The Escape

In the summer of 2020, sportswriter David Walsh invited Pippa York to travel with him to the Tour de France. Walsh would arrange the logistics in advance, including hotels and transport, while York would handle the daily business of getting them around and offer her insight now and then. The trip also meant a return to a race she had ridden eleven times under the name Robert Millar.

The Escape builds on the small details of their journey and the famous landmarks of the Tour to tell York's story. It follows her childhood in working-class Glasgow, her move into racing, and her ups and downs as a competitor. It also looks at the psychological side of the sport and how that shaped her personality, then turns to her life after racing and her transition in her 40s.

Along the way the book touches on doping, gender in sport, and the wonders and everyday difficulties of the Tour. It works both as a travelogue through the world's biggest cycling race and as a memoir of one of the sport's most enigmatic figures. Walsh is an Irish sportswriter known for his reporting on doping in cycling.