The author of the bestselling French Revolutions does Italy - cycling the course of the 1914 Giro d'Italia on a wooden bike. ;;‘Bill Bryson on two wheels’ Independent

A 3,162 km race. A 48-year-old man. A 100-year-old bike. Made mostly of wood. That he built himself. ;;Tim Moore sets off to recreate the most appalling bike race of all time. The notorious 1914 Giro d'Italia was an ordeal of 400-kilometre stages, cataclysmic night storms and relentless sabotage - all on a diet of raw eggs and red wine. Of the 81 who rolled out of Milan, only eight made it back.;;Committed to total authenticity, Tim acquires the ruined husk of a gearless, wooden-wheeled 1914 road bike with wine corks for brakes, some maps and an alarming period outfit topped off with a pair of blue-lensed welding goggles. ;;From the Alps to the Adriatic the pair relive the bike race in all its misery and glory, on an adventure that is by turns bold, beautiful and recklessly incompetent.