Seven classic books about cycling

Bella Bathurst is a writer and photojournalist. Her books include The Lighthouse Stevensons, which won the 1999 Somerset Maugham Award, The Wreckers, which became a BBC Timewatch documentary, and The Bicycle Book, which was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2011.

For the Guardian she tagged seven of the best books about cycling, including:

Lance Armstrong: It’s Not About the Bike

Controversial. But in truth there can be very few keen cyclists who didn’t have a copy of this on their bookshelves at one time, and who since Armstrong’s Miltonian fall from grace have not hurled it with great force towards the nearest charity shop. Reading it now, knowing that every motivational phrase, every ultra-alpha anecdote, every straight-up clear-eyed statement is untrue, is like reading a reversed image of the original text. If nothing else, it functions as a perfect psychological template of the lengths to which fear can push us.

Read about another book on the list.

It’s Not About the Bike is one of Matt Seaton's top ten books about cycling.

--Marshal Zeringue