Climbers: How the Kings of the Mountains Conquered Cycling

by Peter Cossins

Overview

Award-winning cycling author's look at the men and psychology of the mountain climber

When, during the Pyrenean stages of the 1998 Tour de France, a journalist asked Marco Pantani why he rode so fast in the mountains, the elfin Italian, unmistakeable in the bandanna and hooped ear-rings that played up to his "Pirate" nickname, replied: "To shorten my agony."

Drawing on the fervor for these men of the mountains, Climbers looks at what sets these athletes apart within the world of bike racing, about why we love and cherish them, how they make cycling beautiful, and how they see themselves and the feats they achieve.

Working chronologically, Peter Cossins explores the evolution of mountain-climbing. He offers a comprehensive view of the sport, combining contemporary reports with fresh one-to-one interviews with high-profile riders from the last 50 years, such as Cyrille Guimard, Hennie Kuiper and Andy Schleck. And, unlike many other cycling books, Climbers also includes the stories of female racers across the world, from Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and Annemiek van Vleuten to Fabiana Luperini and Amanda Spratt.

Climbers analyses the personalities of these racers, highlighting the individuality of climbing as an exercise and the fundamental fact that it's a solitary challenge undertaken in relentlessly unforgiving terrain that requires unremitting effort.

Captivating and iconic, Climbers is the ultimate cycling book to understand what it takes both physically and mentally to take on the sport's hardest stages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781788403115
Publisher:	Octopus Books
Publication date:	10/18/2022
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,083,298
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Peter Cossins has been writing about cycling since 1993. A former editor of Procycling, he has also contributed to the Guardian, The Times, the Sunday Telegraph, the Sunday Express and the Sunday Herald. He has worked on every Tour during that time.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 From Pottier to Pogacar 7

2 The first King of the Mountains 15

3 The mythologization of the high mountains 31

4 Minimus versus Maximus 53

5 First technique, then beauty and grace 73

6 Bartali versus Coppi 95

7 Duende in the mountains 113

8 Tilting at windmills 131

9 The essence of duende 143

10 The best of all time 163

11 What is a climber? 181

12 The Queens of the Mountains 203

13 Every climber in one 221

14 All aboard the Sky Train 241

15 The realm of the mountain kings 265

16 Hammers and nails 285

17 The new golden age 303

Bibliography 313

Index 315

Picture Credits 325

Acknowledgements 327