Heroes, Villains & Velodromes, by Richard Moore

The resurrection of British cycling in a decade, from the faction-ridden depths of the late 1990s to the heights of the World Championships in Manchester earlier this year, when Britain won an astonishing 50 per cent of the gold medals on offer, is an inspiring tale. And in Richard Moore it has a splendid chronicler. No mean rider himself – he competed for Scotland in the 1998 Commonwealth Games – and the author of the acclaimed 'In Search of Robert Millar', he constructs his narrative through the device of shadowing a former team-mate, the multiple gold-medallist Chris Hoy, leading up to that latest triumph. Moore's cycling credentials gave him unprecedented access to the British team; the one area off-limits was the jocularly-named Secret Squirrel Club, deep in the bowels of Manchester Velodrome, where Chris Boardman guards and refines the state-of-the-art equipment he intends to unleash on the track at the Beijing Olympics in August. God help the opposition.

Published by HarperSport in hardback, £15.99