Curious George, Bike literature 101.

You’re a cycling addicted bike rider, a two wheeled fitness fanatic but you know that one day you’ll die. How to pass on the bike joy to your chromosomal off-spring? Buzz Lightyear doesn’t ride. Sponge Bob doesn’t own a bike. Dora the Explorer mostly goes on foot.

It’s too early to start reading them the Paris-Roubaix, Hell of the North book or the Eddie Merckx biography. Kids under 10 are simply not ready for the complex story line in Armstrong’s It’s Not About The Bike. Hold the cancer teaching moment for later, much later.

You are going to snuggle in bed with your kids and read them the classic. The book that will begin to cement their own love of the the two wheeled freedom machine.

The answer, the first ride in cycling literature is Curious George. Yes, that irrepressible French Monkey who is just too damn curious for his own Gallic good. He’s like Barbar without the trunk. And this time he’s on two wheels and pedaling full blast into mischief. No, there is not an audio book with Phil Leggett reading this. You’re  reading,

And let’s not forget the mysterious director sportif in this cycling narrative: the man in the yellow hat. You see, the symbolic connection? It’s a French author. Ergo: yellow hat leads to yellow jersey just like marijuana leads to heroin. Don’t tell the kids that. Adult concept.

So you’re set. Ease the kids into the world of cycling journalism. Then when they’re ten, get them a subscprtion to Cycle Sport. At twelve, maybe, the Bernard Hinault book. Don’t rush them, okay?

Curous George first. Then the training wheels of literature come off.