In doing so, the literature both deproblematises the human experiences of cycle racing, and affirms what Wieting terms the ‘the fiction of pure sport’ (350). Even accounts of the endemic spectre of performance enhancing drug largely accommodate the myth, framing drug taking as a threat to the integrity of the sport. The dominant discursive framing accords with the myths that Barthes identified: emphasising a glorious history/heritage, ‘great men’, heroic sacrifice, and honour and fairness within cycle racing. We offer critical readings in light of the broader economic and cultural contexts of cycling. This extensive body of literature features popular histories, exposés of drug scandals and autobiographies.
Following Barthes promptings, and some six decades on, we consider the contemporary narrativization of cycle racing within English language popular literature. He critiqued its popular mythologization within media, which he argued masked the economic motives of the event in favour of myths of heroic ordeal. In his 1957 collection of essays Mythologies Roland Barthes famously discussed the world’s most prominent cycle race Le Tour De France.
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