The Escape: The Tour, the Cyclist and Me

"This is an unusual book, not least in its format. You’ve got David Walsh, a renowned journalist who has done a lot of work on cycling—who did a lot to bring down Lance Armstrong and reveal the truth about his doping. He’s a very tenacious journalist. And, basically, the book is him, David Walsh, in a car with Pippa York, as they do the tour circuit, both acting as journalists. Pippa used to be known as Robert Millar, the first British rider to win a Tour de France classification, and was our greatest cyclist for a while. Then Robert Millar transitioned, to become Pippa York. So you get two stories in one. You get the pair of them driving around the tour circuit, staying in crummy hotels, meeting people involved in the tour, reminiscing about key races they’ve been part of or reported on. Then, as they drive around, David is also asking Pippa about the process of transitioning and how difficult that was. “Sporting autobiographies can be cut-and-paste affairs. For an autobiography to get on our shortlist, it can’t be that” It’s essentially Pippa York’s autobiography, but told in a completely different way, through conversation. It takes autobiography to another level. These days, for any autobiography in the running for Sports Book of the Year, it’s very important that it’s a cut above your standard sporting biography. Those still exist, and they can be pretty much cut-and-paste affairs, written with the fan in mind. It’ll have a big picture of the face of your favourite star on the cover, it will tell you when they were born, when they got their big break, how awful it was when they broke their leg, and how fantastic it was when they won gold, how they cope with retirement, whatever. It’s a bit A, B, C through to Z. For an autobiography to get on our shortlist, it can’t be that. David will prompt Pippa to explain what it was like growing up, knowing that he—at that point, ‘he’—was in the wrong body, saving up his pocket money to be able to buy girls clothes, the fear of being seen in those clothes by his classmates, and how awkward it was being discovered by his father in those clothes. Maybe you would, maybe you wouldn’t get that level of detail if it had been a standard autobiography. But you feel like David gets an awful lot from Pippa York in conversation. It’s a very intriguing book."