Earlier this week Sammarye Lewis sent me a copy of her new book Tour de France for Dummies. Phil Liggett and James Raia are Sammarye's co-authors.

I hope to be able to do a more comprehensive review of this book in the next few days, but I want to say that Tour de France for Dummies is worth reading for those spectators who want to make the most out of their last opportunity to see Lance Armstrong in a pro cycling race. Television viewers and in-person spectators alike will find useful information here, but a veteran pro cycling fan may know a lot of this material already.

At first glance, it seems similar to The Tour de France Companion published in time for last year's Tour. Where I think TdF for Dummies is stronger is in its explanation of what's going on at the site of the race from a spectator's perspective. I would have really liked to have this book when I went to see a Tour stage for the first time.

One of the other important things to note about this book is that it is not so Lance Armstrong-centric that it will be totally useless after the end of this season. It's a bit American-in-the-Tour centric, but no more so than several books that have been published by U.S. publishing houses.

TdF for Dummies also lists weblogs that are reliable sources of Tour information. This is a nice touch, and probably is due to the fact that Sammarye maintains several blogs herself, including Velogal. The biggest issue I have so far with the content of this book is that they didn't list Operation Gadget with all the other quality on-line resources. This site was jam-packed with Tour info last year, and you know it will be the case again in a couple of weeks.

That's OK. I'm sure we'll make the Second Edition.

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