Cycling Legends 02 TI-Raleigh by Chris Sidwells

“TI Raleigh: Cycling’s First Superteam,” Chris Sidwells. 152 pages, Cycling Legends (UK), 2022.

Raleigh was the largest maker of bicycles in the world in the 1970s, the largest importer of bicycles into the U.S., second-largest seller of bikes in the U.S. behind Schwinn. I’d been a bicycle racer – though never on a Raleigh – and I followed the several teams sponsored by Raleigh in the States, but didn’t have much insight into the European Raleigh ‘factory’ team. Cycling commentator Sidwells chronicles the development and progression of the TI Raleigh pro racing team by Dutch manager Peter Post starting in 1974 that led to several World Championships and culminating in Joop Zoetemelk leading the team to victory in the 1980 Tour de France. Interviews with former team members and rich illustrations from the press and the Company detail the people, the management and strategies, and team tactics of the world-class factory-supported cycling team of the late 1970s. Perhaps the only shortcoming of the book is that it gives a single thin chapter to the engineering, design and development of the team bikes by Gerald O’Donovan of Carlton Cycles in Worksop and Jan Le Grand at the Special Bicycle Development Unit (SBDU) in Ilkeston during that pre-carbon fiber, pre-aerodynamics era.

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I bought all 4 books and I simply love them.