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Home > Rough Ride: Behind the Wheel With a Pro Cyclist
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Rough Ride: Behind the Wheel With a Pro Cyclist
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By Paul Kimmage
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 (20 Reviews)
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Publisher:
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Random House UK
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Published:
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December 31, 1969 |
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Binding:
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Paperback
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Pages:
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336
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Paul Kimmage's boyhood dreams were of cycling glory?wearing the yellow jersey, cycling the Tour de France, and becoming a national hero. He knew it wouldn't come easy, but he was prepared to put in the work?he spent his teenage years cycling an average of 400 miles per week. The dedication began to pay off. As an amateur, he represented his country and finished sixth in the World Championships. In 1986 he turned professional, and reality hit. He soon discovered it was not about glory and courage, nor about training or dedication. It was about grueling defeats, complete and utter exhaustion, and drugs?not drugs that would ensure victory, but drugs that would allow you to finish the race. Paul Kimmage left the sport to write this powerful and frank account that breaks thecode of silence surrounding the issue of drugs in sport. An eye-opening exposé and a heartbreaking lament, this is a book that anyone interested in any sport should read. This updated edition includes the story of Kimmage's 2006 return to the Tour as well asa moving section on the life and death of an old teammate.
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Customer Reviews:
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 A rough ride indeed, September 6, 2001
By Noel Molloy (Werribee, Victoria Australia)
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Kimmage rode with some of the greats of cycling, but was only in the cold shadow of greatness in terms of ability. He details in the book the means taken by some cyclists to climb out of the shadows into the sunshine by taking drugs. His book was brave at the time, he was accused of 'spitting in the soup' and lost the friendship of many of his cycling peers for his writing about the drug taking. He was called a liar. But time has revealed through the 'festina affair' who were the liars. A good read, but leaves one feeling a little sad to think that sport in general, not just cycling, can be so diseased.
22 of 24 people found the above review helpful.
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Many Questions Answered, January 25, 1999
By A Customer
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What happens when the talented amateur becomes the paid professional cyclist? This book answers that question in graphic and, occasionally horrifying, detail. To be sure, the author portrays himself as a stained saint of the sport. It does raise the question as to what we expect from all professional athletes. With the backdrop of the 1998 Tour de France in our history the re-release of this book is a poignant reminder that these riders are not super men. Some, to compete in a grueling stage race, subject their bodies to horrific potential consequences. Most of them are not the leaders but the "domsetiques" who ride in support of the leaders. They lead them in their draft, carry water bottles back and forth, only to drop out just before the glory moments. Why do they do it? Perhaps it is the sponsors. Perhaps the fans. Perhaps it is just the difference between the professional, to whom the team win is more important than finishing. This book is a chilling look at all professional sport through the lens of professional cycling.
18 of 20 people found the above review helpful.
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very insightful, pulls back the glossy veneer, March 24, 1999
By A Customer
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Very hard to put down, even though I am strictly a recreational rider with no racing experience I found the story painted very vivid images. Paul Kimmage pours it all on the table, sometimes trying to be neutral, other times being very judgemental. The book feels very honest in presenting the history of drugs and cycling. I would definitely read more of his work.
16 of 18 people found the above review helpful.
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for anyone who reads, May 15, 2001
By A Customer
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As a life-long cycling fan, this book shattered my view of cycling as a glamourous sport for the exceptional only. Kimmage reveals to us how drugs are not just an occasional mistake made by the more famous cyclists, but a part of everyday life for even the 'small' riders who are never mentioned. I had never heard of Paul until I read this and had never acknowledged that there are so many cyclists who have spent their whole lives waiting to reach the top only to be destroyed by drugs, without ever achieving their goal. Alternately hilarious and disturbing, I would recommend this book to anyone who can read. Lags slightly towards the end, but otherwise perfect.
7 of 9 people found the above review helpful.
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And very rough it was, November 29, 2008
By Colin C. Mckenna (Lafayette, CA USA)
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I bought a copy of this several years ago and I am glad to see this has been brought back into print. Given all the furor about doping in cycling and other sports his is a story that needs to be told.
As a star British amateur Kimmage got a rude awakening when he entered the world of European pro racers.
There is a constant tension between his dreams of glory and the reality of his (relatively) limited ability. His account of being passed by Greg LeMond during one Tour is reason enough to buy the book.
I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because while I greatly admire Kimmage and his honesty, there is an occasional tone of whining and self-pity that I find off-putting. Perhaps i am being unfair with this though. There is a fine line between sharing the struggle of accepting one's limitations and the choices this brings, and making excuses for those choices.
