Max Leonard is from my knowledge a writer but first and foremost a cyclist, he is also a man who loves the mountains and the wild landscapes of those higher regions in the sky. His years of cycling in the Alps and following the pro cyclists have given him a wisdom and a bounty of contacts which helps him weave this account which in a nutshell captures the reasons we cycle into the skies. The perspective he takes in the book is one that lays down the foundations for his main points of view and there are a lot of details and topics which have rarely been approached in cycling books before. There is not one part of this book where you don't want to keep reading and turn the next page, in fact the worst part of the book is when there is nothing left to read, when I turned that last page. For cyclists, this is a must read book and deserves to be a classic as Max has gone to great lengths to put this masterpiece together. If you are looking for that next read then this is it. An incredible blend of fact, myth, mystery, statistics, history and legends that encapsulates the soul of cycling on paper.