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Welcome to McGann Publishing

 

McGann Publishing is a (really) small press specializing in books about cycling, but not to the exclusion of other subjects.

We have a separate page listing our library of classical literature: What's the Big Idea?—Books that Matter

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The Story of the Tour de France, Volume 1, 1903 - 1975

By Bill & Carol McGann

TDF volume 1Format: Print
6" x 9" Paperback, 421 pages with photographs
Suggested retail print version: $19.95, Kindle eBook: $4.99
Audiobook: $21.95

Get the book:
Amazon.com print & Kindle eBook
Amazon audiobook

About the book:

"After forty years of study on the subject, I can with some confidence say Bill and Carol McGann’s The Story of the Tour de France is the finest such work ever produced in the English language, and perhaps in any."
-From the preface by the late Owen Mulholland, author of Uphill Battle

"Besides towering over all bicycle races, the Tour de France endures for its unique Gaulic character, like Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. The McGann's passionate and insightful writing evokes the raucous cast of riders, promoters, and journalists thrusting through highs and lows worthy of opera. This volume stands out as a must-read book for anyone seeking to appreciate cycling's race of races."
-Peter Joffre Nye, author of The Six-Day Bicycle Races: America's Jazz Age Sport and Hearts of Lions

At the dawn of the 20th Century, French newspapers used bicycle races as promotions to build readership. Until 1903 these were one-day events. Looking to deliver a coup de grace in a vicious circulation war, Henri Desgrange—editor of the Parisian sports magazine L’Auto—took the suggestion of one of his writers to organize a race that would last several days longer than anything else, like the 6-day races on the track, but on the road.

More on The Story of the Tour de France, Volume 1


The Story of the Tour de France, Volume 2, 1976 - 2018 - Revised edition

By Bill & Carol McGannThe Story of the Tour de France


Formats: Print and Kindle eBook
6" x 9" Paperback, 412 pages with photographs
Suggested retail print version: $19.95, Kindle eBook $4.99
Audiobook: $24.95

Get the book:
Amazon.com Print, Kindle eBook & Audiobook

About the book:

"After forty years of study on the subject, I can with some confidence say Bill and Carol McGann’s The Story of the Tour de France is the finest such work ever produced in the English language, and perhaps in any."
-From the preface by the late Owen Mulholland, author of Uphill Battle

Story of the Tour de France Volume 2

For any historian of the sport the McGanns Tour de France history is essential reading. Details of the stages and the riders are not glossed over. For those who are new to the sport, the McGanns bring the glory days of the sport alive with the intrigue that still exists today. Epic stages that might have faded into oblivion are eloquently recounted so that future generation of cyclists will know the rich history of our beautiful sport.
Neil Browne, editor, Road Magazine

Volume 1 of "The Story of the Tour de France" concluded with Bernard Thévenet’s dramatic victory over Eddy Merckx in the 1975 Tour. Volume two opens with super-climber Lucien van Impe’s taking advantage of a course made for the riders with wings. His win was followed by the dominating presence of Bernard Hinault, who became the third rider to win the Tour five times.

Unable to fulfill his destiny as a likely five-time winner because of a hunting accident, Greg LeMond won the Tour three times. LeMond’s era was followed by that of the remarkable Spaniard Miguel Indurain, the first man to win the Tour five times in a row.

More on The Story of the Tour de France, Volume 2


The Story of the Tour de France, 2019: A Year of New Faces

The Story of the 2019 Tour de FranceBy Bill & Carol McGann

Kindle eBook: $1.99
Audible audiobook: $6.08

Get the book here, or click on the Amazon link on the lower right.

This telling of the 2019 Tour de France is a supplement to our two-volume The Story of the Tour de France: How a Newspaper Promotion Became the Greatest Sporting Event in the World. Volume one told the story of the Tour's origins and each edition of the race from 1903 through 1975. The final chapter tells the story of Eddy Merckx's five Tour wins starting with his dominating victory in 1969.

