Clinically approved cycling books/reading?

[Tricycle Rider]

Re:

Breaking the chain was in no means as good as the original in Dutch/Flemish by the way...

I'm almost finished reading this one (the English version), it's an interesting and quite perturbing read. The translation is lamentable, however, it's either that or I just confuse easily with age.

Think I'll tackle Rough Ride next.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Re: Re:

I'm almost finished reading this one (the English version), it's an interesting and quite perturbing read. The translation is lamentable, however, it's either that or I just confuse easily with age.

Part of the problem with Fotheringham's translation is that the legal beagles chewed it to pieces, protecting the guilty who might be tempted to sue in an English court (the dead not being able to sue - or people then not realising that relatives of the dead could sue on their behalf - those deceased at the time of publication are named). So, for example, you get the story of Voet taking the urine at Paris-Tours and Kelly getting busted because the driver was on Stimul, but you don't get told it was Kelly, which is a pretty important part of the story. The names being removed make it difficult to follow some of the stories (especially with the way the removed names have been replaced).

Despite it being a bit of a crap read I still rate it as an important cycling book, explaining as it does much of the doping culture, though at times I do feel that Voet is actually quietly bragging about it all (when he should of course be in sackcloth and ashes crying out mea culpa, mea culpa).

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Re:

We might as well win - Johan Bruyneel
It's not about the Bike - Lance Armstrong
Inside Team Sky - David Walsh
Ma Verite - Richard Virenque
Positively False - Floyd Landis
Racing through the Dark - David Millar
One Way Road - Robbie McEwen

Just to get you started.

Why cant people not be serious... at least once. Posts like this make the thread worthless. I could be rather closed then...

Could have been a good thread with some content & infos.

Some opinions of which LA books that came out are a good read?
There were at least three, too bad I cant remember the titles.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Re: Re:

Why cant people not be serious... at least once. Posts like this make the thread worthless. I could be rather closed then...

Could have been a good thread with some content & infos.

+1

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Re: Re:

Why cant people not be serious... at least once. Posts like this make the thread worthless. I could be rather closed then...

Could have been a good thread with some content & infos.

+1

Thanks.

If such posts (the one I quoted) are not serious trolling, then at least spamming. This disease caught many threads...

Some opinions of which LA books that came out are a good read?
There were at least three, too bad I cant remember the titles.

 

[wendybnt]

If you don't mind doing a little sick in your mouth, then David Millar's book is a good read.

 

[ray j willings]

Chasing Lance written by Martin Duggard . Still have that one but I have read also Cycle of lies by Juliet Macur [spelling may not be right] another one is Wheelman not sure who wrote it .

I have INATB AND ESC.

 

[ray j willings]

Re:

If you don't mind doing a little sick in your mouth, then David Millar's book is a good read.

+ 1,I cannot stand him . I can't tell you how many times I whispered expletives under my breath reading it

Racing through the dark

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Re: Re:

So, for example, you get the story of Voet taking the urine at Paris-Tours and Kelly getting busted because the driver was on Stimul, but you don't get told it was Kelly, which is a pretty important part of the story. The names being removed make it difficult to follow some of the stories (especially with the way the removed names have been replaced).

This is precisely where I got lost - in one paragraph Voet talks about Virenque(for example), and in the next he talks about "the rider". I was like, is he still talking about Virenque, or did he move on to somebody else being he's talking about a completely different race now?

While not perhaps the best translation I agree this is an important book to read - Voet comes across just as arrogant and as unrepentant as any doping pro rider. The only thing he's sorry about is that he got caught.

On a side note - I ordered this used copy through Amazon U.S., it had come all the way from the UK and I didn't even have to pay extra for shipping and handling! Why all the way from the UK... don't we have an available used copy here in the US?

(Well, now we do. If you're willing to pay for the shipping I'll mail you the book for free. )

 

[fmk_RoI]

Re: Re:

Some opinions of which LA books that came out are a good read?
There were at least three, too bad I cant remember the titles.

As a good read, maybe Macur's Cycle of Lies. But really, with the exception of Emma O'Reilly's The Race to Truth I don't rate any of the post-USADA (Tyler Hamilton's The Secret Race onwards) LA books. They have little to tell you if you'd been following the news cycle and none of them had the time to step back and offer some perspective, they all - with the exception of O'Reilly - take the cheap and easy line of demonising LA, making out he is the alpha and omega of cycling's doping problems without placing him in the context of his time.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Re:

If you don't mind doing a little sick in your mouth, then David Millar's book is a good read.

The major problem I have with Millar's book is that it is self-serving bollox. Take the tax problem he had: he paints the worst possible picture there, exaggerating the amount of tax due, begging the reader for pity, blaming his accountant, blaming the tax authorities, blaming the tax system, without telling you how much money he just burned through and so didn't have available to pay his tax bill. (I know that complaining that an autobiography is self-serving is a bit like moaning about the rain being wet but...).

The othe major problem is they guy didn't realise the situation he was really in, even after it all he's looking back and laughing at what a crazy wild ride it all was. Within Cofidis, he had Moncoutié on one side of him and he had Vandenbroucke on the other. They represent what he could have been: clean, or dead. Is Millar a bigger hero than Moncoutié? Not in my book. Does he deserve more sympathy than Vandenbroucke? Not in my book.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Chasing Lance written by Martin Duggard.

That's the one where the guy's sister dies of cancer and so he goes on pilgrimage to the Tour, yes? An interesting example of the Cancer Jesus effect though I think Bill Strickland does a much better job of putting that side of the story across in Tour de Lance, which despite what you think of the writer's opinion's does have some wonderful writing within it.

