Ned wants to know how on earth it came to this. And what, exactly is 'this'. 
 
 In On the Road Bike, Ned Boulting asks how Britain became so obsessed with cycling. His journey takes him from the velodrome at Herne Hill to the Tour of Britain at Stoke-on-Trent via Bradley Wiggins, Chris Boardman, David Millar (and David’s mum), Ken Livingstone, both Tommy Godwins, Gary Kemp (yes, him from Spandau Ballet) and many, many more. The result is an amusing and personal exploration of the austere, nutty soul of British cycling. 
 
'Funny, fascinating and frequently touching ... will be enjoyed by anyone with even a passing interest in cycling. No bib shorts required' Guardian

Dispatches from the Tour de France

How I Won the Yellow Jumper

A funny and frank account of falling in love with the Tour de France by television's quintessential roving reporter, Ned Boulting.

Hugely enjoyable...The only real problem with this book is that it's making me wish away the start of the summer and fast-forward to 2 July and le grand départ

His journey from self confessed 'football hack winging it in a sport beyond his ken' to his initiation into the Tour's nuances and eccentric characters delivers an amusing, warm and easy read

A candid, insightful and often hilarious account

I thought Ned was an old hand at the Tour. Evidently he was clueless... Told with panache

This is, I'd say, the most enjoyable book of its kind since Tim Moore's French Revolutions, and is ideal for filling in the gaps between transmissions from this year's race

Tour history is blended with anecdotes revealing the personalities and quirks of professional cycling

An irreverent and funny take on cycling’s biggest race from a man who has seen it up close every year since 2003

I found his behind-the-scenes look at the famous race both highly amusing and telling in equal measure

Cycling at its best is fiercely cosmopolitan and internationalist, Boulting provides the kind of commentary the sport deserves, and will need if it is to fulfil its undoubted potential to reach out and grow

Ned Boulting started his broadcasting career at Sky in 1997, working as a reporter alongside Jeff Stelling on the now legendary show Soccer Saturday. In 2006 he was given the Royal Television Society's Sports Reporter of the Year Award. He has presented two Tours of Britain for ITV, as well as the inaugural Tour Series, and contributed features and live reports on eight Tours de France.

'Paris, 4 July 2003: My first Tour de France. I had never seen a bike race. I had only vaguely heard of Lance Armstrong. I had no idea what I was doing there. Yet, that day I was broadcasting live on television. I fumbled my way through a few platitudes, before summing up with the words, "...Dave Millar just missing out on the Yellow Jumper." Yes, the Yellow Jumper.' 
 
Follow Ned Boulting's (occasionally excruciating) experiences covering the world's most famous cycling race. His story offers an insider's view of what really goes on behind the scenes of the Tour. From up-close-and-personal encounters with Lance Armstrong to bewildered mishaps with the local cuisine, Ned's been there, done that and got the crumpled-looking t-shirt. 
 
Eight Tours on from Ned's humbling debut, he has grown to respect, mock, adore and crave the race in equal measure. What's more, he has even started to understand it. 
 
Includes How Cav Won the Green Jersey: Short Dispatches from the 2011 Tour de France

Short Dispatches from the 2011 Tour de France

How Cav Won the Green Jersey

In this 20,000-word digital short, ITV's Ned Boulting, author of How I Won the Yellow Jumper, takes an honest and idiosyncratic look at the unforgettable 2011 Tour de France, when Mark Cavendish won the Green Jersey

Ned Boulting started his broadcasting career at Sky in 1997, working as a reporter alongside Jeff Stelling on the now legendary show Soccer Saturday. In 2006 he was given the Royal Television Society's Sports Reporter of the Year Award. He has presented threeTours of Britain for ITV, as well as the inaugural Tour Series, and contributed features and live reports on eight Tours de France. He is the author of the much-loved How I Won the Yellow Jumper.

This is not a 100,000-word, minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow account of the 2011 Tour de France. 
This is not the story of Cadel Evans. 
This is not the story of Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, or Bradley Wiggins. 
And it's not even the story of Mark Cavendish. 
(Although he is in it quite a lot.) 
This is the story of the lesser-known heroes; the Johnny Hoogerlands, the Thomas Voecklers, the hitchhikers, the maniac press drivers, Norbert Dentressangle and the greatest ever Tour de France*. 
I was there. And this is what I saw. That is all. 
 
In this 20,000-word digital short, ITV's Ned Boulting, author of How I Won the Yellow Jumper, takes an honest and idiosyncratic look at the unforgettable 2011 Tour de France, when Mark Cavendish won the Green Jersey. 
 
*probably

Ned Boulting

It’s a “dip in and smile” book that deserves to be on any Tour de France fan’s shelf.

A Linguistic Tour de France

Find yourself confused, nodding along when a rouleur relates how le biscuit was effrité (crumbled)? How today they’re feeling Angers (past caring)? 
 
Fear no more, for Boulting's Velosaurus will illuminate, enlighten and, frankly, mislead. 
 
In his Velosaurus, ITV Tour de France commentator and cycling writer Ned Boulting provides the ultimate lexicon of nonsense terminology surrounding the esteemed Tour de France. Featuring essential vocabulary like Alpe (an Alp), panache (riding with doomed flamboyance, conscious of the need to renew one’s contract), moutarde (any race that ends, begins or passes through the city of Dijon) and maillot (a jumper, obviously), Boulting’s Velosaurus is the ideal companion to all things peloton for linguistically-challenged fans of non-automotive two-wheeled sport. 
 
'Deserves to be on any Tour de France fan’s shelf.' Cycle

Ned Boulting

Praise for Boulting's Velosaurus

It’s a “dip in and smile” book that deserves to be on any Tour de France fan’s shelf.

Books by Ned Boulting

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