101 Damnations

A funny and irreverant look behind the scenes at the 2014 Tour de France, which starts in Yorkshire, from the author of How I Won the Yellow Jumper.

In 2014 Ned Boulting reports on his dozen-th Tour de France, an event in which blokes do amazing things on bikes, and, we're oft told, the biggest annual sporting event in the world.

101 Damnations, is a chance to re-live the hundred-and-first edition of the race, stage for stage, fall after fall, tantrum by tantrum; just the good bits mind, without all the aerial shots of castles. And sunflowers. (Though it may wax lyrical about some stunning Alpine scenery … or even, on this occasion with the race starting in Yorkshire, some stunning scenery not far from Bradford.)

From Leeds to Paris (how often do you say that?), the minutiae of Ned's encounters with the likes of Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome and the rest, their endeavours, their achievements, their grandeur, their pettiness, humour and occasional rancour, sit alongside the latest developments in his decade-long search for a practical approach to the problem of keeping a crease-free shirt, and the merits of squeezable marmite bottles (there aren't any).

Ned weaves together the interesting, amusing and unheralded threads of the race itself, and reflects on his own perennial struggle to get round, get on and get by. 101 Damnations encapsulates all that is incredible – and incredibly ordinary – about the greatest race on earth.

Ned Boulting started his broadcasting career at Sky in 1997, working as a reporter alongside Jeff Stelling on the now legendary show Soccer Saturday. In 2006 he was given the Royal Television Society's Sports Reporter of the Year Award. He has presented two Tours of Britain for ITV, as well as the inaugural Tour Series, and contributed features and live reports on eight Tours de France. His first book was the much-loved How I Won the Yellow Jumper.