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| Tour Climbs: The Complete Guide to Every Mountain Stage on the Tour De France | 
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| Author: Chris Sidwells
Publisher: Collins
Category: Book
Buy New: £53.99
New (4) from £53.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 83663
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.9
Dimensions (in): 11 x 10.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0007259018
EAN: 9780007259014
ASIN: 0007259018
Publication Date: June 2, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Beautifull book October 28, 2008
This is a great book about the Tour climbs, it gives you a little information about how to prepare yourself, but for the most part its about the individual climbs - a bit big to take with you on the bike though!
 What a complete let-down! October 17, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
What a complete let down this book is. The'maps' are simply squiggles on the page, with no indication of actual location. There are no gradient profiles. The photos show nothing of the road up the climb, only views of the general area. I don't know how the 'author' managed to convince someone to publish this rubbish. I'm glad I was given the book as a present, I would hate to have spent my own hard-earned cash on it.
 Coffee table rather than useful reference August 12, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Best things about this book are the page size (large), the typographic layout (stylish yet well-ordered) and that it is printed in full colour throughout, unlike cycling books by cash-strapped smaller publishers.
As mentioned, the text layout is well structured, with each climb having an introductory side-column of information listing the perceived relative difficulty, length, average gradients, etc, in addition to the main text that deals with the description and Tour history aspects.
However it was a fatal mistake by the publisher and/or author to not include proper maps and gradient profiles. There's a kind of whispy-looking doodle of a map for each climb, placed in the margins of the pages, but the twistiness of a route is less important to riders hauling their weight uphill than knowing more precisely how steep it is going to be at various points and where the changes of gradient pitch will occur. By omitting the potentially useful diagrams that are promised in the sales blurb (see the Product Description) the book has been relegated to the level of a mere coffee table book, rather than the useful reference tool that it could have been. It should have been both really.
I'll skip the copy-editing deficiencies, except to say that these are embarrassing evidence of insufficient time being allowed for proof-reading and corrections.
A lesser complaint is the quality of some of the photographs, which sometimes look over-exposed. In some cases the images look like they have been scanned from low budget prints. I know it can be difficult to photograph a scene in harsh bright summer sunlight on these mountains, where there are extremes of light and shade, but I wish a bit of time was spent doing some digital correction work to hide the technical defects. Generally, I think the layout of the photos nicely integrates them with the text, although the chapter opener spreads are a little bit bland compared to the other pages. Perhaps the openers could have been made more useful by also including, as another reviewer suggests, some kind of regional map marking the relative locations of the climbs included in the chapter.
There are a number of similar books to this one published in France. Most don't have such beautiful typography as Tour Climbs, but they all have more useful diagrammatic information. Of them, the book 'Grands cols - les montagnes du tour de France a velo' (by Nicolas Moreau-Delaquis) is the one closest in form to Sidwells' book, yet it also manages to include full page colour maps and gradient cross-sections as part of the package.
So, in other words, despite Tour Climbs' good points, the ultimate guide in English has yet to be produced. Hopefully, if Collins ever correct the text for a future edition they will also give us some locational maps and include an appendix section of gradient profiles - then we can all award it the 5 star reviews that a book like this ought to have.
A big disappointment July 29, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Being a cycle racing fan, I was really looking forward to a 'complete guide' to all of the climbs used in the tdf. Sadly this book does not deliver on this claim. The previous reviews have mentioned the many pitfalls of the book - poor grammar and spelling (spelling Millar with an e is unforgiveable), useless maps, uninspiring photos and limited information.
Perhaps the author bit off more than he could chew with this one. I was hoping for more information: climb profiles, fastest ascent by a tour rider, lists of tour riders gaining points on the climbs in each tour (for the anorak in me) to name but a few.
Oh, and there's no mention of climbing the Col d'Aubisque from Laruns (note spelling - it's not Larruns).
 Christmas sorted! July 23, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the ideal present for all those armchair cyclists out there. Its a been a brilliant reference book during the TDF, detailing all the climbs the TDF has ever been over. As well as all the facts and figures about the individual climbs it provides details of the historic battles that have taken place on the slopes. Despite the errors highlighted by previous reviewers it wins the polka dot jersey for me. It`s a brilliant coffee table book to dip in and out of and use as a reference guide and to while away those long winter nights when the sunshine of the TDF seems so far away. This is the ideal Christmas present for any cycling fanatic.
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