Climbs & punishment

Cycling journalist Felix Lowe makes the leap from raconteur to rouleur, taking to the saddle for the first time in 10 years to complete his very own grand tour of Europe.Lowe's light-hearted and entertaining travelogue charts his progress as he cycles 1,700-miles from Barcelona to Rome, crossing three countries and cycling over three mountain ranges, taking in some of cycling's most fabled climbs.

As he follows in the tracks of some of the world's greatest wheelmen, Lowe will put professional cycling's three major stage races - the Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana and Giro d'Italia - under the microscope, whilst capturing the potent mix of madness, humour and human spirit that make people identify with the sport so strongly.Powered by local delicacies and his trademark blend of self-deprecating humour and barbed wit, Lowe takes readers on an immersive journey through the Catalonian countryside, over the Pyrenean foothills and the rolling plains of Languedoc, through the flowery fields of Provence, over winding Alpine passes, past the parks and palaces of Piedmont, and down the Apennine backbone of Italy.As much about the regions traversed as the cyclists who have left their sweat in the soil, Lowe's insightful account celebrates the sport and examines the psychology of both the crazed amateur and the pedalling pro.