Book

The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman

Name: The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman
ISBN: 9781472945068

A Bone-shaking Tour Through Cycling's Flemish Heartlands

Harry Pearson

Bloomsbury · Print & ebook · September 8, 2020

Reading lane: Cycling Travel

A journey through the wild madness of bicycle racing in Flanders.

Sports Travel Cycling Travel Cycling sports

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At a Glance

Why This Clicks

Flanders, Mud & Myth

A lively ride through Flemish racing, its histories, rivalries, and gloriously odd roadside details.

Come here for

Cobbled races, local lore, and cycling’s stranger roadside scenery

Expect

Muddy spring miles and a wide-ranging look at Flemish sporting character

Book Details

Authors: Harry Pearson
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: September 8, 2020
Format: Print & ebook
Theme: Cycling Travel · Sports Travel
Reading lane: Cycling Travel

Affinity

Publisher Categories

Cycling
Sports History
Cycling Travel

About This Book

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A journey through the wild madness of bicycle racing in Flanders. LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 'A joy.' – Ned Boulting Every nation shapes sport to test the character traits it most admires. In The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman , committed Belgophile and road cycling obsessive Harry Pearson takes you on a journey across Flanders, through the lumpy horizontal rain, up the elbow juddering cobbled inclines, past the fans dressed as chickens and the shop window displays of constipation medicines, as he follows races big, small and even smaller through one glorious, muddy spring. Ranging over 500 years of Flemish and European history, across windswept polders, along back roads and through an awful lot of beer cafes, Pearson examines the characters, the myths and rivalries that make Flanders a place where cycling is a religion and the riders its lycra-clad priests.