Anquetil, Alone

Jacques Anquetil was arrogant and iconoclastic, with a relaxed attitude to rules - including those about drugs - and morals. His womanising appalled conservative French society, even as his five Tour de France wins enthralled it. But Paul Fournel always preferred him to his great rival, working-class hero Raymond Poulidor, and followed Anquetil's career from childhood with the passion of a fan and the eye of a poet.

In this stunningly original biography of a complex and divisive character, Fournel blends elements of memoir and imagined autobiography to tell the captivating story of this cycling legend.