Cycling Facts And Feats, Jeremy Evans (1996)

A surprising treasure trove of information packaged as an adolescent gift book

Guinness Publishing 0 85112 677 4 Octo 192 £13.99

This title was one of four that Guinness publishing – they of the World Records – published in the mid 1990s. The intention, clearly, was to create sport-specific books that exploited the company’s reputation. Not a very promising prospect – but this is a book full of surprises.

Of course there are lists of winners of the great tours, and the classics – but there is a good deal more besides. The book gets underway with an 18-page timeline of cycle development that is a distracting miscellanary in itself.

Reynolds 531 was introduced in 1935 (the digits refer to the proportions of its constituent metals) for example; there’s a note about the German Nazi Party’s ‘Day of the German Cyclist’ in 1933 and, Britain’s first segregated cycleways were built in Stevenage in 1946 in the teeth of stiff opposition from the CTC.

Thereafter follows some lengthy lists of race results – but they are leavened with tons of supporting information and stories. The events covered are also very catholic – British time trialling gets a decent mention, as do women’s events. There is space for results from the Paris-Brest-Paris, the Commonwealth Games, cyclo cross and mountainbiking. There is even room to give the Guinness seal of approval to Nick Sauder’s 170-mile-a-day round the world ride in 1985.

Today – 13 years after publication – it is still a great book to distract during an idle moment – and a handy reference if you are compiling a club quiz night.

PS Oct 09