Étape assembles the greatest days of modern Tour history into a Tour de France of incredible victory, glorious failure, shocking revelation, and beautiful memories. In the words of those who were there, Étape recreates each day vividly and reveals the beauty and the madness of cycling’s greatest race.

Featuring exclusive interviews with the Tour’s legends and scoundrels about their best-ever day on the bike (and their most heartbreaking defeats), Moore’s book unravels lingering mysteries and recounts strange tales from 20 great stages of the Tour including: LeMond’s impossible return from near-death, Schleck’s primal scream atop the Galibier, Merckx’s self-described toughest Tour, Cav’s mind-bending victory in Aubenas, Hinault’s hellish battle with Fignon.

In his book Étape , critically acclaimed author Richard Moore weaves first-person interviews with cycling’s great riders to assemble a “dream team” of the best Tour de France stages in modern history.

Chapter 1: The Outsider | Chris Boardman, 1994 Chapter 2: Beware of the Badger | Bernard Hinault, 1980 Chapter 3: The Bulldog | Wilfried Nelissen, 1994 Chapter 4: The Sculptor | Joel Pelier, 1989 Chapter 5: The Boy with Fire in His Eyes | Mark Cavendish, 2009 Chapter 6: For Fabio | Lance Armstrong, 1995 Chapter 7: Dutch Cold War | Marc Sargeant, Frans Maassen, 1992 Chapter 8: Trilogy | Eddy Merckx, 1971 Chapter 9: Guerrilla Warfare | Luis Herrera, Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, 1984 Chapter 10: Anarchy | Stephen Roche, Jean-Francois Bernard, Andy Hampsten, 1987 Chapter 11: The Devil |Claudio Chiappucci, 1992 Chapter 12: Shock and Awe | Bobby Julich, Jorg Jaksche, Marco Pantani, Jan Ullrich, 1998 Chapter 13: What About Zimmy? | Urs Zimmermann, 1991 Chapter 14: The Unknown Warrior | Jose Luis Viejo, 1976 Chapter 15: Champagne Freddy | Freddy Maertens, 1981 Chapter 16: Honor Among Thieves | Lance Armstrong, Iban Mayo, 2003 Chapter 17: Untold Stories | Mark Cavendish, Bernhard Eisel, David Millar, 2010 Chapter 18: Playstation Cycling | Andy Schleck, 2011 Chapter 19: Redemption | David Millar, 2012 Chapter 20: La Resurrection | Greg LeMond, 1989 Acknowledgments

“Moore tells the inside story of some of the Tour’s greatest modern exploits.” — Bicycling.com

“As he did in Slaying the Badger and Tour de France 100, author Richard Moore peers behind the curtains of the sport of cycling, sitting down with some of the Tour’s modern icons, and its scoundrels, to unravel and recount strange tales from 20 great stages in recent Tour de France history.” — VeloNews magazine

“All [the Tour’s] complexity and more is dealt with by Richard Moore in Étape¸ which offers a tour through the Tour de France…from 1971 through to 2012. It’s almost like a Tour mix-tape, a collection of greatest hits, album tracks, and B-sides, some of which you are already familiar with, some of which you will be hearing for the first time.” — Podium Café

“Richard Moore is his own secret weapon…[He] is incontestably one of the finest published sports writers of our time… Étape is his finest hour. There will be a great number of books about the Tour de France published in the next month, but if your appetite for yellow extends to only one, make it this one.” — The Washing Machine Post

“A preview ride of the most crucial stages in history with award-winning sportswriter Richard Moore…The dramatic controversies and courageous victories prove why the Tour is the world’s most iconic bike race.” — Triathlete magazine

“In Etape, the Scottish author has dug deep beneath the surface and found the more obscure, but fascinating tales from the Tour that will keep the reader entertained…The level of detail is astonishing.” — Canadian Cycling magazine

“All the world’s a stage. Étape captures the best of them with the heroes delivering the most compelling of lines. Moore has selected 20 stages with the results not only defining a race but what it means to be a human being placed in the centre of events that strain every sinew and make extraordinary demands on one’s emotional and psychological stability…[The book is] mesmerizing.” – The Scotland Herald

“Étape, then, is – like the Tour de France itself – complicated and that complexity is actually the hidden central narrative of the book. And, because of the way Moore handles that complexity, even seasoned fans of the sport may find themselves reaching the end of Étape and thinking of the Tour in a different light.” — Podium Café

“The entire book is fascinating.” – Scotland Daily Record

“Readable, enjoyable and the kind of book to dip in and out of…Etape is a timely reminder that the Tour de France is packed with too many stories to tell.” — The Inner Ring

“Moore is a consummate story teller. Start reading a chapter and you will not put it down until it is finished. His is a writing style that is comfortable and compelling, a style that is a pleasure to read no matter what the topic might be.” — Cycling Utah