Le Tour de France: The Official Treasures combines a written history and a living museum exhibit. The carefully researched historical text on the Tour weaves its way through the pages, while simultaneously showing why it is such a compelling annual event. Uniquely, this book contains superb items of removable facsimile memorabilia slipped into the pages, plus photographs—some never seen before—that not only bring the text to life but show other personal items from long-forgotten Tours.

You can learn why a rider screamed “Murderers” at the organizers, how fans wait for the publicity caravan almost as eagerly as the riders, the evolutions of the coloured jerseys and the stories behind the memorabilia. This is the perfect celebration of the world’s toughest test of cycling endurance.

• Updated for 2009 with dramatic 2008 Tour story, won by Carlos Sastre of Spain

• Riders’ 1910 Tour contract and rulebook

• Signed postcards, maps and posters

• Journalist’s hand-written notes from the first-ever high mountain stage

• More than 275 archive photographs and 40 removable items of Tour de France memorabilia

• Forward by five-time Tour champion Bernard Hinault
Hardcover with slipcase; 64 pages; 260 x 298 mm; Colour Photography; Laget, Serge; Edwardes-Evans, Luke