Thursday, July 2, 2009

Bill Strickland Still in Form

After a lengthy hiatus, I visited Bill Strickland's blog this morning, and, much to my delight, he still embodies more of what writing about cycling should be than any active writer I know. No one will ever top Paul Fournel in my book, but he published once on cycling and then bowed out. (A move that, in itself, reflects his Zen-like wisdom.)

Treat yourself to some sweet Strickland, here and here. He gets the whole Euro-roots thing like few Americans do.

By the way, these are delightful cycling pieces, but not on the topic he's known for. Strickland's purest talent is capturing the explosive action and emotional torments of bike racing. You can find plenty of that elsewhere on his blog, and also -- especially -- in a book that's a very tough but worthy read, Ten Points (currently at sale price at that linked page).

Alla salute!

3 comments:

Suitcase of Courage said...

Ten Points is one of my favorite books of any type, not just cycling. And it was my introduction to Strickland's great writing.

Thanks for the links to his other essays - will be reading those over lunch.

Harry said...

Dude, if you really like Strickland's writing, he's treated us to a smorgasbord over here. Not everyone knows about this side of him. He's a serious lit-fan. I like this side of him -- it gives dimension to the bike-boy bit.

Harry said...

BTW, that site above also has a ton of bike-related writings on there if you fish around -- I think there's a category, or a least you can click on the related tags.