Cycling fans around the world are getting ready for the Tour de France and it’s coming up fast.
On a cycling kick this summer? Here are the books you shouldn’t miss… some of them may surprise you!
The best books about cycling… ever?
Of course, it’s difficult to pick the very best book about cycling. Typically, you’d need to read more than one book to get the right perspective.
Maybe a reader starts with the only true fiction offering on our list below, The Rider — after all, it’s one of the only true novels about the sport, written by a Dutch amateur racer in 1978. It’s so quick and absorbing, almost more of a short story than a true novel, that you might wish for something else like it… that you won’t ever find.
If you can only read one? Slaying the Badger, the 1986 Hinault vs. LeMond story is almost too dramatic to believe. Of course, it won’t go into the full story of doping throughout cycling history, which is what most casual readers are curious about. The Secret Race or A Rough Ride together are better for that. Racing Through the Dark is arguably the best if you prefer a literary flair. David Millar wrote it himself, offering the most vivid portrait of his life.
Let’s talk true Tour prep. Étape spans six decades covering some of the most defining stages in Tour history, told through exclusive interviews with riders like Cavendish, Merckx, Hinault, LeMond, and even Lance Armstrong. But maybe you don’t want to go quite so deep. French Revolutions is the lightest read on the list. It’s great if you want something that will make you laugh while also appreciating the scale of what the pros do every July!
Is your interest piqued? Let’s take a closer look at each of the books to check out this summer and see if we can pick out your next read!
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Do you prefer listening to audiobooks?
Did you know that many books about cycling, including books about the Tour de France, are available on Audible?
There are some Audible subscript deals deals surrounding Amazon’s “Prime Day” (which you can see if they are available in your region), but you may also be eligible for a free trial.
If you’d like to listen to one of these books as an audiobook, including “Wheelmen,” “Slaying the Badger”, and others, then check out whether you can get a free trial here! ☆
12 books to read during the Tour de France this year:
1. The Rider by Tim Krabbé
Yes, it’s a cult classic among cyclists. Yes, it’s fiction… but still one of the truest portraits of the sport that you’ll come by.
You might not be totally sold on the idea of a fictional story about bike racing. But this book is a real classic and it’s very short, so you can zip through it and will be better for doing so.
The story throws you right into the perspective of a single cyclist during one intense 150-kilometer race in France. You’ll feel every pedal (and every mental battle) as the narrator races through the mountains. It’s wonderfully written and really gets into the mental side of bike racing. Don’t worry, it’s not a dry history book or biography at all; it’s really an odyssey all its own that will leave you imaginative for this year’s Tour de France!
If you want to know what it’s really like to compete, this one’s for you.
Find “The Rider” by Tim Krabbé in various formats, including audiobooks, here ☆
2. Slaying the Badger by Richard Moore
The 1986 Tour… it’s the greatest ever, many say. If you read this book, you’ll believe it!
Five-time champion Bernard Hinault promised to help his American teammate Greg LeMond win, then spent three weeks trying to destroy him instead. This is truly a story of loyalty, betrayal, and ambition… it has it all. The author uses many interviews with the riders, teammates, and others who were involved to build a really detailed narrative for fans to enjoy. You may not have been watching the 1986 Tour, but after enjoying this book, you’ll feel like you followed along with every stage!
Find “Slaying the Badger” here ☆
3. The Secret Race by Tyler Hamilton & Daniel Coyle
The Secret Race is an inside look at doping in pro cycling, especially during the Lance Armstrong years. Tyler Hamilton, a former cyclist and Olympic gold medalist, is a co-author of this book along with Daniel Coyle, a professional author. The book that results from the co-authorship between these two gentlemen addresses all the pressure inherent in cycling, the myriad ways doping happened at the WorldTour level during the Lance Armstrong years, and how these things were covered up in the sport. The narrative really gets into Hamilton’s own stories and his complicated time with Armstrong, showing what he describes as a “shadowy, fascinating, and surreal world.”
