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the yellow jersey; le maillot jaune - peter cossins. yellow jersey press hardback 320pp illus. £25

the yellow jersey - peter cossins

it would be foolish to deny it, but the very reason that the background colour of thewashingmachinepost is the shade that it is, was brought about by way of testament to the tour de france yellow jersey. on occasion, i've attempted to alter the colour to pink during the giro d'italia, but so doing seemed just a tad superficial. so yellow it remains.

the self-imposed contradiction is that i spend those three weeks in july each year, deliberately avoiding making any comment on the velocipedinal happenings across the channel. this is not intended as criticism or disaffection with le tour, but more by way of occupying a niche that offers respite from the wall to wall prognostications, punditry, commentary and general overkill that follows the grand départ. and though i feel the tour might be in danger of becoming a parody of itself, the race is an unavoidable focus of the racing season.

the latter is not necessarily an opinion exclusive to yours truly; this excellent book by the renowned peter cossins would appear to concur. according to french rider, romain bardet "Everything always reminds you of the Tour. In the morning, you can't take a step without someone talking you about the stage the day before and the one just ahead. [...] You open your phone and you're delighted to have a message from the mates that you've not seen for ages, but what do they want to talk to you about? The Tour."

the yellow jersey - peter cossins

with no disrespect to mr cossins, given the number of words that have been used to expound the history of cycling's biggest annual event, the prospect of reviewing a book ostensibly concerning only the jersey provided to each day's leader of the race, scarcely held a great deal of attraction. what more could the reader learn that had not already been told several times at the 100th running of the event a few years ago? in so doing, however, i grossly underestimated the skill, tenacity and downright expertise of the author. 'the yellow jersey' is a truly marvellous and well-illustrated read.

that opinion is not solely restricted to mr cossins' accomplished narrative, but is also extended to the book's design. the page width mitigates against the standard single column for ease of reading;the choice to feature a two column page is well judged, preceded by a chapter opening, three-column page. pull quotes are inserted in large, bold letters and each chapter heading is every bit as bold. it's rare, within modern publishing, to offer such graphic boldness, in this case, contained within padded front and back covers with a sewn-in yellow (what else?) bookmark.

allegedly, the idea of a leader's jersey was suggested to race progenitor, henri desgrange, by the peugeot team boss, alphonse bauge. though the jersey is reputed not to have appeared until the tour of 1919, its instigation was to help the roadside public identify the race leader midst the drab apparel of gents who had ridden through dust, dirt, mud and dark evenings.

the yellow jersey - peter cossins

"Good heavens, perhaps it is a good idea, says Desgrange... but what colour should this jersey be?
"I don't know, replies Bauge... but off the top of my head, if I were in your position, I would ensure...having a jersey that's the same colour as the paper in your newspaper."

according to an illustration on the cover of the august 1919 issue of 'la vie au grand air', the leader's jersey took on a mustard yellow hue, a far cry from the canary yellow edition presented on contemporary podia. but why would the simple act of providing a yellow-coloured jersey for the current leader of the tour, make any appreciable difference to those striving for victory in paris? surely a victory is a victory independent of any associated colour? in short, those questions form the basis of peter cossins' thorough and intriguing quest for answers.

perhaps, philosophically, we impose unnecessary weight upon the jersey, when the answer is more naturally emotional than existential. according to one of its most illustrious wearers, eddy merckx "It takes me back to summer holidays when I was a kid. Yellow is the colour of the fields blasted by the sun around the village...where our grandparents farmed."

the yellow jersey - peter cossins

however, the jersey comes with far more karma than the rural idyll described by eddy. through the course of the book, the author investigates the implications of yellow, whether team sky's formulaic riding has undermined the jersey's greater value, whether its definition weakened in the 1956 tour, won by roger walkowiak without so much as a stage victory, what the yellow jersey means to the host nation and their constant and impatient quest for a successor to bernard hinault, and lastly, asks what the future might hold for le maillot jaune.

this is offered as but a mere précis of the author's thoroughness.

it's a narrative that holds as many twists and turns as le tour itself, possibly leaving more questions than answers; precisely as it should do, in my opinion. but this well-illustrated journey is worth every minute invested by the reader. with a publishing date but a week or so ahead of the 2019 brussels grand départ, even the slowest of readers will likely have reached the podium on page 320, such is the compulsive nature of mr cossin's story-telling. if, like me, you thought the tour to have lost a smidgeon of its allure, the yellow jersey makes an excellent job of restoring our faith.

the yellow jersey, by peter cossins, is published by yellow jersey press on thursday 27 june.

wednesday 26 june 2019

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................