Cyclist autobiography

As a cyclist, most of your time is probably spend either riding or thinking about your next ride. To get your riding fix when not on the bike, pick up one of the best cycling books to magic you off an imaginative one, a historical one, a political one or even just help you plan your next one. Our favourite cycling books cover a vast array of everything to do with bikes, from the thrilling to tragic tales of life on two wheels, or even all about the history of one of The Monuments , one of cycling's classic one-day bike race.

From inspirational adventures across the world, learning bike maintenance , or discovering nutrition for cycling.

Best cycling books

Even if you have one of the best road bikes , have absolute everything you need to go bike packing , and know all about the benefits of cycling , there's a brilliant cycling book out there just for you. We've just selected a handful of our favourite books here, but keep checking back as more are added all the time. Winner of The Telegraph Sports Book Awards Cycling Book of the Year , Full Gas is a look inside the tactics of the professional peloton and the decisions made by directeurs sportifs during some of the most important races.

This is the perfect cycling book for anyone wanting to level up their understanding and knowledge of the sometimes confusing carnival of racing. While other books such as Wide Eyed and Legless tell the tale of the race, this book strips back the racing and explains why it's not just the strongest rider who can win on the day.

Everything you wanted to know about bike racing from the tactics, breakaways, bluffing, highs and the lows, highlighting memorable moments in history when these have been deployed at their finest. As someone who has commentated the biggest bike races in the world for quarter of a century, you can imagine there are a few tales to tell. The behind the scenes view of races is a easy reading alternative look at the top races, full of amusing and unbelievable stories.

In classic Carlton style, you can wonder if he's at the same bike race as you, but does dish the dirt on his co-commentators and some of the less than expected moments to life in the caravan. Compared to the darker or harder behind the scenes look at bike racing like that found in Racing Through the Dark or Wide Eyed and Legless, this really is the antidote.

But I'm warning you now, if you're not a fan of his commentary, you probably won't be a huge fan of the book. An open book style confession, that is considered by most of the top Pro Cycling journalists as the real truth behind some of Lance Armstrong's Tour de France wins. In the no holds bared telling of his story, Hamilton reveals all to Daniel Coyle in in turn captures the extreme detail in a compelling and easy to understand page turner.