The story of the Giro d'Italia - Italy's equivalent of the Tour de France, and its superior in the eyes of many - is as dramatic and full of extraordinary characters as the story of Italy itself. Heroism, suffering, feuds and betrayals, tradition under threat from modernity all play out against a timeless landscape. The iconic riders, mythical stories and career defining exploits are conveyed in rich, vibrant prose.

Giro DItalia

History

Colin O'Brien

Europe

Pursuit Books

The Olympic cycling sport of keirin was invented in Japan more than 70 years ago to raise money to rebuild the country after World War II. Now, fans bet billions of dollars a year on races, with the top riders earning huge sums. 
In each race, a pacemaker leads nine riders around a huge concrete velodrome, then leaves the track with around a lap and a half to go - the cue for a frantic finish as the competitors reach speeds of up to 70 kph. Along the way they block and shove each other, clash heads and often crash (the two Japanese characters used to write keirin mean "battle" and "wheel"). 
To prevent race fixing, the cyclists live in dorms, with no access to online technology. Their lives are ruled by ritual and fierce competition, from their rookie days at the Japan Keirin School near Mount Fuji to the annual Grand Prix final, whose winner takes home prize money of one million dollars. 
A small number of foreign riders are invited to compete in Japan every year and some, like Shane Perkins, have overcome culture shock to prosper in the home of keirin. 
The Olympic version - which has made stars of Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Victoria Pendleton - is being taken more seriously in Japan as Tokyo prepares to host the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. 
In Keirin: War on Wheels, Justin McCurry, the Guardian's Japan and Korea correspondent, explores blue-collar Japan from a fascinating new perspective. His encounters with punters, pundits, veterans and rookies reveal parts of Japanese society and psyche rarely examined, learning lessons about country and culture that go far beyond the sporting realm.

Keirin: War on Wheels – Inside Japan’s Cycling Subculture

Sports & Outdoors

McCurry, Justin

Individual Sports

War on Wheels

Justin McCurry

Signs of Life: To the Ends of the Earth with a Doctor

Politics & Social Sciences

Fabes, Stephen

Social Sciences

They say that being a good doctor boils down to just four things: Shut up, listen, know something, care.\nThe same could be said for life on the road, too.\nWhen Stephen Fabes left his job as a junior doctor and set out to cycle around the world, frontline medicine quickly faded from his mind. Of more pressing concern were the daily challenges of life as an unfit rider on an overloaded bike, helplessly in thrall to pastries. But leaving medicine behind is not as easy as it seems.\nAs he roves continents, he finds people whose health has suffered through exile, stigma or circumstance, and others, whose lives have been saved through kindness and community. After encountering a frozen body of a monk in the Himalayas, he is drawn ever more to healthcare at the margins of the world, to crumbling sanitoriums and refugee camps, to city dumps and war-torn hospital wards. And as he learns the value of listening to lives - not just solving diagnostic puzzles - Stephen challenges us to see care for the sick as a duty born of our humanity, and our compassion.

A London cycle courier with a taste for adventure, Emily Chappell entered an extraordinary new race - The Transcontinental - in which riders must find their own way, entirely unassisted, across Europe in the shortest time possible. On her second attempt, she won the women's event, covering nearly 4,000 miles in 13 days and ten hours, sleeping in short bursts wherever exhaustion took her. 
In the aftermath of a win that troubled as much as pleased her she worked with Mike Hall, the founder of the race, until his tragic death on the road.
 Where There's a Will is a book about a normal person finding the capacity to do something extraordinary; the paradoxes of comradeship, competition, vulnerability and will and the shock of grief, combined in a beautifully written and very human story.

Where There's A Will: Discovering Endurance in a Race Across Europe

Chappell, Emily

Shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year Non-Fiction Award 2020\n'Chappell is a gifted storyteller' - Observer 
In 2015 Emily Chappell embarked on a formidable new bike race: The Transcontinental. 4,000km across Europe, unassisted, in the shortest time possible. 
On her first attempt she made it only halfway, waking up suddenly on her back in a field, floored by the physical and mental exertion. 
A year later she entered the race again - and won. 
Where There's a Will takes us into Emily Chappell's race, grinding up mountain passes and charging down the other side; snatching twenty minutes' sleep on the outskirts of a village before jumping back on the bike to surge ahead for another day; feeding in bursts and navigating on the go. We experience the crippling self-doubt of the ultra distance racer, the confusing intensity of winning and the desperation of losing a dear friend who understood all of this.

Where Theres A Will

Travel

Emily Chappell

Specialty Travel

"I ride to rest and to tire myself out; I ride to do myself good and to do myself harm"
... one of the many cycling paradoxes explored in this unique and delightful book.
"I've never got over this miracle"
 Starting with the childhood joy of learning to ride a bike, Need for the Bike goes on to relate the agony of climbing, the angst of crashing, and all the other universal moments and feelings which all cyclists will recognise.
"To get on a bike is to take possession of the landscape"
 The sounds, smells, pains and joys of riding with friends or alone, finding things on the road; getting lost, "re-reading" familiar routes; Paul Fournel's classic comes as close as any book has to an encapsulation of why we all need the bike ...

Need for the Bike

Fournel, Paul

. Orders received by 3pm Sent from the UK that weekday.

Beryl

Jeremy Wilson

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Books by Pursuit Books

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Pursuit Books publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Giro DItalia

Keirin: War on Wheels – Inside Japan’s Cycling Subculture

War on Wheels

Signs of Life: To the Ends of the Earth with a Doctor

Signs of Life: To the Ends of the Earth with a Doctor

Where There's A Will: Discovering Endurance in a Race Across Europe

Where Theres A Will

Need for the Bike

Beryl