Cycling dictionary

Despite all the hype, hysteria and especially hypocrisy in connection with doping, cycling is still rock solid. Cycling is and remains hot, even without Eddy Merckx and Jan Raas. Entire European tribes sway to the rhythm of the Tour and the classics every year, but even the smallest kermis race and the youngest junior always set the emotions on edge. What both the ordinary recreational cyclist and the more informed cycling freak get to see is a very authentic cycling folklore festival, where rank and status do not count. What the aficionado gets to hear, however, is a hodgepodge of words and expressions.

In this winding, shopping, cyclist's path, old and new enter into a melodious alliance that many a linguist may be extremely jealous of because the inventiveness of that language use in its plasticity and its humor is sui generis: 'cycling backwards' is actually not possible, but in cycling jargon it fits perfectly. Because today half the globe is watching and listening, quite a few peripheral phenomena and paraphernalia have joined the core business of cycling. That has not missed its influence on the language use of the toughest sport in the world. Because not only do the commentators babble their tune in primeval Flemish, Brabantian or Dutch, in the context of globalization they may not be afraid of a mouthful of Spanish, German, Russian or Italian.

This cycling book reports on this old and new vocabulary, with the occasional bitter anecdote and spicy example.