Description
A unique memoir from British cycling’s most fascinating competitor
In the summer of 2020 sportswriter David Walsh asked Pippa York if she’d be interested in being his travelling companion for the Tour de France. The deal was that he would sort out the logistics beforehand — the hotels and transport details — and she would handle the day-to-day tasks of getting them around and add her insight occasionally. It also meant she would return to the race she had ridden eleven times as Robert Millar.
The result is a unique and entertaining sporting odyssey. The Escape uses the minutiae of Pippa and David’s trip, and the iconic landmarks of the Tour de France, to explore her early life growing up in working-class Glasgow; her entry into racing; the psychological aspects of the sport and how they manifested in her personality; her ups and downs as a competitor; her post-career life; and her eventual transition in her 40s.
Touching on doping, gender in sport, and the unique wonders and day-to-day challenges of the Tour, The Escape is both an unforgettable travelogue through the world’s greatest cycling event and a one-of-a-kind memoir from arguably the sport’s most enigmatic and fascinating competitors.