Hi folks,

I received a more formal press release for the kick-off of Cycling’s Greatest Misadventures. It’s posted below… Check it out.

Over the Bars!

Cycling’s Most Compelling Misadventures

Erich Schweikher’s first real kiss was on a bike. Paul Diamond’s first love was riding his bike. Both are writers and together they’ve collaborated to create Cycling’s Greatest Misadventures, a book that presents twenty-seven of the most intriguing, terrifying, bizarre and comical stories from cycling fanatics worldwide.

Schweikher and Diamond spent a year gathering these true stories from bicycle aficionados, journalists, magazine editors, professional racers, and everyday cyclists. these riders share the episodes when they’ve found themselves in over their heads facing danger and the unexpected.

The writing is spartan and factual in these collected stories which take the reader on a gripping ride through the uncharted terrain of freak accidents, animal attacks, sabotage, idiotic decisions, eerie events, and other law-dropping, adrenaline-pumping calamities. Each story brings to life the strange possibilities that await cyclists once they step on the pedals of a bike.

Here is a taste of the curious but true stories contained within:

• In Australia, a former pro cyclist decides to spread tacks on women’s race course in an attempt to get a date.

• In Pennsylvania, an enthusiastic computer programmer crashes a stationary bike during his first spin class.

• Also in Pennsylvania, a man accidentally cycles deep into a prison yard and then has to make an escape.

• In 1897, twenty African-American’s complete the first group Transamerican ride on iron bikes with wood rims, and they all ride armed with rifles.

• In Washington DC, a woman is attacked by a large rat that jumps on her bike and slaps her repeatedly with its tail.

• In North Carolina, a man is “attacked” and knocked from his bike by a flying dead dog.

Some of these stories might make your cringe or laugh; most will make you shake your head with disbelief.

Schweikher and Diamond’s selection often goes beyond thrills and spills, deeply exploring the culture and psychology of cyclists. There’s something remarkably moving about cyclists reflecting on and writing about how they got themselves into deep in trouble. In the end the stories stay with you, and you find yourself repeating them to friends.

Cycling’s Greatest Misadventures
Edited by Erich Schweikher and Paul Diamond

List: $16.95
Paperback: 256 pages 6” x 9” (inches)
Publisher: Casagrande Press (June 15, 2007)
ISBN: 0-9769516-2-2
Illustrations: 42 b/w photos including a bike crash photo gallery

Available online at book stores and bike shops nationwide.

For more information visit http://www.thebikebook.com

Categories: Daily Jibber Jabber.