This book is an honest read that will give you an authentic peek into why athletes took such risks to win. Take it with a grain of salt and you’ll find yourself coming into this year’s Tour de France a bit more clear-eyed. It’s a well-paced story (likely thanks to Coyle’s expertise) that really pulls back the curtain on elite cycling. This book was super important for revealing the doping culture in the early 2010s, coming from someone who was right in the midst of it. It was even a New York Times bestseller!
4. Racing Through the Dark by David Millar
Now, let’s look at a similar book about the doping era, but with a twist. This one is a remarkably honest autobiography from Scottish cyclist David Millar, a Tour de France stage winner… as well as a convicted doper.
These days, he’s an anti-doping advocate and his voice means a lot to the sport. Millar is a cult favorite for many cycling fans, and here, he discusses his journey from a teenager in Hong Kong to an elite pro, followed by his fall from grace after being arrested, and then his hard-won return to racing clean.
Ultimately, this is a story for those who want to believe that cycling can be a clean sport… and to disprove those who believe it never will be.
Find “Racing Through the Dark” here ☆
5. Étape by Richard Moore
In the cycling world, author Moore knows what he’s doing. For this book, he interviews Merckx, Hinault, LeMond, Cavendish, Armstrong, and dozens more to reconstruct the Tour’s most defining individual stages.
The layout of the book is cool. Each chapter focuses on one rider in one stage, spanning six decades of the race’s mythology.
“Étape” by Richard Moore is available here in physical and digital formats ☆
6. French Revolutions by Tim Moore
An amateur cyclist attempts to ride the entire Tour de France route weeks before the pros do it? A recipe for disaster! But also a recipe for a really good book.
Will author Tim Moore even make it to Paris like the pros? Well, this book is all about his experience trying his darndest to do so. Follow his struggles, his weird ways of coping, and the funny stuff that happens along the way in this short read.
Moore’s humor makes it easy to relate to an everyday person trying something huge. This might be one of the funnier books about sport out there, but especially about Le Tour. It’s lighthearted but insightful, and will leave you with an intimate understanding of just how massive the Tour’s physical demands and landscape are. What is it like to ride through rural France every day? Well, for Moore and his charming honesty about his shortcomings and lack of preparedness, it can be laugh-out-loud funny!
Can’t help but think that if this book were written post-2003, it would be a massively successful vlog series instead…
Grab “French Revolutions” here ☆
7. Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike by William Fotheringham
Who better to discuss before Le Tour than the man himself? Eddy Merckx, one of the greatest cyclists of all time.
William Fotheringham’s book, Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike, tells his story. They called Merckx “the Cannibal” because he just wanted to win, win, win, and he managed five Tour de France victories across the course of his career, among many others. The book covers his triumphs, but also his injuries, the scandals, and his own worries — Fotheringham characterizes him as “handsome, sensitive, and surprisingly anxious,” and the detailed research that went into this story really makes Merckx’s races come alive on the page. Here, you’ll learn a little about everything, from his early days in Belgium to his big Tour de France debuts.
If you’re looking for a deep dive into Merckx’s training and racing that’s well-written, well-researched, and also engaging, this is a perfect read for you. Some of Merckx’s achievements feel nigh miraculous looking back at them in hindsight. If you read this before this year’s edition of Le Tour, you’ll be perfectly primed to see even more history-making racing playing out before your eyes this year.
Find “Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike” here in various formats, including audiobook ☆
8. A Rough Ride by Paul Kimmage
Ready for A Rough Ride? Paul Kimmage’s book will give you a straight-up look at the life of a professional cyclist, focusing on the super tough demands and tricky ethical choices rider have faced… and continue to face in the present day. Kimmage was a domestique in the pro peloton and shares his personal journey as an athlete back in the 1980s.
The book talks about how much physical and mental effort it takes to compete and even touches on how doping started showing up early in the sport. It does an excellent job explaining some of the crazy pressures on riders who weren’t the biggest stars, like Kimmage was. Instead of focusing on the standouts like Armstrong in the previous recommendation, this read will show the sport from the view of an average rider. This book has also been well-received over time, including for its honesty surrounding doping culture. Read it to have a better sense of what the rest of the peloton goes through over the three weeks of this year’s Tour, rather than focusing on the big names!
