The Road Book 2021 puts all the year’s racing between two covers

Offering the racing year in review since 2018, the Road Book is a compendium of results from the season’s most important races. Compiled and edited by Ned Boulting, its reams of results are enlivened by interviews and articles from some of the biggest names in bicycle racing. Expanded this year to include both the Olympics and Paralympics, plus the first inclusion for events from the cyclocross season, its almost 900 pages record a season unlike any other.

Buy the Road Book 2021 - signed by Ned Boulting

Featuring a first-person account of how he won a second Tour de France by Tadej Pogacar, elsewhere, Lizzie Deignan explains what it took to win the first-ever women’s Paris-Roubaix. Olympic champion Tom Pidcock tells how his choice to opt for mountain biking over road paid off with a gold medal, while Dame Sarah Storey relates how she became Britain’s most successful Paralympian.

Also featuring analysis from some of the sport's best commentators, Kit Nicholson takes on Mark Cavendish’s remarkable season where he powered back to win, among other things, a record-equalling 34th stage at the Tour de France. While writers and racers, including Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Daniel Friebe, and Dan Martin also contribute essays.

In between are all the results, stats, and route profiles that made up the 2021 season. Meticulously logged by the Road Book’s team of nerds, infographics help illustrate many of the trends and add historical context for the events.

Buy the Road Book 2021 - signed by Ned Boulting

A great way to relive the season now the curtain has been closed on it and the nights are shorter; the Road Book has also spawned its own awards. Nicolas Roche, Sean Kelly, Phil Liggett, Christian Prudhomme, Marion Rousse, Robbie McEwen, Rolf Sorensen, David Millar, Orla Chennaoui, and Rochelle Gilmore select the winners of six annual categories. The results of their deliberations are below.

Riders of the Year: Julian Alaphilippe & Lizzie Deignan
Young Riders of the Year: Jonas Vingegard & Elisa Balsamo
Combative Riders of the Year: Julian Alaphilippe & Elisa Longo Borghini

“Creating the Road Book is a year-long endeavour,” explains its editor and ITV commentator, Ned Boulting. “Not knowing what shape each season will take, or for what it will ultimately be remembered is, for me, its great fascination. No two years are alike, and never has this been more true than now. What we are witnessing in road racing across the board is genuinely historic. People will look back on these years with justifiable fascination.”

Now onto its fourth edition, the team behind the Road Book aims to have its yearly review ready to print within seven days of the season’s final race. Having wrapped up the 2021 version, the first 999 orders will receive a numbered limited edition copy signed by Boulting.

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