Following the global disruptions of 2020, the question in pro bike racing fans’ minds was whether this year would see some kind of return to normality. If “normal” means the same kind of exciting racing we actually did see last year, then 2021 had plenty to offer and the latest edition of the unique cycling almanac, “The Road Book,” brings those memories back in focus, along with plenty of other entertainment.
“The Road Book” is an extraordinary effort covering the whole pro season, this year going from January’s GP Cycliste de Marseillaise (won by Aurélien Paret-Peintre of AGR Citröen, of course) to the late October Ronde van Drenthe, the final race of the Women’s WorldTour, won by hard-charging Lorena Wiebes. Wiebes, the trivia section notes, won 13 races in 2021, but all three of her WorldTour wins came in October.
The core of “The Road Book” is the massively detailed coverage of many, many races. Every race gets its own page, with stage races getting pages for every individual stage. There is a lot of very small print here through the nearly 800 pages and it is fun to just open it and random and rediscover moments, like Mathieu van der Poel’s Strade Bianche win: “The Flying Dutchman went into warp drive to win Dante’s race (The Divine Comedy mentions villages, battlefields, and rivers on the stage route) on Michelangelo’s birthday. How appropriate.” If you need a useful fact, such as who won Stage 4 of Tirreno-Adriatico and what was the weather like (a certain T....
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