4 of 5 people found the above review helpful.
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 Not bad, a little dated, April 29, 2003
By paulste (Seattle, WA United States)
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If you enjoy the sport of cycling this is a brief look into it. I enjoyed the sections about the not-so-classic races that decent pros need to ride to earn a living; too often we only hear about the Tour or the Giro. If you are expecting great, edge of your seat writing, it won't be found here, you'd be better off with "The Rider" for that.
4 of 6 people found the above review helpful.
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Understand the pain & suffering of professional bike racing., January 11, 1999
By A Customer
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Written in an easy to read, conversational style, Rough Ride highlights the experiences of one Irish rider as he joins the professional peloton. Although written in the 80's (with a recently added epilogue) the book is still topical, as he covers the temptations of doping to enhance performance.
4 of 11 people found the above review helpful.
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The Date, The Day...It's All Written Down, August 18, 2008
By Craobh Rua (N. Ireland)
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Paul Kimmage is an award-winning sports journalist who writes for the Sunday Times newspaper in the United Kingdom. Born in Dublin, he is a former professional cyclist who competed in the 1980s - alongside compatriots Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and Martin Earley. In "Rough Ride", Kimmage looks back on his life on the bike - he touches on his amateur years, though he focuses more on his time as a professional. While the move into professional cycling was a dream come true for Kimmage, the reality of professional cycling wasn't quite the dream he had hoped for : never mind the physical and psychological difficulties associated with the sport, cycling had a widespread drugs problem.
The 1980s were great times for Irish cycling - Sean Kelly was successful from one end of the decade to the other, while Stephen Roche won the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the World Championships in 1987. Kimmage, however, was a domestique and never won a race. He entered the professional ranks with RMO in 1986, before moving to Fagor-MBK in 1989 - where he rode alongside Stephen Roche until the Tour de France. He abandoned that race and - despite having intended to quit at the end of that season - he never rode professionally again.
Kimmage was one of four new pros taken on by RMO in 1986 - however, as one of the few non-French riders, it was initially difficult for him to integrate into the team. Nevertheless, Andre 'Dede' Chappuis quickly became a friend - as, in time, did Jean Claude Colotti and Thierry Claveyrolat. As an amateur, Kimmage had heard rumours about the drug-taking in the professional ranks. However, he was determined to stay clean - even, initially, refusing to take the vitamin shots. (The shots were injected and, in Kimmage's mind, syringes meant doping. Nine stages of the 1986 Tour de France changed his mind : he wouldn't have been capable of starting stage 10 without a shot of Vitamin B12). So far as I know, vitamin shots don't count as doping - I may be wrong - but they certainly would certainly appear innocent enough to the man in the street. Similarly, caffeine tablets also sound reasonably innocent - however, they would return a positive test. Nevertheless, they were quite commonly used - taken early enough in the stage, the caffeine would've been out of the system by the time the cyclist reached doping control.
However, things in cycling went far beyond vitamins and caffeine tablets. Kimmage remembers arriving at a race in his early days carrying a briefcase, something that caused a bit of a slagging from the other riders. It was only later that he discovered many other cyclists carried pills and syringes in theirs - while Kimmage himself was only carrying his passport and a few letters. Since not every race tested for drugs, cyclists knew which races they could 'charge up' for safely. While it was never openly encouraged by the management, they were occasionally reminded of their duty as professionals - especially when there were world ranking points at stake. It wasn't uncommon for syringes full of amphetamines to be used, not only in these races but also in Criteriums. EPO, of course, only arrived in the 1990s - but Kimmage also touches on it in the second edition.
"Rough Ride" was first published in 1990 and, while he wasn't expecting it to be universally welcomed, he wasn't expecting the reception the book received. His friendships with Sean Kelly and Martin Earley survived - both are thanked for their support following the book's first publishing - though Thierry Claveyrolat and Jean-Claude Colotti weren't quite so understanding. Worse, things worked out terribly with Stephen Roche. It's clear from reading the book that Kimmage idolised Roche and that riding alongside him at Fagor was a dream come true. Roche, however, seemed to view the book as a personal attack, and was very quick to talk about the possibility of legal action. I'm not sure if the court case ever arrived...the cleanup cycling certainly hasn't. A sad book, but a very highly recommended one.
3 of 4 people found the above review helpful.
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Pro Cycling Explained, January 31, 2008
By Author of The Story of the Tour .. (Cherokee Village, AR, USA)
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What's it like to be a wonderfully talented amateur bicycle racer who gets thrown into the meat-grinder of professional cycling? Kimmage answers the question in honest yet depressing detail.
