Golden Stages celebrates the centenary of the Tour de France. Sixteen leading cycling writers have explored what it is that makes the Tour such a majestic and moving event. They have each selected and told the story of a particular Stage. Together, their accounts (one or more from each decade) add up to a history of the Tour, and they show how much has changed in the 100 years - the bicycles, the roads, tactics and organisation. But they also show what has not changed - the extravagant scale of the race; the mystique of the maillot jaune; and the courage of all who compete. Those things have remained the same - and they are vividly portrayed in this unique book. Here you will read about how Greg LeMond beat Fignon in the last 250 metres of the 1989 race, and how a puncture nearly cost him his third Tour victory; the stage that marked the turning point in the great career of Eddy Merckx; the Forclaz col where even the world's greatest climber, the Eagle of Toledo, could not drop Master Jacques; the legendary Rene Vietto's 'sacrifice' which made him one of the most popular men never to win a Tour; the slowest, and some say the hardest-ever stage in Tour history; the day the Colombians came to Alpe d'Huez; Lance Armstrong's return to the top after defeating cancer in the Prologue of 1999; the day on Les Arcs when Indurain's fabulous reign came to an end; and the famous break through the Alps by the 'Devil' himself, Claudio Chiappucci, that emulated the great Fausto Coppi, 40 years earlier. And much, much more. Contributors: Alex Bannister; Adrian Bell; Keith Bingham; John Deering; David Harmon; Luke Evans; Graeme Fife; Marguerite Lazell; John Pierce; Matt Rendell; Chris Sidwells; Rik Vanwalleghem; John Wilcockson; Les Woodland; Charlie Woods; Richard Yates.