Vuelta Skelter cover art

Vuelta Skelter

Riding the Remarkable 1941 Tour of Spain

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Vuelta Skelter

By: Tim Moore
Narrated by: Tim Moore
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Tim Moore completes his epic (and ill-advised) trilogy of cycling's Grand Tours.

Julian Berrendero's victory in the 1941 Vuelta a Espana was an extraordinary exercise in sporting redemption: the Spanish cyclist had just spent 18 months in Franco's concentration camps, punishment for expressing Republican sympathies during the civil war. Seventy-nine years later, perennially over-ambitious cyclo-adventurer Tim Moore developed a fascination with Berrendero's story, and having borrowed an old road bike with the great man's name plastered all over it, set off to retrace the 4,409-km route of his 1941 triumph - in the midst of a global pandemic.

What follows is a tale of brutal heat and lonely roads, of glory, humiliation and then a bit more humiliation. Along the way, Tim recounts the civil war's still-vivid tragedies and finds the gregarious but impressively responsible locals torn between welcoming their nation's only foreign visitor and bundling him and his filthy bike into a vat of antiviral gel.

©2021 Tim Moore (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Cycling Sports Outdoor Emotionally Gripping Inspiring
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Another Fine Mess cover art
1923 cover art
The Great North Road cover art
Sticky Bottle cover art
One Man and His Bike cover art
The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman cover art
God Is Dead cover art
Magic Spanner cover art
Jan Ullrich cover art
Coffee First, Then the World cover art
The Midlife Cyclist cover art
The Break cover art
Travel Seekness cover art
Just Crazy Enough to Work cover art
The Buddha and the Bee cover art
From Light to Dark cover art

What listeners say about Vuelta Skelter

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    68
  • 4 Stars
    20
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    60
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    68
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

History and cycling

Tim Moore what a hero and an epic journey both physically and back in time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An Excellent Travelogue

Entertaining, amusing, vividly descriptive, informative and thought provoking. Chapeau Tim, chapeau.

Thoroughly recommended whether you are a cyclist or not.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

as always fine read

Well told story with with humor but also outlines the horror of the Spanish Civil War


Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

bien hecho tim

A fan of many of Tim's previous works this was the first audio book of his I took up. It's great! Tim brings the horrors of the Spanish Civil War to life as he travails the country on an old bike in honour of Spain's greatest and grumpiest cyclist. Tim's self deprecating words bring many a smile and a guffaw out loud. It makes you want to do an amazing journey like this yourself, for about 3 seconds. Bien hecho Tim, bien hecho Julian.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another cracker from Tim Moore

Whilst biased because of being a fan, this is another great listen/read. Educational, inspiring and entertaining in equal measure.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible story, poignant and hilarious to boot.

Well worth a listen as the books sheds a light into the dark history of war time while also being a wonderful guide to how the country is now, with a lot of cycling and hilarity underpinning everything. I loved it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another Grand Tour win for Moore, and at his age

This book was as enjoyable as Tim Moore's other books on cycling. Laugh out loud, especially if you are familiar with his adventures turning up at hotel receptions with his bike and paniers and getting snooty looks from the staff behind the counter.

The difference with this book, for me, was his coverage of the Spanish Civil War. It was brutal. Not an area of history I have ever read about, even though I knew about the civil war. I had never comprehended the enormity of it. I had known that the Axis powers supported the Nationalists and that the Russians had supported the Republicans. What I was not aware of was that the Nazis had actually taken part in some of the atrocities, the attack on Guernica for example.

However the most amazing thing for me is that Tim a man of my age managed once again to cycle the route of a grand tour in around six weeks.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Really engaging listen and narration

Wonderful multi faceted listen. Cycling, Spain, civil War retelling all interlaced with covid. Brilliant!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

fascinating insight into the history of cycling in Spain and the 20th century history of Spain

the honesty and the story telling of true determination and respect the author gave in his insights

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

informative

learnt alot about the history of spain from this book and the vuelta from the 40s

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!