Tour de France: 2019

Volume two picked up the race in 1976 with super-climber Lucien van Impe's victory and took it through 2018 and Welshman Geraint Thomas' 111-second win over Tom Dumoulin.

The 2019 edition was filled with surprises with young riders taking control of the race. Every day had something happen that confounded the experts. The winner did not emerge until Mother Nature surprised everyone in late July with snow and ice. With just three stages to go, mud, hail, and ice on an Alpine road changed everything.

Join us for one of the most interesting and unpredictable editions of the Tour.


The Story of the Tour de France, 2020: The Tour During Covid-19: Better Late Than Never

The story of the 2020 Tour de FranceBy Bill & Carol McGann

Availble as a Kindle eBook
Available as an ACX Audible audiobook

This telling of the 2020 Tour de France is a supplement to our two-volume The Story of the Tour de France: How a Newspaper Promotion Became the Greatest Sporting Event in the World, and the first supplement, 2019: A Year of New Faces (both available on Kindle and ACX audiobooks).

Volume One told the story of the Tour’s origins and of each edition of the race from 1903 through 1975—the year Bernard Thévenet was able to conquer the Belgian Lion, Eddy Merckx, and hold the great racer to five Tour wins.

Tour de France: 2020

Volume Two picked up the race in 1976 with super-climber Lucien van Impe’s victory and took it through 2018 and Welshman Geraint Thomas’ 111-second win over Tom Dumoulin.

2019 had a stunning surprise winner in twenty-two-year-old Egan Bernal, the youngest rider to wear the race-leader’s Yellow Jersey in Paris since that jersey was first awarded in 1919, and the third-youngest rider ever to have won the Tour de France.

Except for the two world wars, the Tour has been run annually since that 1903 race, and yearly addendums seem the best way to keep telling the story. So please join us as we go on the 107th trip around La Belle France. Let’s see how those new faces of the 2019 Tour did in 2020.


The Story of the Tour de France. 2021: The Little Cannibal Dominates

The Story of the 2021 Tour de FranceBy Bill & Carol McGann

Available as a Kindle eBook for $1.99 here
Available as an Audible audiobook here.

Or click on the Amazon link on the lower right.

This telling of the 2021 Tour de France is an addition to our two-volume The Story of the Tour de France: How a Newspaper Promotion Became the Greatest Sporting Event in the World, and two supplements, 2019: A Year of New Faces and 2020: The Tour During Covid-19: Better Late Than Never (both available on Kindle and ACX audiobooks).

Volume One told the story of the Tour’s origins and of each edition of the race from 1903 through 1975—the year Bernard Thévenet was able to conquer the Belgian Lion, Eddy Merckx, and hold the great racer to five Tour wins.

Tour de France: 2022

Volume Two picked up the race in 1976 with super-climber Lucien van Impe’s victory and took it through 2018 and Welshman Geraint Thomas’ 111-second win over Tom Dumoulin.

2019 had a stunning surprise winner in twenty-two-year-old Egan Bernal, the youngest rider to wear the race-leader’s Yellow Jersey in Paris since that jersey was first awarded in 1919, and the third-youngest rider ever to have won the Tour de France.

2020 was no less surprising. Slovenian racer Tadej Pogačar was sitting in second place after stage nineteen, just 57 seconds behind fellow Slovenian and race leader Primož Roglič. Then in the 2020 Tour’s penultimate stage, a 36.2-kilometer individual time trial, Pogačar delivered a stunning ride, winning the stage and beating Roglič by 1 minute 56 seconds. That superb effort made Pogačar the winner of the 2020 Tour de France.

Few things seemed to go as planned in the 2021 Tour de France. First, the start date was changed so that the race would not conflict with the Olympic Games. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the planned start in Denmark was transferred to Brest, in France. While 2020 winner Tadej Pogačar seemed to be riding in a state of grace, the man thought to be his main competitor, Primož Roglič was forced to abandon after stage 8.

