The Cycling Bible

This is a detailed and interesting book. It might be a bit wordy and some graphics/summaries in places would help but that is a small price to pay to own a book that pretty much covers everything. I dipped into a number of sections in preparation for the Fred Whitton ride this year. Nutrition and bike prep were particularly helpful. But it is also greatif you are getting into cycling for the first time. Before lashing out on a really expensive deep rimmed road racing bike, read this and then buy what will actually work for you :-)

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It claims to be a "comprehensive guide to help you get the most out of cycling", which is quite a challenge, but one that it largely succeeds at. These days cycling is a very broad church but the book is right up to date, covering the more recent themes of gravel cycling, adventure riding and bikepacking as well as more "traditional" forms of cycling such as road, touring and mountainbiking. There's advice on equipment, how to buy a bike, what all the different types of cycling are, and a thorough section on bike fit and cycling skills before moving on cover to fitness, nutrition, mental and physical training and bike maintenance.What really stood out for me was the balance that has been struck between providing enough detail and information at a sufficiently technical level to inform the reader and enhance their knowledge, and yet not ending up with very detailed, complicated, long and difficult to understand explanations. The author has done well to convey all the topics in just the right amount of detail. Overall a very good guide for anyone looking to understand all aspects of cycling in more detail, be they new to the sport, keen to improve themselves or try out other types of cycling, or just raise their overall knowledge base

A comprehensive and inspiring overview of all types of cycling written by a very experienced and well published cyclist. This book distils significant amounts of detail into a compact, well illustrated, clearly written and well-referenced text. Chris Sidwells outlines his convincing pro-cycling manifesto and then gives sufficient detail and helpful tips to guide newcomers to the sport, but with enough additional extras to be useful to established cyclists. Helpful links to useful online resources are suggested where the additional detail would make a book unwieldy. The different types of bike are outlined in detail including a refreshingly positive spin on e-bikes. As a long-term cyclist recovering following recent surgery I have found an e-bike to be invaluable for commuting. Historically many cyclists have been rather negative about motor assistance, but the inclusive nature of this book should be commended. There are helpful sections on nutrition and training. Ask me in 6 weeks how effective the strength and conditioning advice is! As a keen mountain-biker I felt that there could be more detail on more technical aspects of riding. Dropping the saddle while descending is an invaluable technique which doesn't get mentioned, but as with all cycling a short session with a knowledgeable friend or a skills coach would allow any newcomer to get the best out of their bike. Overall a motivational, inspiring and practically useful cycling bible which deserves to be widely distributed and read often.

A comprehensive guide to cycling, covering all aspects of the sport from physical and mental training to cycling calls and nutrition and from bike maintenance to what to wear. This book has something to offer for almost everyone, whether just getting into cycling for the first time or wanting to optimise training for a new goal. Those who don't need to read about why they should cycle, should simply skip the first chapter! The book is for the most part clearly laid out, though the initial couple of chapters jumped from on-road to off-road a little disconcertingly, so sometimes it wasn't quite clear which discipline was being discussed. It would also have been nice if the photographs had been captioned - serving as inspiration and ideas as well as pretty pictures. All in all a well-researched and detailed guide, written with a sense of humour.

I enjoyed this book. It touched on a lot of different topics, the majority of which would be really useful to a beginner. The training sections at the back look valuable to enthusiasts too. I liked the diversity in the photos. Its clear that the designers want to show that cycling is an inclusive be sport which I think deserves applause.