The Hour
  • Published: 4 January 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446418741
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288
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The Hour

Sporting immortality the hard way

Formats & editions
EBook
4 Jan 2011
Paperback
15 Jun 2007
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The story of the only cycling records that matters, by one of our cleverest, funniest new writers


The Hour. It's the only cycling record that matters: one man and his bike against the clock in a quest for pure speed. No teammates, no rivals, no tactics, no gears, no brakes. Just one simple question - in sixty minutes, how far can you go?

Michael Hutchinson had a plan. He was going to add his name to the list of record-holders, cycling's supermen. But how does a man who became a professional athlete by accident achieve sporting immortality? It didn't sound too hard. All he needed was a couple of hand-tooled bike frames, the most expensive wheels money could buy, a support team of crack professionals, a small pot of glue, and a credit card wired to someone else's bank account. Still, getting the glue wasn't a problem...

Michael Hutchinson became a full-time cyclist in 2000 after becoming disillusioned with an academic career. Over the following six years he has won more than twenty national titles, and the gold medal in the Masters' Pursuit World Championships. He is now a writer and journalist (and cyclist) and lives in south London.
  • Published: 4 January 2011
  • ISBN: 9781446418741
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Michael Hutchinson

Michael Hutchinson became a full-time cyclist in 2000 after becoming disillusioned with an academic career. Over the following eight years he has won more than twenty national titles, and the gold medal in the Masters' Pursuit World Championships. He is now a writer and journalist (and cyclist) and lives in south London. His book on the hour cycling record, The Hour, won the Best New Writer award at the British Sports Book Awards.

Also by Michael Hutchinson

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Praise for The Hour

Constantly absorbing, very funny... Michael Hutchinson pulls off a real blinder

Daily Telegraph

Has the rare quality in any sports-writing of propelling the reader into the intensity of the sporting moment itself

David Horspool, Times Literary Supplement

He is likeable and builds up the tension...with some skill

Metro

Hutchinson proves as good a writer as he is rider (praise indeed) - congenial, funny and insightful ... A very fine way indeed to spend an hour, any hour

Matt Seaton, Guardian

In this warm, gently wise book, Hutchinson tells of his attempt at the Hour, the history of the record, and the men who have claimed it ... Whether he added his name to that illustrious list is unimportant ... because, as with all great quest stories, this is not about the destination, but the journey

Angus Batey, The Times

Sometimes painful, often hilarious... One of the most insightful and entertaining accounts of the cycling world to make it into print

Cycling Weekly