Bespoke A Guide to Cycle-Speak and Saddle Slang

Bespoke presents 175 of the most lyrical, humorous and down-right vulgar terms complete with detailed usage and origin notes, with entries fully cross-referenced across cycling’s main languages and destinations.

Some sports lend themselves to language: cycling is one of them. With its rich history and culture, and its professional roots across the continent and beyond, cycling has developed a terminology that goes well beyond borders, producing a lexicon all of its own.

This book guides the reader through a land where the road to hell is paved not with good intentions, but with cobbles. This is a place where all the world is a stage, unless you are a one-day specialist. Where its inhabitants come with a litany of arresting nicknames - Badgers, Cannibals, Eagles, Pirates -each with a wonderful story of their own.

Lavishly illustrated with specially commissioned artworks by acclaimed cycling illustrator Neil Stevens and historical photography from both the British Library collections and L’Équipe, this is a book that takes the reader from the tête de la course to the gruppetto, from the caravane following the race to the tifosi cheering on the mountainside. Insightful and irreverent, Bespoke is the book for anyone who wants to be able to speak cycling.

Tom Bromley is a published author, editor and ghost (not the scary kind). He has written ten books under his own name and ghostwritten a further nine. Tom’s own books are a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, with a dabble in crime (the literary variety) under the pseudonym Thomas Black. He also teaches creative writing for, among others, the Faber Academy and works as an editorial consultant and mentor for a number of publishers, literary agencies and organizations. Tom is a keen cyclist and is Chairman of the flourishing Salisbury Literary Festival.

Contents
1: A FEW WORDS ABOUT CYCLING 7
2: THE RACE 11
3: THE RIDERS 25
4: THE SEASON 39
5: PRIZES 59
6: PARCOURS 71
7: ÉTAPES 81
8: THE PERSONNEL 95
9: THE ROADBOOK 109
10: NICKNAMES 125
11: MONTAGNES 135
12: TACTICS 145
13: CHEATING 157
14: THE RACES OF RACES 171
Bibliography 188
Acknowledgements 190
Index of Entries 191