French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France by Tim Moore

French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France Reviews

• 
  Christine

  Honestly, if you are thinking of reading this book about one British man's attempt to do the 2000 Tour de France route, get the audio. It's so funny. Just kept laughing so hard. Hear about Mars bars, mountains, and ass cream!
  
  Listen in amazement as he recounts the struggle of putting the bike together.
  
  Shake your head as he tries to find drug aid!
  
  And there is a bunch of Tour de France history as well (Note, though, this was written before Armstrong's confession).
• 
  Esther

  My brother, an avid cyclist, passed this on to me. Well I thought this was utter crap. Firstly, at the beginning he talks about not having done much cycling, not being fit, does hardly any training, nearly falls over trying to get used to clip in pedals etc. Yet another in a long line of delusional males, or is this ineptitude supposed to engender sympathy or humor in the reader? It just irritated me. Then he gets started on riding the tour and is suddenly clocking up 100s of kilometers and makes mention to one of the poor hoteliers that encounter him that his bike cost $24,000. So there is a hefty smell of bullshit surrounding his attempts at playing the stupid amateur. And if he's playing this for laughs, it was really shit. Not funny at all. In fact he just comes across as a gigantic cock. Rude and practically xenophobic to the poor French people he encounters.
• 
  Foxthyme

  I'm not quite sure how you prepare for biking 3000 km of the Tour de France route by running a couple of times and heading out on the new bike a couple of times. But somehow Moore pulled it off.
  
  And he doesn't pull any punches with the descriptions. Wanna know how you'd feel after biking just over 254 km in a day, arrive in the town of Troyes in the night only to find there's not a hotel room in the entire town, but your wife, calling to France from England for you found one in a city 13-22 km away, so off you go again on your bike, finding your feeble bike lights don't cut it in the rural landscape? He writes:
  
  "I was relieved to turn off the N19, but not for very long. The trees rose up about me and blocked off the moon; if the roads hadn't been almost dead straight I'd never have made it. I could barely make out the fingerposts at all and, when I did, the only way to read them was to shin up the pole and hold my flashing light an inch away from the lettering. An owl hooted. I ran over something pulpy. There were other sounds. I hadn't seen any signs of life for an eon. The suggestion that somewhere in this wooded wilderness lay a Holiday Inn was an outrage against logic. Wolves--certainly; vagrant lunatics--odds-on; a solitary cleated foot emerging from recently disturbed soil--well, the night was young."
  
  There's another great description of him sitting to a meal after a day of biking, muddied and worn, bits of dead wasps and dried skin falling off his face into his half eaten pasta that was a fantastic bit...
  
  Chapeau, Tim Moore, Chapeau, indeed!
• 
  Peter

  I don't normally review book I fail to finish but this book is so bad I feel compelled to do so. The author combines poor quality writing with attempts at schoolboy humour which simply don't work. Not for me, I gave up, however, it may amuse other readers. Oddly enough, checking back on my records, I read this book in 2007 all the way to the end! Maybe my tolerance has decreased or my standards increased since then, who knows?
• 
  thereadytraveller

  Despite claiming not to be cyclist, the author decides to cycle the 3,630km Tour de France route that is due to take place in a month’s time. Whilst a few shortcuts occur on the way, his efforts are rather remarkable, most especially given the number of “watering” stops that he takes along the way in order to refuel in the appropriate French fashion.
  
  Whilst the writing is at times witty, be aware that the focus is very much on the riders and history of the Tour de France and less on the surrounding countryside and towns that he passes through. As such, this will appeal more to cycling aficionados and most especially to Tour de France nuts than someone who might be looking for a travelogue through France. For me, I punctured at 44% finished and had to retire from the race.
• 
  MisterFweem

  Travel writing is ubiquitous, but good travel writing is hard to come by. Fortunately, Tim Moore's "French Revolutions" fits in the latter category.
  
