Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. He collaborated with Paul Farley on Edgelands (Cape/Vintage) and will do so again in The Deaths of the Poets (Cape, 2017). He has also worked many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Michael Symmons Roberts

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Edward Pickering

When Chris Boardman first raced against Graeme Obree, in a time trial in Newtonards, Northern Ireland, in 1990, it was the start of a rivalry that captivated the British public for a decade and brought cycling on to the front pages. Boardman was the establishment figure: reserved, scientific, middle-class. Obree was the rebel: the Flying Scotsman, working-class, riding a home-made bike. Both were after one thing - to be the fastest man on two wheels. 
 
After Boardman had won Britain's first cycling gold medal for 72 years at the Barcelona Olympics (inspiring none other than Bradley Wiggins to get on a bike), attention turned to the world hour record, the blue riband event of track cycling. Between 1993 and 1996, the pair took it in turns to smash the record, with Boardman's team breaking the boundaries of technology and the loner Obree constantly reinventing ways of building and riding bikes while battling his many demons. 
 
The Race Against Time tells the story of how Britain first started to dominate cycling, but is also about the struggle between art and science, tradition and innovation, commercialism and individuality. It is the tale of two complex characters who redefined the sport and set in motion a new era in British cycling, the legacy of which we enjoy to this day.

The Race Against Time

Rob Hayles

The son of a wrestler turned cycling coach called Killer Kowalski, Rob Hayles was soon winning races himself and realizing that he didn't really want to work for a living. The world of amateur club cycling in the 1990s was a long way from the millionaire sport of today though. When Rob first rode for Great Britain, it was with his own bike, one spare tyre, and a hand-me-down jersey. 
 
Yet Rob became an integral part of the amazing success story of British cycling, and has been at the centre of the sport for the past two decades. With Bradley Wiggins, he was a member of the first GB team to become world champions at the team pursuit, the most demanding and thrilling discipline on the track. With teammate David Millar, he witnessed first-hand the drug-strewn, often demeaning life of the professional road cyclist. And as Mark Cavendish's training partner, Rob has been the experienced influence at the side of the fastest man on two wheels. 
 
Easy Rider is an unforgettable journey through revolutionary times. Sharp, down-to-earth, packed with anecdotes and just plain fun, it takes you from the humblest of beginnings through a golden era in British cycling.

Easy Rider: My Life on a Bike

Tyler Hamilton

Daniel Coyle

WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 
 
On a fateful night in 2009, Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle met for dinner in Boulder, Colorado. Over the next eighteen months, Hamilton would tell Coyle his story, and his sport's story, in explosive detail, never sparing himself in the process. In a way, he became as obsessed with telling the truth as he had been with winning the Tour de France just a few years before. The truth would set Tyler free, but would also be the most damning indictment yet of teammates like Lance Armstrong. 
 
The result of this determination is The Secret Race, a book that pulls back the curtain and takes us into the secret world of professional cycling like never before. A world populated by unbelievably driven – and some flawed – characters. A world where the competition used every means to get an edge, and the options were stark. A world where it often felt like there was no choice.

The Secret Race

Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France: Doping, Cover-ups, and Winning at All Costs

The Yellow Jersey Club contains just twenty-six living members. To become one of this exclusive number requires complete dedication, brutal self-sacrifice and the most extraordinary physical attributes. Yet along with the ability to climb mountains, bomb along time trials and survive all the perils of the road, what really makes a Tour de France champion? 
 
Edward Pickering set out on a mission to ask them, and gained some astonishing insights into the minds of cycling's best ever riders of the past forty years, from giants like Greg LeMond and Stephen Roche to more unfamiliar names like Bernard Thévenet and Joop Zootemelk. With his trademark sharp analysis and deft style, Pickering explores the myriad factors that combine to produce success. 
 
What does it take to accumulate such great mental strength, skill and endurance? What are the differences as well as the key factors in common? What sets these men apart from the rest of the field? The Yellow Jersey Club gives the reader unprecedented access into the secrets of the greats of cycling.

The Yellow Jersey Club

Felix Lowe

**Shortlisted for Cycling Book of the Year at the Cross British Sports Book Awards 2015** 
 
Cycling journalist Felix Lowe makes the leap from raconteur to rouleur, taking to the saddle for the first time to complete his very own grand tour of Europe. 
 
Lowe's light-hearted and entertaining travelogue charts his progress as he cycles 2,800 kilometres from Barcelona to Rome, crossing three countries and cycling over three mountain ranges, taking in some of cycling's most fabled climbs. As he follows in the tracks of some of the world's greatest wheelmen, Lowe puts professional cycling's three major stage races – the Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia – under the microscope, whilst capturing the potent mix of madness, humour and human spirit that make people identify with the sport so strongly. 
 
Powered by local delicacies and his trademark blend of self-deprecating humour and barbed wit, Lowe takes readers on an immersive journey through the Catalonian countryside, over the Pyrenean foothills and the rolling plains of Languedoc, through the flowery fields of Provence, over winding Alpine passes, between the vineyards and olive groves of Piedmont, and down the Apennine backbone of Italy. His epic quest traces the footsteps of the celebrated Carthaginian general Hannibal, who led his own pachyderm peloton of 37 elephants over the Alps and all the way to the gates of Rome. 
 
