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three weeks, eight seconds. the epic tour de france of 1989. nige tassell. polaris publishing paperback. 232pp illus. £14.99

three weeks eight seconds - nige tassell

a game of cluedo notwithstanding, the myth behind agatha christie's hercule poirot series was that it was the butler wot dun it. the situation whereby the belgian sleuth gathers all the suspects together in a single room and proceeds to reveal the method and individual behind the crime, bears no relation whatsoever to the methodology employed by police interceptors. the thought that the arch criminal would willingly sit through poirot's self-important dissertation, rather than making a run for it, truly beggars belief.

there are those who watch tv crime dramas, intent on sussing out the perpetrator well before the final episode has been broadcast, while others, such as yours truly, are more than content to sit back and let televisual matters take their course. i like the entertainment value of watching tv; i have no intention of doing their work for them. similarly that of punditry, a genre that has seemingly grown in almost direct proportion to the number of pr agencies that have sprung-up over the past few years.

i'd far rather watch a cycle race unfold from the helicopter shots and the motos than listen closely to the great and the good foretell the manner in which the race will be won. even if they're wrong. but while reality can be categorised as drama, describing the event in retrospect leaves the door wide-open to varying degrees of melodrama, a healthy dose of which forms the backbone of nige tassell's three weeks, eight seconds. but for all its infiltration into his narrative, there's every likelihood that the chap had no real alternative.

"...the collective verdict on LeMond was that he was an also ran. A spent force. Yesterday's man."

for surely the 1989 tour de france is the most examined race in recent history? those eight seconds that garnered lemond a highly remunerative contract with z-peugeot the following year also led to the late laurent fignon being remembered as the man who lost a tour by eight seconds, rather than a rider who won two other editions, including one at his first attempt. therefore, if those particular three-weeks in july have been analysed to the nth degree over the last 27 years, as an author, mr tassell had not only his work cut out to bring something new to the party, but need of entertaining us while doing so.

to be quite blunt, he succeeds on one count, while the jury's out on the second. 'three weeks, eight seconds' reads as a somewhat melodramatic voiceover for a tv documentary, a feature that you'll either enjoy or you wont.

"Mottet's modesty, cast into the deepest shadow by the force of Fignon's ebullience, certainly allowed him to operate comparatively unnoticed, despite topping the world rankings."

there is, however, a need to persuade the prospective reader that here is a valuable insight into a tour de france, the result of which pretty much everybody already knows. greg beat laurent by eight seconds; why would we wish to trawl through more than 200 pages to relearn that salient fact? in this respect, mr tassell could be legitimately said to have failed in his mission. nothing to see here, move along please. i'd be sore afraid, however, to raise my hand and testify that i knew every twist and turn of this race; the fact remains that i watched all of that tour and the fact also remains that greg beat laurent by eight seconds.

that, however, does not mean that this is a book to be left on the bookstore shelf.

perhaps i'm a more tolerant reader than others, but once i'd put the slightly overwrought commentary behind me, tassell's style of writing and his enthusiasm for his subject are quite compelling. commendably, the author has not crafted his narrative purely from his own conjecture. amongst others, he has spoken to pedro delgado (who turned up late for his own prologue), sean kelly, andy hampsten and sean yates. despite the interjection of their retrospective insights, it would have been nice if the voiceover style had gradually lessened of its own accord, but even by page 187 we still get...

"Less than 24 hours later, though, a surprise right hook was coming Fignon's way. A metaphorical punch, sure, but one that packed enough power to hurt forever."

however, there's no denying that 'three weeks, eight seconds', while hardly maintaining the degree of suspense engendered by those three weeks in july 1989, is a valiant attempt to look passionately at one of cycling's most memorable races. my son, whom i have recently inducted into the joys of the pelotonese, wasn't even born when this race took place, so author nige tassell potentially has a sizeable reading audience who know nothing of those eight seconds, an american still peppered with buckshot and a frenchman with a ponytail.

thursday 27 july 2017