Lanterne Rouge: The Last Man in the Tour de France

Max Leonard has come up with a fun way to approach the history of the tour, using the experience of the Latter Rouge, the last man in the g.c., to discuss the evolution in the style of racing, the rules of the road, and the experiences of the riders during and after the race. I have read many books about professional cycling generally and about the tour in particular, but there was material here about experiments in scoring rules and some of the personalities in the early days of the tour that I had never seen before. And the portraits of some of the racers were deft and sympathetic.This is offset by some clunky prose and by Leonard’s repeated insertion of himself into the text. Perhaps he had a minimum page count and could not hit it otherwise, but there’s very little of interest in Leonard’s trying to sneak an early morning ride up a road that’s closed to cyclists, or in his sitting in a cafe for hours waiting for a cyclist to arrive.I don’t regret having read the book but I’m not planning to recommend it to others.

Unlike Etape, which is a book for die-hard Tour de France and cycling fans, this book is a little more suited for people who casually follow the Tour every July and do not pay as much attention to the sport the rest of the year. Mr. Leonard gives a great history of the Tour and some of its most exciting figures, including those who have finished last in this amazing race. The stories are fun to read about, the interviews are full of good questions, and he explains some of the cycling lingo in the book that makes it easy for people who do not understand cycling can read. Fantastic book on a fantastic subject.

Well-written and enjoyable exploration of what it means to be the last of the best - one has to be an incredible athlete to even participate in the Tour de France... Leonard's research into the "Lanternes Rouges" of the past centuries is illuminating - he looks at how the race organizers feel about the designation, how the riders feel and how those who have "won" the award feel. As one might expect there are a lot of attitudes and philosophies, not to mention myths, legends and fuzzy recollections. I was thoroughly entertained.

This was my first read in the genre of books about the TDF. I admired the author's thorough research going back to the origin and through the history of the race as well as some of its most famous/infamous characters. I had no idea there was such a thing as the lanterne rouge, let alone that there were rewards associated with coming in last. I have a much greater understanding of the TDF, it's riders and the culture of pro cycling. Writer mixes a thorough history of the last place finishers with interviews of those willing to talk about their experience, and his own experience as an amateur riding one stage of the race. A fascinating, poignant, and at times humorous read, left me wanting to read more of the genre. My enjoyment of the TDF will be enriched for having read this. Plus - it has a great eponymous cocktail recipe!

Max Leonard focuses on various last-place finishers in the Tour De France. Though not a history per se of the Tour, Leonard does provide a good sense of its beginnings and the men behind these beginnings, primarily in the first part of the book. The most fascinating parts, however, are those in the latter stages of the book, where Leonard interviews recent losers/winners, whose thoughts regarding--paradoxically--winning by losing provide much humor and a different take compared to the usual focus on official winners. It is this idea--that there is something to be said for competing, and losing--that provides the binder for this work consisting of accounts of these last-place finishers, through more than one hundred years of the Tour.

As I posted on Goodreads: Good read for a francophile, a cyclist. The premise is to survey the history and story of the last man to cross the line for the Tour de France. An Englishman, the author visit those with good stories and reveals, tying it into his wannabe stage ride and extensive research. Well written, the story never flags.The book could have benefited with a map of France, as the non-TdF reader might not know all the regions and climbs of this race.

Near the best bicycling book I've read. It's more than a quick story of the last rider in the Tour de France. I follow cycling races casually except for the Tour de France which I've followed since 1999. This was a fun read. The author gives stories and information surrounding the Lanterne Rouge. Fascinating to the last page, and I bore easily...I will probably read it again over the upper mid-west winter...

I gave this book to my adult son, who is a cycling enthusiast. He was quite pleased with it. It would be a fun book to read when traveling as the individual stories are easy to pick up and read in one go. It will give you a new and different look at the famous Tour De France.

I have been an uninformed follower of Le Tour for many years, and recent years have taken the shine off. Not just doping, but technology; I miss the excitement of chasers not knowing (as they now do) how far the breakaway was, the leader riding close to the crowd to conceal himself. So this book was in part a splendid evocation of the Tour in earlier -though not necessarily more innocent days.One minor issue, being new to kindle, it was only when I completed reading that I saw the illustrations at the end.Many tales, humerous and thoughtful, and a penetrative analysis about various attitudes to La Lanterne.

This is a book you can pick and read a chapter and then easily come back later to read another chapter without trying to remember what occurred in the prior pages. Each chapter is a mini event in its own right. As an avid cyclist who follows the Tour de France year after year it is a great book to have in your cycling library IMHO. It isn't a classic but certainly a worthy tome.

I must admit I expected this book to be more amusing that it actually was. It does a great job of recounting the history of the lanterne dating back to the earliest records, but I felt it rambles on a bit in doing so.The amusing anecdotes are very good to be fair, and save the book from becoming yet another dreary cycling history textbook.It's worth a read, but not something I can see myself picking off the bookshelf to read again in a particular hurry.

As a fair weather follower of the sport of cycling,I had hitherto been unaware of the existence of the lanterne rouge.This book was insightful,informative and entertaining.

Of all the cycling books I've read, this is very probably the best. The Lantern Rouge in anyTdF is a largely untold story but this book tells of he human side of the riders involved. It is written very sympathetically, with a light humour by an author with a very readable and descriptive style. An excellent read.