The Road Book 2011 is the second Cycling Almanack in our Blue Series, a new
line celebrating exciting and historically significant years of the sport.
It’s a beautifully made hardback that reverently and diligently captures the whole 2011 cycling season, with each race and moment lovingly remembered and retold by those who were there.
This book combines race statistics, infographics, essays and personal insights with our characteristic attention to detail.
With an introduction by our guest editor Andy McGrath (cyclist, author and journalist), commentaries and essays by Gino Cervi, Emma Pooley, Chris Froome, Annemiek van Vleuten, Ned Boutling, Cadel Evans, Johan Vansummeren and Giorgia Bronzini, you won’t find another publication that captures 2011 quite like this.
This is a limited signed & numbered first edition: only 1000 are available.
You are pre-ordering this item: delivery to you will be in late July 2024.
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.
We ship world wide. For information on costs to your country please click here.
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.
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Graham Watson's photography does a sublime job of showing the big races, top riders and seismic scenes from the 2011 racing season. These visceral images resonate just as powerfully today as they did then, and bring the season’s action flooding back.
THE EDITOR
Author and journalist Andy McGrath, is our guest editor for 2011.
"Choosing 2011 as the follow-up to our 1989 edition was not a difficult decision. It stood out among other years like Mont Ventoux on the Provençal horizon: for its vintage Tour de France that twisted and turned, for a spring season that kept everyone guessing unless Philippe Gilbert was on the start line, for a watershed year for British cycling, with a standout performances from Cavendish, Wiggins, Froome and Pooley on the world stage. Also, for the depth of its controversies, tragedies and dramas"
Emma Pooley
"The Road to Hell is Paved with Flemish Cobblestones" is an engaging and frankly hilarious article full of Pooley's characteristic self-deprecating wit and honesty.
Chris Froome
Froome breaks down the roller coaster of emotion that was his first Grand Tour victory at 2011’s Vuelta a Espana in his article "Spanish Steps".
Annemiek van Vleuten
"Open All the Boxes" is an engaging and eloquent piece eloquent detailing her hard fought World Cup victory with a little help from a certain Marianne Vos.
Ned Boulting
"Ces Heros!" looks back on one of Boulting's favourite editions of The Tour de France using his race notes from the time.
Andy McGrath
In his characteristically engaging style McGrath breaks down
Johnny Hoogerland’s horrific TDF crash in "Welcome to Hoogerland".
Gino Cervi
Combining Italian history with storytelling and profound feeling, Cervi reflects on the 2011 Giro d’Italia in his essay "Birds of a Feather".
2011 doesn’t feel so long, but plenty of changes have occurred. Barack Obama was president, Adele had album of the year with ’21’. Twitter was still in its infancy and riders were more indiscreet in their postings. In the wider world, it was also the year of a devastating tsunami and series of earthquakes in Japan, the Arab Spring and the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton (possibly stealing a few viewers from stage 3 of the Tour de Romandie that day).
In the cycling world, there was a sense that a bad era was coming to a close with a welcome lack of seismic doping scandals. A vintage Tour de France with slow-burner tension, a cleverly designed course and some major comebacks. The World Championships was a special moment too for Mark Cavendish and British Cycling.
