It’s just a few days until the start of the hundredth edition of the world’s greatest bike race, the Tour de France. Book publishers have taken this historic milestone as their cue to commission and produce an enormous quantity of books about the race, its history and legend.

To help sort the wheat from the chaff is Feargal McKay, a man who’s read more books about professional bike racing than there are hairpin bends in the Pyrenees. As the resident book reviewer at the Podium Cafe website, Feargal Mckay has built a reputation for outstanding book reviews that are both thorough and thought provoking.

The books discussed are as follows:

Tour de France: The Official 100th Race Anniversary Edition by Françoise Laget, Gilles Montgermont, Serge Laget & Philippe Cazaban. Publisher: Quercus.

Tour de France 100 by Richard Moore. Publisher: Bloomsbury Sport.

Mapping Le Tour de France: 100 Tour de France race route maps by Ellis Bacon. Publisher: Collins.

Mountain High: Europe’s 50 Greatest Cycle Climbs by Daniel Friebe. Publisher: Quercus.

French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France by Tim Moore. Publisher: Yellow Jersey.

The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle. Publisher: Corgi.

Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong by David Walsh. Publisher: Simon & Schuster.

Bad to the Bone by James Waddington. Publisher: Dedalus.

Consumed by Jonathan Budds. Self-published.

The Sweat of the Gods: Myths and Legends of Bicycle Racing by Benjo Maso. Publisher: Mousehold Press.

The Tour de France A Cultural History by Christopher S. Thompson. Publisher: University of California Press.

Het feest van list en bedrog by Herman Chevrolet. Publisher: De Arbeiderspers.