BOOK REVIEW

Three Weeks, Eight Seconds by Nige Tassell (Sportsbookofthemonth.com price: £8.23, saving £1.76 on rrp)

The world’s largest live sporting event gets under way in Brussels on Saturday when the Grand Départ signifies the start the 106th edition of the Tour de France. Over the ensuing three weeks, we can expect displays of strength and determination, chess-like tactics and enough drama and intrigue to keep an army of sports writers busy. However, it’s unlikely we will witness a finish as close as that of 1989 when Greg LeMond overhauled Laurent Fignon to take the yellow jersey.

Much has been written about one of the most fiercely contested Tours of all time. Over the course of 3,285 kilometres LeMond won by an agonising eight seconds on the final Parisian time trial, defeating the Frenchman who had twice claimed cycling’s most coveted title.

In his forthright and unflinching autobiography published shortly before his untimely death in 2010, Fignon did not mince his words when describing the 1989 epic, sparing neither friends nor opponents, nor his own image. In doing so he gave readers a tantalising glimpse of what really went on behind the scenes - the friendships, the rivalries, the betrayals, the scheming, the parties, the girls, and, of course, the performance-enhancing drugs.

Bearing this in mind, Nige Tassell’s Three Weeks, Eight Seconds, a less one-sided take on the 1989 Tour, has much to live up to. Fortunately, the book proves up to the task, complementing Fignon’s fine autobiography by including observations from a series of professional riders, an approach which, inevitably, ensures readers have a different, perhaps more balanced perspective of a race that took place thirty years ago.

Although the book’s principal focus remains fixed on its main protagonists, Tassell offers a much wider story, adding context and colour which ensures his book, just as the race itself, builds to an exciting crescendo. Indeed, although the race’s outcome is known, Tassell has written an account which, though leavened with commendable objectivity, perspective and astute tactical analysis, remains full of suspense until the final lap.

If the forthcoming Tour is half as dramatic as the 1989 edition, we’re in for some race; for those who cannot see it quite reaching the same heights, Three Weeks, Eight Seconds is essential reading.

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