An example: This book explains that the fatigued riders who did not place in the final stage of the Tour wouldn't be tested for dope, so they were free to take amphetamines. Reading "Rough Ride" is a lot like driving by a car crash. You really want to avert your eyes but can't. Kimmage's story of life as a cycling domestique is fascinating.
Kimmage makes it very clear that he is only telling his own personal story and not accusing any other rider in particular. But the practices he exposes clearly indict the entire profession. His revelations of the culture of doping within the peloton brought him withering criticism. He wasn't the first to get in trouble for revealing cycling's nasty underside. Bernard Thévenet almost died of liver failure from overuse of corticoids. When he confessed that doping was the cause of his health problems and that doping was a common practice within the peloton, the 2-time Tour winner suffered terrible opprobrium from the press, his sponsor and his fellow racers.
I believe Kimmage's book is the first (at least in English) to detail at length what life as a professional truly entailed. Since then former professional Erwann Menthéour has also written a memoir about doping in cycling which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been translated. Both he and Kimmage explained that the term for revealing cyclists' doping to the public is called "spitting in the soup". Menthéour's (who was caught using EPO) reply was "People are saying I am spitting in the soup, but it is necessary when it is poison." In the last year the wall of silence regarding doping has come tumbling down and several famous racers have confessed their misdeeds.
Yet Kimmage's book is the seminal tome and writing it was an act of courage.
The book is more than about doping. It details Kimmage's own failure to properly train and prepare for some seasons. He also describes the gut-busting exhaustion that the lesser riders suffer as they work at their limits for their more talented team leaders.
"Rough Ride" is a well-written book about racing in the 1980s but its lessons apply to the present. It is important reading for any cycling fan with an interest in what it takes to produce the spectacle we so enjoy watching.
3 of 4 people found the above review helpful.
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interesting read, December 16, 2009
By cyclist
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Good autobiography. I liked the fact that he was completely honest about doping in cycling without being 'heavy handed.' Doping in cycling is widespread and I very much admire people who have broken the silence-it's the only way the doping problem will go away or at least not be as widespread as it is. I read an updated version, I wish Paul would've written that 10,000 word opinion about getting the champion we deserve(A cheating Lance Armstrong).
2 of 2 people found the above review helpful.
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 terrible, negative book, December 16, 2008
By cryptoslut (Illinois)
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...this author is so negative; yes, a doping problem exists in cycling. No, we don't need this sour apple to spell it out for us. Every sentence in the book is bleak, painting a terrible picture of professional cycling. I kept asking myself, if he sucks so much in racing or hates it, why does he continue? No wonder no other teams would give this droll, morbid guy a chance. Reading it made me feel dirty and hopeless, losing all confidence in the sport. Have the author's efforts helped the sport any? Of course not. Armchair criticism and whining does nothing to improve anything. Just what does runny diarrhea down Greg Lemond's leg have to do with the story? He should be ashamed of himself (Paul Kimmage).
2 of 16 people found the above review helpful.
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It's a re-buy, it's that good, November 24, 2009
By Auntie C (Bawlmer, Merlin, USA)
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This book is written by an idealistic Irish national champion who thought to make a career of himself as a professional cyclist. What he found out is that system as it exists uses up its riders like disposable cameras. He had ambitions of glory or at least success, only to find that his talent is common in the pro ranks. What he describes is what it takes to exist as a professional cyclist - the wear and tear on the body and the pounding on the psyche. Hired as a domestique, his job is to support the big guns, the stars. Yet he is compensated on his own personal racing results, which are earned only when he is released from his supporting duties. For lesser riders like him, doping is the logical and even professional way of being able to perform. His transgressions are minor - caffeine suppositories, and trial use of speed, which he discards as just too *visible*. Eventually he drops out of cycling as he transitions into another line of work, sports reporting. His message is that it is the system that is broken - open knowledge of which events are not dope-controlled, the compensation system that expects riders to sacrifice their own results to those of the team, yet get paid on the basis of their criterium results. Most of all it is the code of silence that keeps all the riders mum and reinforces the idea that there is no alternative.
He speaks from the point of view of the average rider. While he is tight with the Irish greats of his day (Tour de France winner Stephen Roche and TdF points winner Sean Kelly), he can't and doesn't speak of them beyond his personal experiences from sharing hotel rooms, training rides and personal relationships. If you are looking for a tell-all book about the greats of the Tour de France, you will not find it here. This is his story, no one else's. It's not a comprehensive book about sports doping or even doping in the professional peleton. What made his story notorious in its time was the fact that he dared to speak of it at all. His transgressions were minor but his story ostracized him from his cycling generation for years.