But, there were other fine riders ready to give Pogačar a challenge.

Except for the two world wars, the Tour has been run annually since that 1903 race, and yearly addendums seem the best way to keep telling the story. So please join us as we go on the 108th trip around La Belle France.


The Story of the Tour de France. 2022: The Fastest Tour Ever

By Bill & Carol McGann

Available as a Kindle eBook for $1.99 here
Available as an Audible audiobook here

Or click on the Amazon link on the lower right.

This telling of the 2022 Tour de France is an addition to our two-volume The Story of the Tour de France: How a Newspaper Promotion Became the Greatest Sporting Event in the World, and three supplements:
2019: A Year of New Faces
2020: The Tour During Covid-19: Better Late Than Never
2021: The Little Cannibal Dominates

The supplements are available both as an Amazon Kindle eBooks and ACX Audiobooks.

Volume One of our story told of the Tour’s origins and of each edition of the race from 1903 through 1975—the year Bernard Thévenet was able to conquer the Belgian Lion, Eddy Merckx and hold the great racer to five Tour wins. Except for the two world wars, the Tour has been run annually since that first edition of the race in 1903.

Tour de France: 2022

Volume Two picked up the race in 1976 with super-climber Lucien van Impe’s victory and took it through 2018 and Welshman Geraint Thomas’ 111-second win over Tom Dumoulin.

2019 had a surprise winner in twenty-two-year-old Egan Bernal, the youngest rider to wear the race-leader’s Yellow Jersey in Paris since that jersey was first awarded in 1919, and the third-youngest rider ever to have won the Tour de France.

2020 was no less surprising. After stage nineteen, Slovenian racer Tadej Pogačar was sitting in second place, just 57 seconds behind fellow Slovenian and race leader Primož Roglič. Then in the Tour’s penultimate stage, a 36.2-kilometer individual time trial, Pogačar delivered a stunning ride, winning the stage and beating Roglič by 1 minute, 56 seconds. That superb effort made Pogačar the winner of the 2020 Tour de France. He became the first rider to win the Tour de France on his first attempt since Laurent Fignon in 1983. He did more than win the General Classification. He also won the Mountains Classification and was the Best Young Rider. Of the four individual prizes the Tour puts up for grabs, Pogačar won three of them. And at twenty-one years old, he is also the second-youngest rider to win the Tour since twenty-year-old Henri Cornet won the race’s second edition in 1904.

The 2021 Tour had to be both re-routed and re-scheduled. The organizers had originally planned a start on July 2 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with three Danish stages before a transfer to France. But the summer’s crowded sports calendar forced Tour owner ASO to change both the dates of the race and the route. To make room for the re-scheduled Tokyo Olympic Games and the Euro 2020 football championships, the revised plan was for a June 26 start in Brest, Brittany with the finale in Paris to be run on July 18. The Danish start was re-scheduled to be part of the 2022 Tour route.

Pogačar was just as dominating in the 2021 race as he had been in 2020. He had already demonstrated his incredible form by winning the April classic Liège–Bastogne–Liège. After winning the Tour’s stage five individual time trial, he was effectively the leader of the Tour, being just 8 seconds behind Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, a superb classics rider who would be dispatched once the race hit the high mountains.

And that’s just what happened in stage eight, with its five categorized climbs, three of which were rated first category. Pogačar was in Yellow with a 1 minute, 48 second lead over Dutchman Wout van Aert.

Pogačar’s way was made easier by his major rival Primož Roglič’s crash in stage three that cost Roglič a minute. Roglič was able to get back up and complete the stage, but he never truly recovered. He finished the difficult eighth stage outside the time limit, marking an end to his 2021 Tour de France.

Pogačar cemented his lead by winning the two mountaintop finishes, stages seventeen and eighteen. He finished the 2021 Tour with a 5 minute, 21 second lead over Team Jumbo-Visma’s Jonas Vingegaard. And again, he won both the mountains and young rider classifications as he had in 2020. It was a stunning performance.

