A true cycling classic: witty and illuminating truths about bicycles and cycling

“So the bike itself is a form of doping. Which doesn't make things any easier. It's an instrument that the speed inherent, it is the best possibility for humans to surpass themselves: twice as fast, twice as fresh, twice as much wind in your face. Seen in this way, it is only natural that one cannot let it go.«

In 55 short, wonderfully pointed texts, the French writer Paul Fournel creates a universe centered around the racing bike. Beginning with the childish joy of learning to ride a bike, The Love of Bikes tells of the agony of climbing and the fear of falling, the blissful endorphin rush and wonder of the slipstream, and all the other universal moments and feelings every avid cyclist knows .

The sounds, the smells, the suffering and joys of riding in a peloton of like-minded people and as a lone soloist, taking possession of the landscape, getting lost, rediscovering familiar routes - Paul Fournel's classic sums up in an inimitable manner why we all ride bicycles need and always want to get back in the saddle...

»In this ode to the bicycle, you hear the wind howl, feel the pain of tense muscles and the roughness of the asphalt tearing the skin off your hips when you fall. Fournel writes evocatively, romantically, sensitively, thoughtfully and leads his readers from one situation that seems very familiar to the next and from one surprising observation to the next. The result is an all-encompassing, rousing declaration of love for the bicycle, a book for everyone who loves the bicycle or has (a little) lost love for the bicycle and is longing for it.« (Procycling)

Awarded the Prix Sport-Scriptum as the best French sports book of the year.