Paul Maunder

For a Yellow Jersey narrates the many remarkable lives of the women's Tour de France. A race which has, in its various incarnations, acted as a microcosm of the women's bike racing scene as a whole. Like the careers of many of its participants, the race itself represents an inspiring story of survival against the odds and in the harshest possible conditions. Paul Maunder tells this chequered story which dates back to 1955 and features false starts, media indifference and financial mismanagement. Above all, however, this is the story of the phenomenal athletes who have competed in these races. From Marianne Martin's surprise win in the 1984 event, to the intense rivalry of Jeannie Longo and Maria Canins in the late 1980s, to the modern-day Dutch dominance, there are as many dramatic tales in the women's race as the men's. We meet the key personalities who have made women's racing so entertaining over the past forty years. It's time to celebrate the history of the women's peloton. Women's racing has its own fascinating culture - tough, collaborative, political, maverick. Those who have campaigned for equality are driven, bloody-minded and above all, passionate about cycling. This is their story.

'Maunder's book is more than just a biography of the rise and fall of a complicated man . . . It is also a critique of the damage that myth-making and the media can do to an athlete; a study of what happens to a demigod when thrown from Mount Olympus' The TimesCharly Gaul is a forgotten cycling legend. Once a household name across Europe, the diminutive Luxembourger won the 1958 Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia twice. A unique rider, Gaul was supremely gifted at climbing and resilient even in the foulest weather. His pedalling style was smooth and swift, and he could set an unmatchable metronome rhythm on a mountain climb. 'Mozart on two wheels,' was how one contemporary writer described him; another dubbed him 'The Angel of the Mountains'. At the end of his cycling career Gaul disappeared, becoming a hermit living in a forest in Luxembourg. What drove Charly Gaul into a recluse's life? In Angel of the Mountains, Paul Maunder seeks to uncover the truth about Gaul, his psychology and the circumstances of his withdrawal from society. In rediscovering Gaul's enigmatic life, we find not only an unlikely hero but also a larger truth about the nature of sporting success.