The book pile – new books with a cycling bent: Val and Faith take to the studio and kick things off sharing their respective bike moments, in which Val catches a lift up a hill and Faith finds it’s the little things that matter. We take a look at both local news and some from further afield with Val’s update on the never-ending IOC and Russia saga, the opening of the Djerring Trail in south-eastern Melbourne and the study documenting drivers being distracted 45% of the time.
Moving on to our reading lists we take a look at several new books for those interested in different aspects of cycling history. We start with a brief recap on a book we mentioned a few week’s ago, Revolution: How the Bicycle Reinvented Modern Britain by William Manners. Next up is Rupert Guiness’ Power to the Pedal. The Story of Australian Cycling, a promising-looking history despite the claim on many sites selling the book (not by the author) to cover 200 years of cycling in Australia. Also just released is Women on the Move: The Forgotten Era of Women’s Bicycle Racing by Roger Gilles a very promising look at the most popular arena sport in America in the 1890s and a story mirrored across the world. Lastly we take a look at a book due out soon, Queens of Pain: Legends and Rebels of Cycling by Isabel Best. Queens of Pain looks at women’s cycle racing across the world, in America, Australia and Europe and covers the period from the 1890s to the 1990s.