Tim Krabbé used his experiences as an amateur cycle racer to create this classic account of the fictional Tour de Mont Aigoual. Like all the best sports writing, The Rider manages to convey the excitement, determination and skill of the competitors even to readers who have little or no knowledge of the sport. Above all, he evokes the heightened focus of the cyclists, for whom nothing seems real apart from the race: ‘Tourists and locals are watching from the sidewalk cafés. Non-racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me.’

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | Paperback 160 pp. |ISBN: 9780747559412