Novelist Dave Shields on the Tour

The Elegant Variation: First Week Jitters

Dave Shields, author of bike racing novel The Race in 2004, is the hardest-working man in publishing. With the release in April of The Tour, he's been all over the web and out on the road to promote it. He followed the Tour de Georgia, selling books out of a tent in the Expo. We saw him there at the Expo at the Tour de Georgia near the top of Brasstown Bald in April, on our way to the top.

When we came back down, there was an accident partway down the mountain, which backed up the bus line. Shields came over and was working the bus line, selling those books.

Shields has managed to make his two books on racing topical, almost prophetic; The Race is about a rider from Utah who dreams of the yellow jersey, while The Tour includes a doping scandal that impacts the Tour (okay, you don't have to be Kreskin to come up with that one).

With the Tour underway, Shields did a guest spot with Locutus and Saul Raisin on Daily Peloton's live Stage 2 coverage and is posting regular updates at Elegant Variation, linked above.