So please join us as we go on the 109th trip around La Belle France.


The Story of the Tour de France, 2023: The Viking Again Conquers the Tour

By Bill & Carol McGann

Available as a Kindle eBook or and Audiobook here.

Or click on the Amazon link on the lower right.

The year 2021 was Tadej Pogačar’s private property. Winning the Tour by more than five minutes, the talented rider again took those three categories: GC, Mountains, and Young Rider. The big surprise was Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard. Riding for Primož Roglič’s Jumbo Visma team, he rode a superb Tour. After Roglič crashed and was forced to abandon, Vingegaard took over leadership of the team and finished second, five minutes and 20 seconds down. Along the way, he showed that he was not to be underestimated. In stage 11, with a double ascent of Mont Ventoux, he was able to drop Pogačar. The Slav caught him and the two finished the difficult stage together, but Vingegaard had shown he could draw blood.

The 2022 Tour looked to be a shootout between Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Tour de France: 2023 Pogačar. But Pogačar ran out of gas before he ran out of Tour. In stage 11, a monster climbing stage, Vingegaard attacked on the final ascent, the Col du Granon, and finished alone, a minute ahead of his nearest chaser Nairo Quintana, and almost three minutes ahead of Pogačar. The Dane now led Pogačar by two minutes, 16 seconds. In stage 18, with its hilltop finish at Hautacam, Vingegaard cemented his GC lead by finishing a minute ahead of Pogačar. That gave him a three minute, 26 second lead, which he grew by another eight seconds in the final time trial.

Vingegaard rode the final stage in Paris conservatively, wanting to stay safe in the Tour’s final kilometers, letting Pogačar grab 50 seconds, but the Tour was the Dane’s. He had ridden a near-perfect Tour guarded by a powerful and capable Jumbo-Visma team.

Except for the two world wars, the Tour has been run annually since that 1903 race, and yearly addendums seem the best way to keep telling the story.

So please join us for 2023 as we go on the 110th trip around La Belle France. Let’s see how Vingegaard, Pogačar, and the other brilliant racers fight for cycle racing’s greatest prize.


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Dirty Feet: How the great unwashed created the Tour de France

By Les Woodland

Paperback print: $16.95 U.S.
Kindle eBook: $3.99
Audiobook: $17.46

Dirty FeetDirty Feet is a fresh look at the now more than 100-year-old Tour de France. Les Woodland goes back to the blue-collar origins of the race when the father of the Tour, Henri Desgrange, was so bothered by the hygiene of his tough, beloved racers that at the end of each stage he would publish the names of the riders who did not wash after a day of racing on France's mostly dirt and often muddy roads.

As Les tells the story, starting with the invention of the bicycle, he gives many of the myths that have cluttered cycling history merciful deaths. As a lifetime scholar of cycling history he is able to sprinkle his tale with an endless stream of fascinating stories and little-known facts, bringing to life the men of the past century who have devoted themselves to the sport.

Come along for the ride as Henri Desgrange creates the greatest sporting event in the world, The Tour de France.

More on Dirty Feet: How the great unwashed created the Tour de France


Cycling's World Championships: The Inside Story

By Les Woodland

Paperback print: $14.95 US
Kindle eBook: $3.99
Audiobook: $14.95

Cycling's World Championships: The Inside StoryChampion of the World! For a year the World Cycling Champion gets to wear a special white jersey with rainbow stripes. And then, for the rest of his career, he can wear a jersey with rainbow cuffs and collar. Unlike the Tour de France's Yellow Jersey, which can only be worn while leading the race, the rainbow is earned for life.

For more than a century organized cycling has been conferring that extraordinary and wonderful title, starting with the first championships held in Chicago in 1893. But it wasn't until 1927 that there was a professional world road championship race, won on the famous Nürburgring car circuit in Germany by the great Alfredo Binda.

