La Escapada

"As Robert Millar, I became the first Briton to win the Tour de France mountain classification... Back then, my name was Robert Millar. Now I'm Pippa York." Winner of the 2025 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for the best sports book of the year in the United Kingdom. In the summer of 2020, renowned sports journalist David Walsh invited Pippa York to follow the Tour de France in his car. What began as journalistic coverage turned into a nostalgic journey through the world's most demanding race. For Walsh, it represented an opportunity to finally unravel the mystery of the most enigmatic and reserved cyclist in the peloton. For Pippa York, it was a chance to reconnect with the race she had competed in eleven times under the name Robert Millar. The Breakaway is the captivating result of those thousands of miles shared. Through intimate conversations in the car and iconic landscapes, the book intertwines the current events of the Tour with the extraordinary life of its protagonist: from his tough beginnings in working-class Glasgow to his assault on the Alpine and Pyrenean peaks, where he shone and won the Tour's mountain classification. But this story goes far beyond cycling. With poignant candor, Pippa York reflects on the psychological demands of the elite, the shadows of doping, and, above all, her gender transition beyond the age of 40. Funny, profound, and revealing, The Breakaway is both a love letter to the Tour de France and the unforgettable testimony of someone who had to escape her own body to find herself.