Over the years I have read a fair number of cycling books. Usually accounts of incredible feats of endurance, persistence and down right stubbornness. Fighting the urge to give up, to end the suffering and the pain is one of the main components of the genre. Being a keen (but not hardcore) cyclist myself I love to read about what the true legends can do.

Where There’s a Will was very much in the same mould. A brutal and frank window into the physical and mental torture that Emily Chappell but herself through during ultra cycling races across Europe. Where I think this book differed from many I’ve read was the honesty that Chappell discusses the emotional and mental challenges that she has faced. Some of which occurred on the bike and some of them off of it.

I found the honesty and the vulnerability both inspiring and refreshing. It wasn’t just about cycling from A to B but about how the journey felt and how it was overcome.

The subtitle of the book is “Hope, grief and endurance in a cycle race across a continent”, and the grief part of this is a really tough read. The emotions and sense of loss and grief that Chappell describes are raw and amazingly human.

I won’t pretend that if you are not a cyclist then you’ll love this book, chances are the sheer amount of cycling content (like almost all the book) will be a little much. But I am a cyclist and I loved it!

Where There's A Will