  Moore is a crazy Brit who decides he's going to cycle the Tour de France route in 2000 about a month before the tour and discovers that, at the end of all things, he was indeed mad to undertake such an adventure. He fails in some of his goals, triumphing in others. He meets genuinely good people and a bunch of pratts. His encounters with "official" France and the "paysan" France mirror the encounters I had while I lived in the country for nearly two years: Officials are very official and the paysans are, for the most part, pretty decent.
  
  But back to the book. Moore follows the best tenet I've ever observed of travel writing: It's about the travel, not the author. Yes, the author has to insert himself or herself into the book as the narrator, but there are some authors who can't resist putting themselves in as characters so often they get in the way of the writing. John Steinbeck's "Travels with Charley" comes to mind in this category. Moore, on the other hand, manages to keep the narrative going without inserting his writerly self in at every little hairpin turn in the road.
  
  The book brought back a lot of memories. Not that I've ever cycled the Tour de France route, but I have done plenty of cycling in the French countryside and, for two days, was trapped in my apartment because not only was the city I was living in at the time a "ville d'etape," but also the neighborhood where I lived was also the epicenter of the race's arrival and departure. I have an audio recording of the event somewhere. I'm going to have to dig it out now and listen to it again.
• 
  Michael Mcclelland

  Thank goodness I read this book. Many years ago I circum-cycled Tasmania and, on completion, thought about what my next challenge would be. Unsurprisingly (due to what must have been lactic acid-affected cognition) I also hit upon the idea of cycling the Tour de France route. And though I subsequently recognised it as a silly idea (or rather, far too hard), now I really, really don't have to do it 'cause this author has done it for me.
  
  
  
  Containing some fascinating anecdotes of Tour history, and providing a great comparison between elite and recreational sportsman, Tim Moore (barely in the latter category) pilots his way, as best he can, through the French, Swiss and German countryside (mostly) atop his bicycle. Along the way he manically, obstinately and hilariously butts heads against those who cross his path - but reserves his worst words for himself. Funny as the journey may be - for the reader at least - he arguably doesn't achieve his goal. In one regard though, he does have his name on par, for a moment, with the supermen who make the Tour their living.
  
  
  
  Chapeau!
• 
  Paul

  Let's be absolutely clear – this is not a "travel book". It is not full of lush descriptions of pretty towns and villages. There are very few romantic musings on the French way of life. And it is definitely not an affectionate tribute to France or its people. This is a book for cyclists and Tour enthusiasts, not travellers. It's well written, descriptive, and funny, and it's clearly written by someone who has much affection for "Le Tour" and its "histoire". But if you're after a book that combines a re-creation of the race with an affection for the country, try "One Day Ahead" by Richard Grady.
• 
  Mary

  A rank amateur rides the route of the Tour de France, with painful and hilarious results. Very funny, lots of Tour history. Think Bill Bryson with a bicycle.
• 
  Greg

  Picked this up a few weeks ago from the used bookstore after recognizing it from the Book Lust “Bicycling” list. This is the first season I’ve paid even the least bit of attention to road racing (after watching A Sunday in Hell and other classic-era race footage), making it a perfect read for the early season.
  
  This is the true story of Tim Moore, a British humorist / travel writer / journalist, who - despite not owning a bike or ever having much success riding them - makes the resolution to ride the route of the 2000 Tour de France over his 35th birthday. His journey is one marked with failure and defeat (opting to skip a few of the early HC’s before getting his legs); experiments with drunkenness and over-the-counter doping (a half liter of wine with every lunch; attempts at using ephedrine and caffeine pills to make a tough climb); tired and misdirected rudeness (at one point making a lewd comment to a smug young “couple” he later realizes must be brother and sister); and countless adventures through foreign languages (asking most of France how the feel about “the tower”).
  
  The humor is pretty straight forward (read: occasionally corny or predictable), but I found myself laughing at loud at least once every several pages . As a result of a recent biking mishap of my own, it actually had me laughing until I bled, as it contorted and tore at too-fresh face wounds. The book also offers a great look back at some of the historic moments of the tour - the first on-the-saddle urination; Tom Simpson’s fatal climb of Ventoux (“put me back on the bloody bike!”) - as well as providing an overview of the riders, history and strategies of road racing, and a travel-by-bike look at the towns along the route.
  
