The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman
A Bone-shaking Tour Through Cycling's Flemish Heartlands
Bloomsbury · Print & ebook · September 8, 2020
A journey through the wild madness of bicycle racing in Flanders.
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- Who it’s for
- A lively ride through Flemish racing, its histories, rivalries, and gloriously odd roadside details.
- Themes
- Flemish cycling culture, Flemish and European history, Cycling rivalries and myths
- Genres
- Cycling, Cycling Travel, Sports Travel
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Start with this bookAbout this book
A journey through the wild madness of bicycle racing in Flanders. LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 'A joy.' – Ned Boulting Every nation shapes sport to test the character traits it most admires.
Continue reading
In The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman, committed Belgophile and road cycling obsessive Harry Pearson takes you on a journey across Flanders, through the lumpy horizontal rain, up the elbow juddering cobbled inclines, past the fans dressed as chickens and the shop window displays of constipation medicines, as he follows races big, small and even smaller through one glorious, muddy spring. Ranging over 500 years of Flemish and European history, across windswept polders, along back roads and through an awful lot of beer cafes, Pearson examines the characters, the myths and rivalries that make Flanders a place where cycling is a religion and the riders its lycra-clad priests.
Flanders, Mud & Myth
A lively ride through Flemish racing, its histories, rivalries, and gloriously odd roadside details.
Come here for
- Cobbled races, local lore, and cycling’s stranger roadside scenery
Expect
- Muddy spring miles and a wide-ranging look at Flemish sporting character
Where it sits
| Cycling | 95% |
|---|---|
| Cycling Travel | 50% |
| Sports Travel | 28% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Cycling
- Sports History
- Cycling Travel
- Authors
- Harry Pearson
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury
- Published
- September 8, 2020
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Flemish cycling culture · Flemish and European history · Cycling rivalries and myths
- Reading lane
- Cycling