The Invisible Mile

Book excerpt: This acclaimed novel based on true events in the 1928 Tour de France “is a powerful story of grim determination and one man’s forlorn hope to conquer fear” (Publishers Weekly). In 1928, the Ravat-Wonder cycling team became the first English-speaking peloton to compete in the Tour de France. The riders, hailing from New Zealand and Australia, were treated as exotics and isolated by language and cultural barriers. Underfinanced and undertrained, the team faced one of the toughest routes in the race’s history: 5,476 kilometers over unsealed roads through a landscape heavy with the legacy of the Great War. 162 cyclists began the race that year; only 42 finished. A deeply introspective book, The Invisible Mile is narrated by a fictional, unnamed rider on the Ravat-Wonder team. Speaking no French and knowing few of his fellow riders, his race becomes a confrontation with memories of the Great War and a quest to understand his own place in its history. He rides on the alternating highs of cocaine and opium, pain and pleasure, victory and defeat. As he nears his final mile along the northern battlefields, trauma, exertion, and his personal demons take over. “Bruising, beautiful and ultimately transcendent, there’s a perfect thought on sport, humanity or endurance on just about every page.” —Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief