Ned Boulting

A funny and frank account of falling in love with the Tour de France by television's quintessential roving reporter, Ned Boulting. Follow Ned Boulting's (occasionally excruciating) experiences covering the world's most famous cycling race. His story offers an insider's view of what really goes on behind the scenes of the Tour. From up-close-and-personal encounters with Lance Armstrong to bewildered mishaps with the local cuisine, Ned's been there, done that and got the crumpled-looking t-shirt. Eight Tours on from Ned's humbling debut, he has grown to respect, mock, adore and crave the race in equal measure. What's more, he has even started to understand it. Includes How Cav Won the Green Jersey: Short Dispatches from the 2011 Tour de France.

Dispatches from the Tour de France

How I Won the Yellow Jumper

Join Ned Boulting as he 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 relive the 2014 race, stage for stage, fall after fall, tantrum by tantrum; just the good bits mind, without all the aerial shots of castles. Or sunflowers. (Though it does wax lyrical about some stunning Alpine scenery . . . and, with the race starting in Yorkshire, even some stunning scenery not far from Bradford). From Leeds to Paris (how often do you say that?), Ned details the minutiae of his encounters with the likes of Vincenzo Nibali, David Millar, Chris Froome, Chris Boardman (or ‘Broadman’ as some would have it), Marcel Kittel, Mrs Cavendish (Mark’s wife), Peter Sagan and the rest. Their endeavours, achievements, humour and occasional rancour, sit alongside his own decade-long quest for the ideal end-of-race T-shirt. 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.

Dispatches from the 101st Tour de France

101 Damnations

âe~British cyclist. It used to be an oxymoron, a sort of silliness. Like French Cricketâe(tm) Ned Boulting has noticed something. Itâe(tm)s to do with bikes. Theyâe(tm)re everywhere. And so are their riders. Some of these riders seem to be sporting sideburns and a few of them are winning things. Big things. Now Ned wants to know how on earth it came to this. And what, exactly is 'this'. In On the Road Bike, Ned Boulting asks how Britain became so obsessed with cycling. His journey takes him from the velodrome at Herne Hill to the Tour of Britain at Stoke-on-Trent via Bradley Wiggins, Chris Boardman, David Millar (and Davidâe(tm)s mum), Ken Livingstone, both Tommy Godwins, Gary Kemp (yes, him from Spandau Ballet) and many, many more. The result is an amusing and personal exploration of the austere, nutty soul of British cycling.

The Search for a Nation's Cycling Soul

On the Road Bike

The Mystery of Lot 212 and the 1923 Tour de France

1923

Ned Boulting, bestselling author and former football commentator and presenter (now best known for his cycling commentary) reminisces about a life in football.

Football, TV and Me

Square Peg, Round Ball

This is not a 100,000-word, minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow account of the 2011 Tour de France. This is not the story of Cadel Evans. This is not the story of Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, or Bradley Wiggins. And it's not even the story of Mark Cavendish. (Although he is in it quite a lot.) This is the story of the lesser-known heroes; the Johnny Hoogerlands, the Thomas Voecklers, the hitchhikers, the maniac press drivers, Norbert Dentressangle and the greatest ever Tour de France*. I was there. And this is what I saw. That is all. In this 20,000-word digital short, ITV's Ned Boulting, author of How I Won the Yellow Jumper, takes an honest and idiosyncratic look at the unforgettable 2011 Tour de France, when Mark Cavendish won the Green Jersey. *probably

Short Dispatches from the 2011 Tour de France

How Cav Won the Green Jersey

In Heart of Dart-ness, TV's Ned Boulting sets out to answer the forty-something year old question: What exactly is darts? Is it a sport, a freak show, a side-show, a pantomime, a riot or a party? From Purfleet to Minehead, Milton Keynes to Frankfurt, Ned embarks on a journey back to the beginning of the modern game. He tracks down some of the household names who graced childhood television screens and are still among us; names such as Andy Fordham, whose fifty bottles of Pils a day habit led to his near death on the oche, Cliff Lazarenko, whose prodigious drinking was the stuff of legend even among his not exactly abstemious peer-group, Phil Taylor, the greatest of all time, as well as the Europeans, Michael van Gerwen, and Raymond van Barneveld. Is it entertainment, or exploitation? To answer that question, as well as every other, he learns that all roads lead to the Heart of Dart-ness, and the biggest character the game has ever produced, Eric Bristow. Perhaps darts is after all, just exactly what it sets out to be; an anti-sport sport, a two-fingered salute to the establishment, a piss-up in a brewery, the ultimate escape. The best night out.

Bullseyes, Boozers and Modern Britain

Heart of Dart-ness

The language of cycling is vibrant, sophisticated, often impenetrable and extremely French. Find yourself confused, nodding along when a rouleur relates how le biscuit was effrit� (crumbled)? How today they’re feeling Angers (past caring)? Fear no more, for Boulting's Velosaurus will illuminate, enlighten and, frankly, mislead. In his Velosaurus, ITV Tour de France commentator and cycling writer Ned Boulting provides the ultimate lexicon of nonsense terminology surrounding the esteemed Tour de France. Featuring essential vocabulary like Alpe (an Alp), panache (riding with doomed flamboyance, conscious of the need to renew one’s contract), moutarde (any race that ends, begins or passes through the city of Dijon) and maillot (a jumper, obviously), Boulting’s Velosaurus is the ideal companion to all things peloton for linguistically-challenged fans of non-automotive two-wheeled sport.

A Linguistic Tour de France

Boulting's Velosaurus

'Paris, 4 July 2003: My first Tour de France. I had never seen a bike race. I had only vaguely heard of Lance Armstrong. I had no idea what I was doing there. Yet, that day I was broadcasting live on television. I fumbled my way through a few platitudes, before summing up with the words, "...Dave Millar just missing out on the Yellow Jumper." Yes, the Yellow Jumper.' Follow Ned Boulting's (occasionally excruciating) experiences covering the world's most famous cycling race. His story offers an insider's view of what really goes on behind the scenes of the Tour. From up-close-and-personal encounters with Lance Armstrong to bewildered mishaps with the local cuisine, Ned's been there, done that and got the crumpled-looking t-shirt. Eight Tours on from Ned's humbling debut, he has grown to respect, mock, adore and crave the race in equal measure. What's more, he has even started to understand it. Includes How Cav Won the Green Jersey: Short Dispatches from the 2011 Tour de France

Ned Boulting

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