Thames & Hudson has joined with the sophisticated cycling brand, Rapha Racing, to produce a series of city-cycling guides geared to seeing Europe on two wheels. Each of the eight compact volumes in the boxed set features cycle-friendly neighborhoods in London, Paris, Copenhagen, Barcelona, and more, complete with itineraries, cycle maps, and cyclist-friendly places to visit. The guides are aimed at people interested in casual exploration, but there is also information for hardcore racing enthusiasts. Designed with the cyclist in mind, the slim paperbacks will fit easily into a backpack or...

Lanterne rouge: French / noun 1. The red lantern that hangs on the rear of a train 2. The competitor who finishes last in the Tour de France. If you complete a bike race of over 3,000 kilometres, overcoming mountain ranges and merciless weather conditions while enduring physical and psychological agony, in the slowest time, should you be branded the loser? What if your loss helped a teammate win? What if others lacked the determination to finish? What if you were trying to come last? Froome, Wiggins, Merckx - we know the winners of the Tour de France, but Lanterne Rouge tells the forgotten,...

Why do road cyclists go to the mountains? Blending adventure and travel writing with the rich narrative of pro racing, Max Leonard takes the reader from the battles that created the Alpine roads to the shepherds tending their flocks on the peaks, and to a Grand Tour climax on the `highest road in Europe'.