Sprinting Through No Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France

Written by Adin Dobkin

Narrated by Rob Shapiro

The inspiring, heart-pumping true story of soldiers turned cyclists and the historic 1919 Tour de France that helped to restore a war-torn country and its people.

On June 29, 1919, one day after the Treaty of Versailles brought about the end of World War I, nearly seventy cyclists embarked on the thirteenth Tour de France. From Paris, the war-weary men rode down the western coast on a race that would trace the country’s border, through seaside towns and mountains to the ghostly western front. Traversing a cratered postwar landscape, the cyclists faced near-impossible odds and the psychological scars of war. Most of the athletes had arrived straight from the front, where so many fellow countrymen had suffered or died. The cyclists’ perseverance and tolerance for pain would be tested in a grueling, monthlong competition.

An inspiring true story of human endurance, Sprinting Through No Man’s Land explores how the cyclists united a country that had been torn apart by unprecedented desolation and tragedy. It shows how devastated countrymen and women can come together to celebrate the adventure of a lifetime and discover renewed fortitude, purpose, and national identity in the streets of their towns.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jul 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781713561330

Adin Dobkin

Adin Dobkin is a writer and journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, the Paris Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. Born in Santa Barbara, California, Adin received his MFA from Columbia University. For more information about the author and his works, please visit www.adindobkin.com.

Reviews for Sprinting Through No Man's Land

[nyiper · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although I was very interested in the details about the riders and about this early Tour race right at the end of the war....it is tough reading with all of the interplay about the war mixed in because of what it did to the route of the Tour itself. It made perfect sense to include it but I must admit that I had a hard time grasping much of it. The book itself...what an undertaking by the author---no wonder he wrote an extensive description of how he did it at the end of the book!

[spounds_3 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. There was a lot of description of men riding bikes--I couldn't keep up with who was who. I was hoping for more backstory--there was some, but just not compelling enough to care.

[scottjpearson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Tour de France is established each year as an endurance race that lasts for about an entire month and encompasses the entire range of French lands. In 1919, following the armistice ending World War One, the Tour resumed after a multi-year hiatus. It included areas in the northeast that were decimated from warfare. Many of the riders, too, had personally experienced the tumults of war. The French people needed something to boost morale as they began the long task of rebuilding. Dobkin combines all these tales together into a coherent and intriguing piece of literature.The course was particularly long and hard that year. The riders could not use vehicles to pace, additional bikes to replace, or even extra help in repairs. Only an astounding eleven riders completed the race out of the seventy-something who began the trek. The race, like the war, was a feat of attrition and endurance.By tying individual stories into the piece, Dobkin maintains human interest while reaching into their histories with the military. Photographs accompany each chapter to bring the scenery to the readers’ minds. It is difficult to tell a story of endurance without becoming repetitive, but by bringing in the cultural history of the war, Dobkin avoids that pitfall.In normal years, the Tour’s athletes, facing massive mountain climbs in the Pyrenees and the Alps, tend to inspire fans. After the embittering war, France needed the Tour to lead it into a new world. Sports, at its best, guides society into embracing its better self. Such is no different with this story. The 1919 Tour reminded France that it needed strategy, endurance, hope, and a bit of luck to rebuild.This book has appeal to fans of European history and of sports. It can educate readers of one group about the other group’s interests. I learned much about cycling and France through this work. Despite the male bias that comprised the characters of this tale, Dobkin even manages to tie women’s contributions into the narrative. Overall, the variety of themes and stories weave an interesting tapestry where none might have existed to the untrained eye.