As much about the regions traversed as the cyclists who have left their sweat in the soil, Lowe's insightful account celebrates the sport, examines the psychology of both the crazed amateur and the pedalling pro, and delves into the awesome march of a military genius who almost brought the Roman Empire to its knees.

Climbs and Punishment

Iain MacGregor

SHORTLISTED FOR CYCLING BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 
 
'Paris-Roubaix is the best race in the world and knocks spots off the Tour de France.' Sir Bradley Wiggins. 
 
Paris-Roubaix. The Hell of the North. The ultimate monument in cycling's Classics. More than 150 miles across dusty or muddy roads, much of it puncture-inducing and bone-breaking cobblestones. Even professional riders blanche at the very mention of it. Tour de France winners (with the notable exception of Wiggins in 2014) make their excuses from it. So why on earth would an amateur even dare to attempt it? 
 
In To Hell on a Bike, Iain MacGregor does just that and as he prepares for the ride of his life, he explores the history and culture of this extraordinary race. With insights from legends of the sport, trainers, mechanics and fellow writers, as well as those who have maintained the traditions of Paris-Roubaix since its inception over a century ago, it is the ultimate story of the ultimate cycling challenge.

To Hell on a Bike

Riding Paris-Roubaix: The Toughest Race in Cycling

Mark Beaumont

The inspiring story of one man's record-breaking cycle around the world. 
 
On Monday 18th September 2017, Mark Beaumont pedalled through the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. 78 days, 14 hours and 40 minutes earlier he set off from the same point, beginning his attempt to circumnavigate the world in record time. Covering more than 18,000 miles and cycling through some of the harshest conditions one man and his bicycle can endure, Mark made history. He smashed two Guinness World Records and beat the previous record by an astonishing 45 days. 
 
 Around the World in 80 Days is the story of Mark's amazing achievement - one which redefines the limits of human endurance. It is also an insight into the mind of an elite athlete and the physical limits of the human body, as well as a kaleidoscopic tour of the world from a very unique perspective; inspired by Jules Verne's classic adventure novel, Mark begins his journey in Paris and cycles through Europe, Russia, Mongolia and China. He then crosses Australia, rides up through New Zealand and across North America before the final 'sprint finish' thorough Portugal, Spain and France, all at over 200 miles a day. This is the story of a quite remarkable adventure, by a quite remarkable man.

Around the World in 80 Days

My World Record Breaking Adventure

Emma O'Reilly

When Emma O'Reilly joined the US Postal cycling team in 1996, she could have had no idea how she would become a central figure in the biggest doping scandal in sporting history. Yet when Lance Armstrong, starting his comeback from cancer, signed for US Postal, it was Emma, the only woman on the team, who became his personal soigneur. This is the definitive inside story of that time, and of the enormous repercussions that resonate to this day for Emma, Lance and the whole sport. 
 
Emma had the strength to break cycling's omerta by speaking out against the culture of doping. She thought she would be one of many whistleblowers, doing what she believed was right. Isolated and shunned by the sport she loved, however, her reputation was systematically destroyed. And yet she had the courage to bounce back, and remarkably, to forgive those who made her existence a living hell. This is the ultimate memoir of truth and its many consequences.

The Race to Truth

Blowing the whistle on Lance Armstrong and cycling's doping culture

Sean Yates

Before Bradley Wiggins, there was Sean Yates. Behind Bradley Wiggins, there was Sean Yates. 
 
One of only five Britons to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, Sean Yates burst onto the cycling scene as the rawest pure talent this country has ever seen. After turning professional at the age of 22, he soon became known as a die-hard domestique, putting his body on the line for his teammates. Devastatingly fast, powerful and a fearless competitor, Yates won a stage of the Tour, as well as the Vuelta a España, in 1988, and went on to don the coveted maillot jaune six years later. 
 
Having put British cycling on the map as a rider, Yates was soon in demand as a directeur sportif, using his tactical knowledge to inspire a new generation of cyclists to success. And after Team Sky came calling, Yates was the man to design the brilliant plan that saw Sky demolish the opposition in 2012, and for Bradley Wiggins to become the first cyclist from these shores to win the Tour. 
 
Straight-talking, entertaining and revelatory, It's All About the Bike is the story of a remarkable career told from the unique perspective of a man who is immersed in the history of the sport he loves.

Sean Yates: It’s All About the Bike

My Autobiography

SHORTLISTED FOR ADVENTURE TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 
 
In the spring of 2015, Mark Beaumont set out from the bustling heart of Cairo on his latest world record attempt - solo, the length of Africa, intending to ride to Cape Town in under 50 days. Seven years since he smashed the world record for cycling round the world, this would be his toughest trip yet. And he would set a new mark that would simply break the limits of endurance. 
 
Despite illness, mechanical faults, attempted robbery and stone-throwing children, as well as dehydration in the deserts and unprecedented levels of exhaustion, Mark completed the journey in just 41 days, 10 hours and 22 minutes, after cycling 6,762 miles, spending 439 hours in the saddle (sometimes up to 16 hours a day) and climbing 190,355 feet through 8 countries. It was an astonishing journey, and one that will fascinate and grip the reader. 
 
From the obvious dangers of Egypt, Sudan and Kenya, over the unpaved, muddy, mountainous roads of Ethiopia, through the beautiful grasslands of Tanzania and Zambia, to riding at night in Botswana in the company of elephants and giraffes, Mark brings Africa to life in all its complex glory, friendship and curiosity, while inspiring us all to question the bounds of what is possible.

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