Push Yourself Just A Little Bit More, Backstage at the Tour de France by Johnny Green. Paperback book.

Ref: D/B/1

Price: £7.99 / €9.99

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The title, taken from a Dr Feelgood song, sets the scene for this rock 'n' roll road trip and account of life on the road with Le Tour. The author is the former road manager of The Clash.

No book on the Tour de France has ever got quite as close to the race as this account of the 2003 and 2004 Tours from inside the security cordon, mingling with the cyclists, press and the trophy girls in equal measure.

Johnny Green managed to blag his way right to the inner sanctum, to chat to the likes of Sheryl Crow and David Millar, Lance, Super Mario and the many stagehands behind the scenes on the three-week tour. The only place he didn't make it was into the doping van.

"I side with Jacques Anquetil and Keith Richards. I don't care if it's clean".

Lance Armstrong won it, yes, but it was Sheryl Crow who told Johnny Green, at the top of a Pyrenean mountain, that cycling now has all the excitement of rock and roll.

Paperback.256 pages.198 x 129mm