Book Review: Etape - Richard Moore

I have read a lot of Richard Moore's books, sadly the only one I've reviewed on here is Sky's The Limit, his inside view of Sky's first season in road racing. While a good book it wasn't his best. Sadly Sky didn't hit the heights in their first year that they'd hoped and have since achieved, leaving less fodder for Moore. Heroes, Villains and Veledromes was all about "Britain's Track Cycling Revolution" but, not in a bad way, read very much like a biography of Chris Hoy. His book Slaying The Badger was excellent, a book on the 1986 tour, his favourite tour. It told of the battle between Greg LeMond (eventual winner of the tour three times) and Bernard 'The Badger' Hinault (five times winner of the tour). While a slow starter it really built up and the finish had me on the edge of my seat, if it's possible with a book.

Etape is about the defining stages of the Tour and it really is. It covers Cavendish, Armstrong and other major names but also smaller characters who have shaped the tour in one way or another. He covers the stage that produced the largest winning margin, he covers the pavé, the famous cobbles that pop up now and again, he covers a mountain top finishes and the strangest non contest when two riders sit up and decide not to contest a stage they are leading because their teams hate each other so much.

This book offers a number of new inside stories from the tour, ones that I haven't heard before despite having read close to forty books on cycling. I wouldn't say it's all 'untold stories' as the cover suggests but it does cover them from different or new angles. Not only that but it was a great accompaniment to this years tour. The book of course opens with a prologue stage, accident or not it then covered the cobbles just as this year's tour hit the bone shaking route that would in part decide this year's winner of the yellow jersey. As it's is a book made up of 'stages' you can pick up and put the book down after each chapter knowing next time will be a new story and something fresh. A great read, well done Richard Moore.

Sky's The Limit - Book Review

I decided to read this book during the Tour this year (sorry for the late review) as I thought it would be great to have an insight in to the team and compare it to what I was seeing on TV. In a world of wanting everything now it's no surprise that I was frustrated at the lack of insight in to the team in its present state but that soon subsided as I read about everything that had got them to this point.

The book is set in the time of setting up Team Sky with their talisman, Bradley Wiggins signed and hoping to beat his previous year's outstanding achievement of finishing fourth in the tour. I think while David Brailsford and the team weren't naive enough to think they'd have instant success I think they probably dared hope they'd have something to shout about, something to show to say "here, this is what we've brought to the world of road racing".

In some respects they did bring new elements to the world of cycling, some of it visible to the fans (slick buses, outfits and cars), some of it visible to the competition (buying riders out of contracts in a football style - new to cycling) and some of it only visible to Team Sky and Richard Moore, the author of the book. Richard does mention that it isn't an authorised / official book and in that sense he doesn't suck up to Team Sky but does get pretty close access to them. His insight behind the scenes is certainly what makes this book a worthwhile purchase and the whole feel of the book goes along with the debut season Sky had. Upbeat and positive at the start followed by realisation that it's not all going to go as planned (something David Brailsford doesn't put up with for long) and the book and season ends with lessons learned and a new positive outlook to the future.

As a book it's a good read but it doesn't have the depth of some of Moore's other books, this is surely because it's like writing an autobiography before you've achieved anything - there's not much to tell. I wonder how it would read if it was written now...