  Definitely worth the read for those that like ride, or have an interest in le Tour. Maybe not for serious cyclists or race fans.
• 
  John

  I didn't care for this one as much as the other Moore's I've read. The Tour de France historical background wasn't particularly interesting for me (not being interested in cycling); the humor was funny overall, though often with a vaguely self-congratulatory tone. Moreover, the new audio narrator for Moore's books came off a bit ... posh.
• 
  Charlotte Burt

  Ok so he is a bit of an arse but he is also a funny writer. I did enjoy his month of so travelling around France on a bike. Less of a travelogue and more a history of the Tour de France. With very few emphasis given to the countryside, people and food that you get with more usual travel writing but enjoyable nonetheless.
• 
  audrey

  This book made me feel so old. So old.
  
  It was so much less "musings on the Tour de France as you cycle it" and "musings on Tim Moore's leg hair and personal insecurity while he's unpleasant to his wife, friends, and random French people".
  
  So on the one hand, this makes
  Gironimo! Riding the Very Terrible 1914 Tour of Italy sing by comparison; Moore's had 10 years between tours to grow up and stop being terrible to people. But on the other hand, there's still this book.
  
  I... love non-fiction bike travel books, and I did not love this.
• 
  Edgar Deduchov

  Tough read, more about a cultural clash of a british person during Tour's season in France and undermined coming along story of a person gradually cycling more than before.
• 
  Steve

  I got this book a few years ago, and had a quick reread as the Tour de France progressed this year. I love everything about the Tour incidentally. The spectacle, the athleticism of the riders (toughest atheletes in the world!), the French countryside and the drama from possible cheating (barging on sprints, doping, etc). And of course I love cycling too. I’m pretty much on a bike everyday, for one reason or another.
  In this book a keen amateur rider decides to do pretty much all of one years Tour course. At this own pace and staying where he can find.
  Affectionate to the Tour, and very funny. Loved the bit where he tried doping himself with one of the drugs of choice for the tour then, via abundant hay fever tablets which carried the active ingredient in small amounts. And when he found he was getting regularly a bad stomach upset, eventually resolved by his visiting wife who discovered he wasn’t cleaning the mouth piece of his water bottle (where his spittle presumably festered day after day in the heat).
  It’s full of anecdotes like that. Plus some Tour history tossed in.
  The only book I’ve read on The Tour that made me laugh and it dovetailed with my own enthusiasm for it.
• 
  Monthly Book Group

  There was general agreement that the book was a light, journalistic, good holiday read which did not need - or get - over analysis. The account of Moore’s escapades read well, eg his intake of calories including alcohol, though some thought he tried too hard to be funny. His treatment of his wife and children attracted some criticism, though Moore did show some awareness.
  
  There was some discussion of what type of book it was. It was not a travel book. Moore did not give any insight into the France through which he was travelling; indeed his Little England caricature view of the French was somewhat overdone.
  
  As well as being a personal diary of experiences, Moore’s book’s wider remit was as a history of the Tour De France. Even in this respect the research was seen as somewhat inadequate and selective....
  
  
  This is an extract from a review at
  http://monthlybookgroup.wordpress.com/. Our reviews are also to be found at
  http://monthlybookgroup.blogspot.com/
  
  
  
  
• 
  Steve Langley

  Moore is clearly a madman but he's also a very funny travel writer who, despite (initial) unfitness, inexperience and incredible naivete, takes us on his personal Tour de France. For some reason he decides to emulate the world's most arduous sporting event -- and achieves it. That he pushes and punishes himself through 3,000km and still manages to make the reader laugh is testament to his abilities in the saddle and on the keyboard. French Revolutions is not an unqualified success: some of his sentences are as overlong and wobbly as the terrifying Alpine climbs in the second half of the book but the self-deprecating tone, sharp observations and sparkling, witty phrases win you over.
• 
  John

  I was very disappointed in this book. I never found it funny. I never cared about Moore's progress. There was very little interesting in the way of description of the countryside or the cities. The only interesting part was a bit of the Tour history.
  
