Lanterne Rouge The Race for Last in the Tour de France

Product Description

Question: If you complete over 3,000 kilometres on a bike in France, overcoming mountain ranges and torrential weather conditions while enduring physical and psychological agony in the 150th fastest time, should you be branded the loser? What if the sacrifice helped a team mate win? What if others lacked the determination to finish? What if you were trying to come last? Lanterne Rouge tells the absurd and often inspirational stories of the last placed rider in the Tour de France. We learn of the former Yellow Jersey who tasted life at the other end of the bunch; the breakaway leader who stopped for a bottle of wine and then cycled the wrong way; and the day the fastest finisher of all time, Mark Cavendish, became the slowest. Lanterne Rouge flips the race on its head and examines what these stories tell us about ourselves uthe other 99% of the population who don't win the trophy u and forces us to re-examine the meaning of success, failure and the very nature of sport.