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Melanoma: It Started with a Freckle

By David L. Stanley

Amazon Kindle eBook, 173 pages: $3.99
Paperback print, 162 pages: $16.95
Audible audiobook: $13.08

Melanoma: It Started with a FreckleIn Melanoma: It Started with a Freckle, David L. Stanley invites you to join him on an inside tour of his cancer. You’ll travel with Stanley from the dimly lit and elegantly decorated office of the dermatologist to the fluorescent glare of the operating room theater and back to the workplace as he faces up to melanoma—the only major cancer that has seen its incidence rise since 2000—with humor, humility, and a deep understanding of the disease borne of research and science. 

In a memoir that speaks to anyone who has bumped up against a major health scare, Stanley offers up an engaging primer on how to finesse a path through cancer, the boogeyman under everyone’s bed, with gravity and wit and honor. 

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Cycling's 50 Triumphs and Tragedies: The Rise and Fall of Bicycle Racing's Champions

By Les Woodland

Available as a Kindle eBook: $3.99

Triumphs and TragediesWhen more than 100 men or women go racing down a road, inches away from each other, in all weather, over all kinds of roads, the opportunity for a brilliant win or a terrible accident is always there.

For more than a century bicycle racers have sought glory, but have often found only misery. There can be only one winner, and even that triumph can be mixed with terrible loss. Fausto Coppi, coached by a blind man, set the World Hour Record in Milan during the war while the city was being shattered by bombs.

Great joy and tragedy so close together.

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Tour de France: The Inside Story. Making the World's Greatest Bicycle Race

by Les Woodland

Tour de France: The Inside StoryISBN: 978-0985963637
Suggested Retail price: $16.95 US
6 x 9 paperback, 226 pages

The Tour de France is the greatest bike race in the world, but it began as a humble promotional gimmick for a floundering newspaper. More than 100 years later the Tour still captivates the world and is broadcast to over 180 countries.

How did a few men looking for some way to save their struggling business become masters of a giant, successful enterprise? Les Woodland tells the inside story of the Tour de France through the prism of the men who started it, and those who now run it. As he explores the creation and evolution of the Tour, he never runs out of those fascinating illustrative tales that make his books impossible to put down.

More on Tour de France: The Inside Story with links to on-line sellers


Tour of Flanders: The Inside Story. The rocky roads of the Ronde van Vlaanderen

Tour of Flanders front coverISBN # 978-0-9859636-2-0
Formats: Print and Kindle eBook
6" x 9" trade paperback, 166 pages with photographs
Suggested retail print version: $16.95, Kindle eBook: $3.99

Publication date January 1, 2014

The Tour of Flanders is Belgium's most brutal day in the saddle. The bike-crazed Flemish don't just send riders over cobblestone roads. Nor are they content to break the racers' legs with nearly 20 steep hills. No, the worst of all cycling worlds meet in Flanders with narrow, vertical roads paved with slippery, dangerous cobbles. The hills are so steep they are called muurs, or walls, and they come one after another, for hours, until the riders are shattered with exhaustion. The Tour of Flanders is so fiendishly difficult that man who wins it earns everlasting fame.

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Paris-Roubaix: The Inside Story, all the bumps of cycling's cobbled classic

Paris-Roubaix book cover artISBN: 978-0-9859636-1-3
Suggested Retail price: $16.95 US
6 x 9 trade paperback, 198 pages
Publisher: McGann Publishing

Publication date: February 8, 2013

The Paris–Roubaix bicycle race, nicknamed "The Hell of the North", is famous for sending riders over brutal cobblestone roads. Only the strong, brave and lucky survive the hours of bone-shaking racing without suffering some mishap or catastrophe. It is so difficult no one wins it by accident, and winning Paris–Roubaix automatically puts a rider among the immortals of the sport.

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Sticky Buns Across America: Back roads biking from sea to shining sea.

