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2 opere 58 membri 5 recensioni

Opere di Emily Chappell

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Informazioni generali

Data di nascita
C20th
Sesso
female
Nazionalità
UK
Attività lavorative
Cycle courier

Utenti

Recensioni

Eloquent prose, beautifully read, describing the author's experiences on TCR and the impact of Mike Hall's death. Having done the TCR and experienced the death of people close to me, it was particularly poignant. She managed to describe some of the weird emotional high's and lows that visit an endurance cyclist, as well as the shear madness of cycling across a continent. A great book for ultra cycling enthusiasts (arm-chair or otherwise)!
 
Segnalato
jvgravy | 2 altre recensioni | Jan 28, 2024 |
If you like hearing about long bike rides or overcoming challenges, the struggles while doing them, long adventures, imposter syndrome, or failure, then you will like this book. It also touches on travel and food if you're also into that.

"The arrival of a friend made me feel a little more like I belonged here"

If you aren't from the UK or in the biking community, there may be words you don't know and that a dictionary may not be able to tell you, so don't worry if you struggle.

"Often, when I read of a new round-the-world record, or when a roadie friend would boast about the 200km sportive he was training for that summer, I would think of the audaxers, many of whom will quite happily cover 400 miles in a weekend, before heading back to work on Monday morning, simply because they claim to enjoy it."

This is one of those books that has certain parts that suck you in, and you want to continue reading, so keep an eye on the time.

"I was still doing it, I reminded myself. As long as I kept moving forward, even if I was walking, even if I had to stop every five minutes, I was still in the race, and I would make it to the top of the mountain, no matter how long it took."

"Anticipating the moments of panic I knew I’d experience later on in the ride, when I’d convince myself that I was a failure and didn’t even deserve to be there, I told myself that, as long as I was riding my bike, however slowly, I was doing it, and I was on my way to finishing the Transcontinental, no matter how long that might take."

While I understand why certain stories were included, I felt some could have been removed to shorten the book or make it easier to keep track of everything.

There is a very sudden end to this book before the epilogue.

"people would find my persistence inspiring if I carried on regardless. I didn’t tell her that the very thought of that made my stomach clench."
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
Authentico | 2 altre recensioni | Aug 17, 2023 |
Even though you'd think there's not much to say about being a cycle courier, this is a really great read.
 
Segnalato
paulmorriss | 1 altra recensione | Dec 29, 2020 |
I have been a follower of the Tour de France for three decades now. It never ceases to amaze me the limits that these guys can push themselves to, just to complete the course. Some have used artificial aids, but even with that, it is still a mammoth achievement to complete the 3000 or so kilometres.

There is another cycle race across Europe though that is twice the length of the Tour. The race is called the Transcontinental and rather than having the luxury of team members and lots of support, the entrants must cycle their way without support in the fastest time possible. Whilst the Tour takes place over three weeks and is a very fast race, the Transcontinental has one stage and four checkpoints. You’d think that they would struggle to find people to take part in this, but they do find people and those that do must be utterly mad.

Emily Chappell is one of those. She began as a cycle courier in London, but her taste for adventure transformed her into an ultra cyclist and she decided to enter this. To get across a continent in the fastest time on a bike means that you have to ignore things like sleep and sensible diets, push so far through the pain barrier that you are on the limit of doing permanent damage to your body. She made it halfway before bailing the first year that she entered. Undaunted by this, she trained hard with the guy who founded the race, Mike Hall and entered the next year.

It took her 13 days and 10 hours to cycle the 4000 miles and she won the women’s prize. She consumed countless calories every day, existed on little or no sleep and pushed her body beyond any sensible limits. As staggering as that sounds, she was still five days behind the overall winner, Kristof Allegaert. A substantial part of the book is about the platonic relationship that she had with the founder of the race, Mike Hall and the rides that they used to go out on. It is a tribute to him too and the disciple that he founded as he was tragically killed on another race in Australia.

This is one of the best cycling books that I have read in a long while. Not only is it lyrical with a strong narrative, but Chappell is searingly honest about the few highs and many lows of pushing her body well beyond any limits in this most extreme of sports. Superb book and possibly one of the best cycling books I have ever read.
… (altro)
1 vota
Segnalato
PDCRead | 2 altre recensioni | Apr 6, 2020 |

Statistiche

Opere
2
Utenti
58
Popolarità
#284,346
Voto
3.9
Recensioni
5
ISBN
9

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