”A Rough Ride” is available in physical and digital formats here ☆
9. Blazing Saddles by Matt Rendell
The silliest book on the list, and I love it.
Let’s pivot and look at something a little more upbeat. Ready for some wild stories from the Tour’s past? Then Blazing Saddles is your next read!
This book is a no-holds-barred look at the Tour’s history. What does that mean? Well, it covers a little bit of everything related to rivalries, controversies, crazy forgotten moments, and what the author describes as “blind passions and filthy suspicions.” Some of the legends are squeaky clean, but the author does a fantastic job really capturing both sides, along with the crazy spirit of the Tour. You’ll enjoy the anecdotes and characters as you learn how the race started and how it changed over the years. Along the way, get a feel for just how crazy it was in the early days.
Do you think we might see anything just as wild this year?! Probably not, but this book will spark your imagination.
10. The Domestique by Charly Wegelius
Eleven years as a professional cyclist, zero race wins.
It’s true… it can happen to any cycling career.
This is another great book about the domestique life. Ever wonder what it’s like to be an unsung hero of cycling?. During the author’s 11 years as a pro, he always worked for others and never won a race himself. How unlucky is that? But for many pros, including some of those lining up for the Grand Depart this year, it’s a reality.
This book gives you the raw, honest truth about what that life is like: brutal training, tricky team dynamics, constant pain, and the mix of letdown and victory that comes with each race or stage. Among the recommendations here, it’s one of the most brutally honest and doesn’t pull punches. Are you ready to learn about the intense physical demands and the hard work behind the glamour of Le Tour? You’ll definitely get that perspective on the pros after reading this!
Find “The Domestique” by Charly Wegelius here ☆
11. Put Me Back on My Bike: In Search of Tom Simpson by William Fotheringham
Here’s another great one by William Fotheringham. Put Me Back on My Bike tells the sad story of Tom Simpson, a British cycling legend whose career ended tragically during the 1967 Tour de France on Mont Ventoux, which also features in the 2025 Tour de France. The book looks into Simpson’s life, his wins, and what happened when he died. This incident shone a light on the prevalence of doping worldwide, which looked a lot different than it might today, but nonetheless holds important lessons.
Simpson was a complicated guy, a “man of contradictions.” Notably, he was one of the first riders to admit to using banned drugs. In his research and narrative for this book, Fotheringham revisits many places and people connected to Simpson to bring his full story to life. The book is rich with historical context, helping readers understand the times that Simpson competed in and giving a strong background that leads right into current-day cycling. It becomes both personal and wide-reaching, detailing some of the earliest PED use and what it meant in the history of the sport — and to Simpson and his legacy.
”Put Me Back on My Bike” is available here in physical, digital, and audiobook formats ☆
12. Wheelmen: Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, and the Greatest Sports Conspiracy Ever by Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’Connell
For our last recommendation, let’s return to the often-problematic history of cycling — and the important lessons it holds for the future. Wheelmen is a deep investigative report into the Lance Armstrong doping scandal. It’s written by Wall Street Journal reporters Reed Albergotti and Vanessa O’Connell. This book goes beyond just Armstrong’s personal story and digs deep into the massive conspiracy, which involved many different people in professional cycling.
Over the course of the book, the authors explain how the doping operation was set up and kept secret, and all the folks who helped bring it down, from team managers to officials. Wheelmen, the product of years of investigative reporting, paints a larger-than-life picture of a huge conspiracy, and it will have you hooked until the end with big questions. Why did people do it? How did so many institutions fail to catch it? This book closes the door on the Armstrong years and reminds us: that history is not too far in the past. We should all be aware of this to appreciate cycling for what it is: a complicated, sometimes problematic, historic, and undoubtedly beautiful sport that will have us all gripped this July!
Are you going to check out any of these books for this year’s Tour de France? Let us know which you want to read, or have already read, in the comments or on social media! ★
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