  I registered this book on
  www.bookcrossing.com then "released" it on the Lochside Trail during Bike To Work Week. By this afternoon it had disappeared so now it is "traveling".
• 
  Martyn

  This was just what I needed, and just what I didn't expect it to be. It was hilarious from start to finish with a truly British sense of humor and way of seeing the world. I loved it and immediately looked up Tim Moore in the library catalog to see if he'd written anything else - he had, lots.
  
  EDIT: Don't let the absence of the letter U fool you. I'm an ex-pat Brit living in the belly of the beast and therefore am perfectly entitled to make subjective judgements on all things "Bridish".
• 
  Gene

  Really enjoyable read. Would have been even better if I had understood the French language bits, and there are more than a few anglocentric jokes and references, but if you are a cyclists and have ever contemplated doing something crazy on your bike, this is the book to either convince you to go for it - or to totally discourage from doing so. And I have to say, I loved the ending!
• 
  Shelli

  Laugh-out-loud funny, in the vein of Christopher Moore (no relation), but while accounting true events rather than fantastical yarns.
• 
  Matti Karjalainen

  Tim Mooren "French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France" (Yellow Jersey Press, 2012) vaikutti päällisin puolin aika mukavalta kirjalta kun sen verkkokaupasta taannoin bongasin. Miten mahtaisi onnistua keski-ikäiseltä englantilaiselta vuoden 2000 Ranskan ympäriajojen reitin polkeminen? Kirjan kansiin valituissa lehtisitaateissa kirjan mainittiin olevan ratkiriemukkaan humoristinen ja tekijää verrattiin kunnianhimoisesti
  Bill Brysoniin.
  
  Moore yrittää alussa luoda itsestään kuvaa pyöräilynoviisina, mutta melko pian käy ilmi, että matka taittuu varsin tehokasta vauhtia. No, eipä tuollaista urakkaa pystyisi kukaan ihan pystymetsästä tempaistu suorittamaan, kun matkalle mahtuu vuoristo-osuuksia niin Pyreneillä kuin Alpeilla.
  
  Suurempi ongelma "French Revolutionsissa" kuitenkin on se, ettei se ole erityisen hauska. Kummoiseksi matkakirjaksikaan siitä ei ole, sillä reitin varrelle osuvat paikat jäävät melko pienelle huomiolle. Lukijan eteneminen on hetkittäin yhtä puuduttavaa kuin kirjailijan. Vähäsen sentään käydään läpi Tour de Francen historiaa ja siihen liittyviä anekdootteja ilmiöitä kuten dopingia. Englantilaisajaja
  Tom Simpsonin traagiselle tarinalle uhrataan vähän enemmänkin sivuja.
  
  Lukukokemusta varjosti vähän oma kielitaitoni, jonka rajallisuudesta johtuen jouduin pitämään sanakirjaa vierelläni. Joku englantia paremmin puhuva mainitsi arviossaan kirjailijan ihastuksesta hankaliin sanoihin, joten ehkäpä en olekaan sitten ihan yksin.
  
  Jos oikeasti hauska matkanteko kiinnostaa, niin suosittelen etsimään jostakin vaikka Stuart Maconien
  Pies and Prejudice: In Search of the North -teoksen.
• 
  Stuart Malcolm

  I first read this book when it came out when I was a travel writing fan but not yet a cycling fan. Rereading it 20 years later as a cyclist & cycling fan I have a new appreciation of it. I don’t for a minute believe that Moore did this after just a couple of practice rides (I think this is a case of a travel writer deliberately underplaying something rather than the more usual overplaying it) because it is still an impressive achievement even if you trained for 6 months first! A fun read for anyone who loves cycling or France.