Sticky Buns Across AmericaISBN: 978-0-9859636-0-6
Suggested Retail price: $16.95 US
6 x 9 trade paperback, 211 pages
Publisher: McGann Publishing

Publication date: August 6, 2012

Sticky Buns Across America is the story of one of the four continents and one of the countries Woodland has crossed by bike, this time with patient wife Steph: a tale of riding across small-town America (and occasional bits of Canada, although to Americans that doesn't count)...

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Olympics' 50 Craziest StoriesThe Olympics' 50 Craziest Stories, by Les Woodland

ISBN: 978-0-9843117-8-1
Suggested Retail price: $16.95 US
6 x 9 trade paperback, 160 pages

Publication date: December 16, 2011

Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger) is the motto of the International Olympic Committee. After reading Les Woodland’s The Olympics’ 50 Craziest Stories the reader might wonder if the motto should be Sillier, Loonier, Crazier.

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Cycling HeroesCycling Heroes: The Golden Years, by Les Woodland

ISBN: 978-0-9843117-7-4
Suggested Retail price: $16.95 US
6 x 9 trade paperback, 166 pages
Publisher: McGann Publishing

Les Woodland climbed aboard his old Carlton bike to take a nostalgia trip across Belgium and Holland to visit some of cycling’s greatest riders. Cycling Heroes: The Golden Years tells the story of that journey he took in the early 1990s and the time he spent with some of the finest riders from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.  

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The Story of the Giro d'Italia

The Story of the Giro d'Italia. A Year-by-Year History of the Tour of Italy. Volume 1: 1909 - 1970

ISBN: 978-0984311767
Suggested print version retail price: $18.95
Kindle ebook: $5.95
6 x 9 paperback, 308 pages
Publisher: McGann Publishing

The Giro d'Italia is one of the world's most important and popular bicycle races, yet there is almost no information in English about this magical Italian race's rich past. With The Story of the Giro d'Italia, the fabulous history of Italy's national tour is at last available. Volume One takes the story of the Giro from its origin as a desperate promotional gamble by a nearly broke newspaper to Eddy Merckx's convincing 1970 victory.  

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Giro story coverThe Story of the Giro d'Italia. A Year-by-Year History of the Tour of Italy. Volume 2: 1971 - 2011

ISBN: 978-0984311798
Suggested print version retail price: $18.95
Kindle ebook: $5.95.
6 x 9 paperback, 314 pages
Publisher: McGann Publishing

Volume Two of The Story of the Giro d'Italia describes the growth of the Giro into a modern, vital international race that is followed by cycling fans all over the world. Along the way, the stories and races that have excited the public over the last forty years are told, including the Francesco Moser/Giuseppe Saronni rivalry, the tragic tale of Marco Pantani and the Alberto Contador affair that left the Spaniard stripped of his 2011 Giro championship.

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Published January 2010:

Bicycle History by James Witherell

ISBN: 978-0-9859636-5-1
Suggested Retail price: $16.95 US
6 x 9 paperback, 255 pages

Since its invention in the 1860s, the bicycle has had a fascinating history. Author James Witherell has spent years collecting the essential, the trivial and sometimes just downright odd facts that make up the story of the bicycle. Instead of composing a narrative history, he's arranged them in chronological order, painting an informative, fun and irresistible picture of what might be mankind's greatest invention. Witherell has given special emphasis to the Tour de France.

Updated to include material through 2016.

More on Bicycle History including a sample page of text and ordering information.


Published February, 2010Cycling's 50 Craziest Stories cover

Cycling's 50 Craziest Stories by Les Woodland

ISBN:978-0-9843117-1-2
Suggested Retail price: $16.95
6 x 9 paperback, 160 pages

Les Woodland is one cycling's most beloved and respected writers. This collection of odd doings and funny happenings starting with some of the first professional bike races in the 19th century will be sure to raise a smile. You might even slap a knee or two as well.

More on Cycling's 50 Craziest Stories including ordering information from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.


The Story of the Tour de France, Volumes 1 and 2
by Bill & Carol McGann

We have lots more info including sample chapters and ordering directions


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