He updated the booking in 2005, when he ventured back into that world, albeit as a journalist rather than a rider. Things had changed yet stayed the same. His point of view is tainted now, in that he sees doping everywhere, just in a more sophisticated form than in his day.
This book is interesting not so much for the details but for the pressures on the riders to perform and to do anything/everything that the others must do. You and I have long commutes and sedentary lives that are required by our jobs; they have different job constraints that are just as binding, only theirs will kill them sooner. What a life! Thanks, Paul, for letting us see this life from your point of view.
1 of 1 people found the above review helpful.
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A Rough Ride, July 7, 2005
By Lotek7 (Delaware USA)
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A very interesting though at times a little dark and depressing look at professional cycling. If you have even daydreamed about being a pro this eye opening book may make you change your mind. The pressure to use drugs in cycling like many other sports is tremendous. I am content now to just put on a pro jersey and pretend.
1 of 2 people found the above review helpful.
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Heckuva Story, May 25, 2005
By Randall W. Perkins (Northfield, MN USA)
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This book tells you a number of things that I've never seen in another book. It tells you what it's like to be a pro bike racer who's NOT a star. It tells you what it feels like having taken amphetamines and then racing. It tells you how most of the pro racers make their real living. Kimmage is a pretty good writer, and the story is compelling, if perhaps not riveting. But if you're interested in pro bike racing, you should read this one.
1 of 2 people found the above review helpful.
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Paul - Shame on you!, February 15, 2009
By JAD (San Jose, CA)
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Reader and potential reader of this book, please note the following:
From Feb 13, 2009 Los Angeles Times:
"In a strongly-worded radio interview last September, Kimmage said the sport that welcomed back Armstrong was heading backward and took a swipe at cancer survivor Armstrong's passion for the cause of raising money for cancer research.
'This guy, any other way but his bullying and intimidation wrapped up in this great cloak, the great cancer martyr . . . this is what he hides behind all the time. The great man who conquered cancer. Well he is the cancer in this sport. And for four years this sport has been in remission. And now the cancer's back.' "
Paul, your pettiness and hatefulness is pathetic. Next to Lance you are nothing. As a cancer survivor I proudly were my yellow and continue to be inspired by Lance everyday - guess that' s too much for you to understand.
1 of 20 people found the above review helpful.
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So You Want To Be A Pro Cyclist?, September 15, 2010
By purecarver (Tahoe City, CA USA)
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The road to professional cycling glory is paved with rainy wet cobbles in Belgium and soul searching cols in France. Paul Kimmage's accounts of his cycling career is a gritty display of life on the road in Europe, riding in a doped out peloton and struggling to survive financially on a low-end salary. To have the passion, heart and soul of a seasoned rider is the only reason to endure the demanding regimen placed on a cyclist desperately seeking a win and some positive acknowledgement. His account of his journey through the stage tours of Europe in the 80's and 90's are eye-opening, exciting, humorous and sometimes depressing. He tells it like it is, which is sometimes difficult in his Irish inflection, but maps out the struggles and rewards in day-to-day training and racing on the pro circuit. His accounts, diary style, about his Tour de France experience is priceless! As with all tell all books about cycling, his knowledge and difficult involvement in the PED taking was another "behind the curtain" confession about the doping scene in racing and the way the riders skirt the testing and justify their place on the road. The sacrifices one makes for a agonizing profession is genuinely heartfelt. Good Stuff!
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A gritty view of the Tour De France, March 10, 2010
By Kenny (US)
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Let's forget the doping angle for a moment.
Paul tells a lot about how the Tour de France race actually works per breakaways and reeling them in and the work of domestiques. I am being a bit generous with a 5 star rating but the inside view of the peloton is the best I've read. Too, it's good that it's not just some 190 page cycling book and believe me, not to name names but this is a downfall of a number of books out there. There was also a lot of good info on races in his native Ireland, Belgium, Holland, the Milk Tour of Britain which is one I've always liked since my friend had a white Raleigh that was a milk tour bike.
As far as doping goes, "From Lance to Landis" by Kimmage's friend David Walsh is by far the best out of a half dozen or so books out there on the subject but he does do a good job describing the UCI's position on doping and an often weak one at that. He really ends up leaving more questions open with few answers. Yes, some of the doping info is dated to his racing days and he does have a "see, I told you so" attitude. With all that said, I was under the big impression this was a doping in cycling book. The last 3rd is what really is about doping and the problem makes appearances here and there prior to that, so I don't consider this a real doping expose.