 

[ray j willings]

fmk_RoI " Take the cheap and easy line of demonising LA"
I always wonder what stories we have yet to be told about other team Leaders. I bet some are far worse.
Huge ego's flying around and some great stories yet to be told.

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

We might as well win - Johan Bruyneel
It's not about the Bike - Lance Armstrong
Inside Team Sky - David Walsh
Ma Verite - Richard Virenque
Positively False - Floyd Landis
Racing through the Dark - David Millar
One Way Road - Robbie McEwen

Just to get you started.

Why cant people not be serious... at least once. Posts like this make the thread worthless. I could be rather closed then...

Could have been a good thread with some content & infos.

Some opinions of which LA books that came out are a good read?
There were at least three, too bad I cant remember the titles.

Ok, I was taking the p!ss a bit here.

Having said that, I think that books like the ones I listed are important reading in their own way. When people wonder why cynicism runs so deep in the sport and why places like the clinic exist, I recommend that people read this type of thing. This is doubly important at the moment with tripe like Project Rainbow and Inside Team Sky being released.

Follow that up with the likes of Breaking the Chain, Rough Ride, Tyler Hamilton's book and anything by Pierre Ballester and they leave a sick taste in the mouth.

 

[Tricycle Rider]

Re: Re:

Follow that up with the likes of Breaking the Chain, Rough Ride, Tyler Hamilton's book and anything by Pierre Ballester and they leave a sick taste in the mouth.

No disrespect intended, but I would actually recommend reading those books first.

It's just so you will be prepared for the kind of *** books that will come next, and the kind of money you will save yourself by not buying them.

(Seriously, can we just trade these books for free among ourselves? [Shipping not included.)

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

If you don't mind doing a little sick in your mouth, then David Millar's book is a good read.

Nah... don´t wanna feed him.

Chasing Lance written by Martin Duggard . Still have that one but I have read also Cycle of lies by Juliet Macur [spelling may not be right] another one is Wheelman not sure who wrote it .

I have INATB AND ESC.

Some opinions of which LA books that came out are a good read?
There were at least three, too bad I cant remember the titles.

As a good read, maybe Macur's Cycle of Lies. But really, with the exception of Emma O'Reilly's The Race to Truth I don't rate any of the post-USADA (Tyler Hamilton's The Secret Race onwards) LA books. They have little to tell you if you'd been following the news cycle and none of them had the time to step back and offer some perspective, they all - with the exception of O'Reilly - take the cheap and easy line of demonising LA, making out he is the alpha and omega of cycling's doping problems without placing him in the context of his time.

OK guys, thanks FYI (and 42x16ss too).

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

Follow that up with the likes of Breaking the Chain, Rough Ride, Tyler Hamilton's book and anything by Pierre Ballester and they leave a sick taste in the mouth.

No disrespect intended, but I would actually recommend reading those books first.

It's just so you will be prepared for the kind of *** books that will come next, and the kind of money you will save yourself by not buying them.

(Seriously, can we just trade these books for free among ourselves? [Shipping not included.)

I see what you mean, but even the most casual fans know about Floyd and everyone knows about Armstrong. Seeing the approach and justifications of guys like that would be good preparation for the heavy stuff.

I also recommend to new fans that they read the heavier stuff in chronological order - eg: Rough Ride - Breaking the Chain - LA Confidential - The Secret Race. Just to ease them in as to how intense the products and actions taken really are.

 

[Northern rider]

It's not a doping related book but as an account of the tour from a different perspective than the usual ghost written and glossy journo stuff, Wide Eyed and Legless by Jeff Connor is an entertaining account He was embedded in a tour team (ANC Halfords) long before the term embedded came about. Its about the 1987 tour. Well worth a read if you can find a copy.

 

[ray j willings]

I really enjoyed this ...its of its time. Very interesting and I like Fignon

 

[Northern rider]

Re:

I really enjoyed this ...its of its time. Very interesting and I like Fignon

I certainly agree, reads with a certain poignancy.

 

[Jacques (7 ch)]

Re:

If you don't mind doing a little sick in your mouth....

aka a 'vurp' ...

 

[Cake]

Do any Clinicians recommend Bassons' A Clean Break? Have just started it, having also read LA Confidentiel & enjoyed it (though I'm aware the feeling on here is that Walsh has "crossed the pavement" so to speak). Also are there any recommends for Emma O'Reilly's book: I've seen it on sale a few times but not got around to buying

 

[fmk_RoI]

Re:

Do any Clinicians recommend Bassons' A Clean Break? Have just started it, having also read LA Confidentiel & enjoyed it (though I'm aware the feeling on here is that Walsh has "crossed the pavement" so to speak). Also are there any recommends for Emma O'Reilly's book: I've seen it on sale a few times but not got around to buying

Bassons's book is a good read but it is not about LA. It is about Bassons. There are parts of it that are tedious (unless you fully buy in to his philosophy) but are worth reading regardless.

O'Reilly's - for my money - is the best of the post-USADA books (Hamilton onwards).

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Think it is only available in French Feargal?

 

[Cake]

just finished Bassons'. I did enjoy it, and he comes across as a complex character. Not a saint just cos of the stand he took, he can come across as rather sanctimonious in general. He was certainly a brave man though. His encounter with Armstrong (in 2013) is interesting. The point he makes is a valid one: though LA was clearly a bastard, so many other team leaders / stars of the 90s and 2000s were doing just the same as LA and got away with their fake tearful "onion rolls away" type apologies later at staged press conferences. They are just as bad if not worse.

Anyway, about to start on "The Secret Race" which looks like a corker