The Escape

A unique memoir from British cycling’s most fascinating competitor

In the summer of 2020 sportswriter David Walsh asked Pippa York if she’d be interested to be his travelling companion for the Tour de France. The deal was that he would sort out the logistics beforehand, the hotels, the transport details and she would do the day to day tasks of getting them about and adding her insight occasionally. It would also mean she would return to the race she had ridden eleven times as Robert Millar.

This is the resulting book: a unique and entertaining sporting odyssey, The Escape uses the minutiae of Pippa and David’s trip, and the iconic landmarks of the Tour de France, to explore her early life growing up in working class Glasgow; her entry into racing; the psychological aspects of the sport and how that manifested itself in her personality; her ups and downs as a competitor; her post-career and her eventual transition in her 40s.

Touching on doping, gender in sport and the unique wonders and day-to-day challenges of the Tour, The Escape is both an unforgettable travelogue through the world’s greatest cycling event and a one-of-a-kind memoir from arguably the sport’s most enigmatic and fascinating competitors.

About the author

Born in Glasgow, Robert Millar was a professional racing cyclist through the 1980s and into the 90s. One of the most successful British riders of all time, they were the first English speaking rider to win a Tour de France classification, taking home the polka dot jersey of the King of the Mountains and achieving fourth place overall in 1984. That remained the highest British placing until 2009. They retired in 1995 and five years later began the process of transitioning to female. She has now lived as Philippa York for over two decades.

David Walsh is chief sportswriter at the Sunday Times and one of the most respected sports journalists working today. His previous books include Inside Team Sky and Seven Deadly Sins – one of the key texts in the takedown of Lance Armstrong.