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Quite interesting, May 17, 2010
By Brent Kenreich
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The author gives lots of small insights into what it's like to race at the professional level. My favorite example was to learn one of biggest differences between the top amatuer races and his first race as a pro was learning to ride with brake hoods in both cheeks.
The books is extremely holier than thou and Pauls extreme bitterness shows through in every paragraph. If everyone is telling you to take the B vitamin shot because it helps...good for you for being skeptical. How about going to the local pharmacy and buying a bottle of viatmins? Perhaps seeking out your own doctor and asking him? Perhaps going to a library? To immediately jump to the conclusion that everyone else is cheating and you'll never be able to compete seems odd to me
0 of 1 people found the above review helpful.
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Brutally Honest a good read but at time whiney, November 20, 2011
By S
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I have to be honest, being Irish I am probably more familiar with Paul Kimmage than most reviewers here. All though I have never met the man, I don't like him. Mainly because when commentating on successful sport people he begrudges them success and anytime I have heard him he usually questioning someone's honesty. Not just in cycling but in athletics as well. He is usually trotted out by radio shows in Ireland when there is a doping scandal in sports. So in reading the book, I was doing so with the concern of will this be the ramblings of a bitter man who wasn't good enough. But I was surprised, it was a good read, well - the original part of the book was.
The book charters the rise of of Paul through the amateur ranks of Irish Cycling during the early 1980's. He also shows the difficulties of transferring from amateur to professional in the mid 1980's. His brutal honesty about the difficulties is interesting and at times you can feel the pain he is going through of just trying to finish a race in biting cold or searing heat. Some of the stories about the going's on are funny and at times sad. There are very good stories of banter between team mates and having a laugh. There are some happy stories such as helping his heros Sean kelly and Stepehen Roche win races in Ireland. But sad stories too of not keeping a place on a team, having to drop out of several races and trying to scrape a living as a average cyclist.
Doping is no news in cycling now. He describes this really well. I certaily could feel the pressure cyclists come under to "charge up" as he calls it. The exhaustion after races and the pressure to perform in the next stage. The pressure to perform in regional events after driving several hundred miles. He charters people injecting with Amphetimines in the early part and alludes to how the hormones taking comes in later on. Interesting given recent events such as THG. It is tame now Festina and other scandals has seen to that. In 1990 when everyone wanted to bury their heads in the sand and believe the legend he deserves credit for raising the lack of controls and the laissez faire attitude by the sports governing bodies. Certainly he was and even today still is a piriah for doing so. If it has resulted in improved drug testing then credit to him.
In the 2006 edition he has a small section on the 2006 tour. Unfortuantely I didn't enjoy this part as much as the original part of the book. It read too much of the ramblings of Paul Kimmage now, a bitter man. He goes on about David Millar (who admitted using EPO and received a ban), the 2006 tour and Floyd Landis, but doesn't really bother to delve into improvements in drug testing that have come in since he was a rider. Some analysis of this and how far the governing bodies have to go to completely clean up the sport would have been welcome here. Nor does he bother to cover any clean cyclists at this stage either which is dissappointing.
I suppose if you could sum this book up in one sentence I would say "it a loss of innocence story" or "it a discovery of the harsh realities of being a professional cyclist". The best example of this is near the end of his carrer when he stops dreaming of winning the tour de france. But instead now just dreams of winning a single stage. It was a good book I enjoyed it. It is a bit whiney as some people here have said already. Particularly the chapter on the 2006 tour. I'd give it 4 out of 5.
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A gritty view of the Tour De France, March 10, 2010
By TomPlum (US)
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Let's forget the doping angle for a moment.
Paul tells a lot about how the Tour de France race actually works per breakaways and reeling them in and the work of domestiques. I am being a bit generous with a 5 star rating but the inside view of the peloton is the best I've read. Too, it's good that it's not just some 190 page cycling book and believe me, not to name names but this is a downfall of a number of books out there. There was also a lot of good info on races in his native Ireland, Belgium, Holland, the Milk Tour of Britain which is one I've always liked since my friend had a white Raleigh that was a milk tour bike.
As far as doping goes, "From Lance to Landis" by Kimmage's friend David Walsh is by far the best out of a half dozen or so books out there on the subject but he does do a good job describing the UCI's position on doping and an often weak one at that. He really ends up leaving more questions open with few answers. Yes, some of the doping info is dated to his racing days and he does have a "see, I told you so" attitude. With all that said, I was under the big impression this was a doping in cycling book. The last 3rd is what really is about doping and the problem makes appearances here and there prior to that, so I don't consider this a real doping expose.
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