Chris De Bode

Tour Du Monde

Chris de Bode usually spends his time documenting the most celebrated world cycle races like the Tour du France, but for this book the Dutch photographer aims his socio-documentary lens at the smaller races that create the cycle stars eventually found in the international spot light. Following in the footsteps of Robert Capa’s great photos of the Tour de France, de Bode’s is at least as interested in the crowds by the side of the road as the sweating cyclists in the race. This dynamically designed book, with 143 vivid color images, is divided into six races: Columbia (Tour of Fear), Cuba (Tour of the People), Senegal (Tour of the Heart), Eritrea (Tour of Passion), Qatar (Tour of the Desert), and Hainan, China (Tour without Soul). De Bode explores the heart of racing through the dusty uneven paths, the exotic rural scenery and the dense urban streets of the Third World. His gritty, heart-in-your-throat photos confront the reader with the thrill, heartbreak, physical exhaustion, and intensity of the sport. Cultures clash when spandex-clad Europeans meet burka-clad Qataris, when several shrouded women squat behind a bramble bush in Eritrea while a stream of brightly outfitted racers stream by, when the gun barrel of a military tank and armed soldiers in Columbia watch a sole rider shooting by. An exciting photographic document, this book is sure to attract an enthusiastic crossover audience of cycling enthusiasts.

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