FRENCH REVOLUTIONS

'A rare comic talent' the times

'Put me back on my bike.' As last words go, these are unlikely to pass Tim Moore's lips. But they did good service for Tommy Simpson, rasped out defiantly after he collapsed while challenging for the yellow jersey on the dreadful Mont Ventoux climb in the 1967 Tour de France.

Seduced by the speed and glamour of the biggest annual sporting event in the world, and determined to tackle the most fearsome physical challenge outside classical mythology, Moore, the ultimate amateur, attempts to complete all 3,630km of the 2000 Tour in the weeks before the professionals set off.

Battling it out with old men on butchers' bikes across the plains of Aquitaine and pursued by cattle over Europe's second highest road, Moore soon finds himself resorting to narcotic assistance, systematic overeating and waxed legs before summoning a support vehicle staffed by cruelly sceptical family and friends.

Accounts of his suffering and chicanery, and those encountered in the race's epic history, are interwoven through a look at rural France busy tarting itself up for those 15 seconds of fame as the Tour careers through at 50 kph. An heroic depiction of an inadequate man's attempt to achieve the unachievable, Moore's Tour is a tale of calorific excess, ludicrous clothing and intimate discomfort.

£12.00

Cover illustration © Steven Appleby

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