Yellow Jersey buys Tour de France 'nonsense guide'

Yellow Jersey has acquired Velosaurus: A Linguistic Tour de France by ITV Tour de France commentator and cycling writer Ned Boulting.

Velosaurus aims to be the ultimate lexicon of nonsense terminology surrounding the esteemed Tour de France, pitched as "the ideal companion to all things peloton for linguistically-challenged fans of non-automotive two-wheeled sport".

Featured "essential" vocabulary includes "panache", defined as "riding with doomed flamboyance, conscious of the need to renew one’s contract", "moutarde", defined as "any race that ends, begins or passes through the city of Dijon", and "maillot", defined as "a jumper, obviously".

Frances Jessop, commissioning editor at Yellow Jersey, bought world all language rights from Mark Stanton at Jenny Brown Associates to Boulting’s Velosaurus by Ned Boulting, to be published 20th October. 

Boulting started his broadcasting career at Sky in 1997 and in 2006 was given the Royal Television Society’s Sports Reporter of the Year Award. In addition to his work as a football reporter for ITV, he has now presented seven Tours of Britain, the Vuelta España, the Tour of California as well as the Tour Series and the inaugural Women’s Tour, and contributed features and live reports on twelve Tours de France. 

Jessop, commissioning editor at Yellow Jersey, said: “Ned’s unique take on the language of cycling is an utter joy: playful, completely hilarious and curiously enlightening. We’re thrilled to be publishing this fourth book of Ned’s and hope it goes on to be essential nonsensical reading for cyclists and armchair cyclists alike.”

Boulting, who has also authored How I Won the Yellow Jumper and On the Road Bike for Yellow Jersey, said: “If French is the language of love, then it is also the language of cycling. And, as my Velosaurus goes on to prove, neither love nor cycling are entirely trustworthy.”