Books by Max Leonard

High above the pleasure palaces of the French Riviera is the Alpine Extension of the Maginot Line. These little-known bunkers were built in the 1930s to protect against Mussolini. But things didn't quite turn out as the French expected...

Why do road cyclists go to the mountains? Blending adventure and travel writing with the rich narrative of pro racing, Max Leonard takes the reader from the battles that created the Alpine roads to the shepherds tending their flocks on the peaks, and to a Grand Tour climax on the `highest road in Europe'.

If you complete a bike race, overcoming mountain ranges and merciless weather conditions while enduring physical and psychological agony, in the slowest time, should you be branded the loser? This title flips the Tour de France on its head and tells the forgotten, often inspirational and occasionally absurd stories of the last-placed rider.