The Road Book 1989 is the inaugural cycling almanack in the Blue Series celebrating one of the most exciting years in the sport, the year of the closest Tour de France finish and the year the Berlin Wall fell.
This is the Road Book's definitive guide to the entire 1989 cycling season, with each race and every moment lovingly remembered and re-told with our characteristic attention to detail. Our first retrospective edition, this book is a must have as one of the sport's legendary seasons is brought to life within its pages.
This publication brings together race statistics, infographics, essays and personal insights from experts and riders who experienced the year that was 1989.
With an introduction by our guest editor Matt Rendell, commentaries and essays by Sean Kelly, Edwig Van Hooydonck, Ned Boulting, Pippa York, and Jeff Quenet and an intimate memoir by Kathy Lemond.
During the pandemic, Stefano Sorotti digested over a million photos by his father Emanuele, and we capture 16 pages of these photos towards the back of this volume.
This is a limited first edition.
WHAT is the blue series?
The Blue Series is our Red Series little sibling. We take the much-adored Road Book template and apply it to a monumental year in cycling history.
Contributors
Carlos Arriba
Jeff Quenet
Kathy Lemond
Pippa York
Ned Boulting
Lisa Brambini
Edwig Van Hooydonck
Dag Otto Lauritzen
Sean Kelly
Phil Liggett
Delivery
We ship world wide. For information on costs to your country please click here.
Refunds & Returns
We hope you love your Road Book, but if you do change your mind you may request a refund within 14 days of delivery. For more information pleaseclick here.
We feature photography by Emanuele Cesena. His photography style was different than the norm of the 80s, much wider and showing interest in the surrounding context. His son, Stefano Sirotti, spent the pandemic digitising and uploading almost a million photos taken by his father onto a digital archive and we feature 16 pages in 1989.
1989 highlight
Kathy Lemond
Kathy LeMond provides an intimate memoir of her husband’s Tour de France triumph. Relive this unbelievable win through Kathy's eyes as she recounts the weeks leading up to the Tour de France.
THE EDITOR
Matt Rendell
Award-winning author, journalist and commentator Matt Rendell, is our guest editor for 1989.
Compiling data for a season 34 years in the past required an onerous amount of detective work. He talks to Ned Boulting about editing our very first Blue book and the challenges he faced.
Being 35years ago and the first year I closely followed cycling, this book takes me back to a special place.
It gave me a nostalgic glow that the newer books haven’t, but will in years to come.
Congrats to the team.
F
Frederick Neergaard
Beautiful Reference!
Valued volume in my library!
J
J. Geoff Loughton
1989 Was A Good Year
Fantastic book to start off the Blue Book series, looking forward to the next one(s)!!
R
Roger Vaughan
Great books - pity about the postal charge.
This is the second edition of the Road Book that I've bought. I'd give it five stars, and I'd like to buy more, but the postal cost to Australia is hideously expensive. A pity the publishers cannot source a better distribution to these parts.
D
Dave Meynell
very enjoyable
Perfect accompaniment to the “Red Books” - more please
These are beautiful books. Wisden for Cycling. Like Ned Boulting I couldn’t believe something like this didn’t exist, but unlike him i didn’t have the connections and drive to make it happen. Thank you Ned. A real global legacy for the sport
Being 35years ago and the first year I closely followed cycling, this book takes me back to a special place.
It gave me a nostalgic glow that the newer books haven’t, but will in years to come.
Congrats to the team.
