brommers
Years beyond my wisdom
- Location
- Clacton-on-Sea
Great. Thanks Steve
Cycling books: recommendation and avoid - Racing only
- Thread starter Noodley
- Start date
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SWSteve
Guru
- Location
- Bristol...ish
That's alright, also check out INRNG.com as it's probably the best site purely about racing.
Hont
Guru
- Location
- Bromsgrove
Well I read "The Racer" by David Millar and I'm not quite sure why everyone else hated it. As an inside account of the last season of a pro bike racer it meets the brief just fine. It's not as good as "Racing Through the Dark", but it's a smaller canvas and, if it is a bit self-serving in places, it won't be the last autobiography to do that.
Maybe my expectations were lowered by the comments on here but I genuinely enjoyed reading it.
Maybe my expectations were lowered by the comments on here but I genuinely enjoyed reading it.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
I don't know if this has been mentioned but on my hols I borrowed and read a copy of Faster: The Obsession, Science and Luck Behind the World's Fastest Cyclists by Michael Hutchinson. I really enjoyed it. It seems a bit of an arcane subject - talking about metabolism, muscle fibre, training methods and so forth. But he makes the subject very interesting, and it's genuinely funny at times. More sporty types might find the information in it useful too.
I might even buy my own copy.
I might even buy my own copy.
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Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
You've stopped metabolising too?
Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
you wot? not sure I ever did that.
Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
Just in case anyone was daft enough to be thinking of getting the Trott/Kenny book
http://www.podiumcafe.com/2016/12/17/13994226/the-inside-track-by-laura-trott-and-jason-kenny
http://www.podiumcafe.com/2016/12/17/13994226/the-inside-track-by-laura-trott-and-jason-kenny
smutchin
Cat 6 Racer
- Location
- The Red Enclave
I don't much like sporting autobiographies at the best of times but that sounds truly nauseating.
Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
I am just about running out of new cycling books, I am almost finished a biography about Bahmontes (not that great) and have a biography about Lapize (entitled "Lapize: now there was an Ace" which I think is a great title) sitting to be read. And then that's me out of new cycling books, and I can't think of any old books to hand that I want to re-read. But it's present time of year, so I hope that at least one book finds its way to my house. Trott/Kenny is not on my list.
HF2300
Insanity Prawn Boy
That's the distinction between a real (auto)biography and a piece of ghostwritten puff churned out for the Christmas market. I instinctively mistrust any factual book, and particularly anything vaguely biographical, released in November or December.
threebikesmcginty
Corn Fed Hick...
- Location
- ...on the slake
Ancient now but I picked up a copy of This Island Race, Rouleur's Year for £6 in that horrible The Works shop yesterday.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Islan...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=949F7EPFC90EFFH6Q9A7
https://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Islan...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=949F7EPFC90EFFH6Q9A7
Nicole Cooke's The Breakaway and Boardmans's autobiography, neither were ghost written.
Cooke's book is excellent and if you want an insight into women's racing compared to men's, it's essential and compulsive reading. If I had a criticism it's its absoluteness. Cooke leaves no room for other views and whilst I'm sure that she's not lying or exaggerating, I was left feeling I'd like to read another account of the same events from a different perspective. There's also some hypocrisy in her intimation of other riders by association with only a vague acknowledgement that the same could be said of her. Nevertheless, highly recommended, especially in light of the recent Sutton and BC inquiries.
Boardman,s book was excellent, funny and insightful, especially about BC. If you want an entirely different summation of what BC have achieved than Cooke's, read it. Striking is the comparison of wages when Boardman turned professional in 92/93 with GAN, earning 90k plus bonuses. A decade later, Cooke turned professional, earning 8K and then after a successful year 20k and she had to go to court to get paid her salary.
Boardman's tales include describing getting home after the 92 Olympic win and going to the chippy, the Dolphin, were they gave him his chips free. Only the once mind, he says. High standards in the Dolphin, one Gold medal, one portion of free chips.
Particularly enlightening was the formation of the Secret Squirrel club and what they did. Not everything is sweetness and light though. There are some heavier sides to Boardman's character, the kind that are common amongst the highly driven, people who can achieve what he has done. The latter part of the book deals with his move to commentating and the beginning of his cycle advocacy and again, it's a fascinating read. Highly recommended.
Now I just have to get through the Joey Barton biography I bought for 99p on Kindle. It started well but it's now leaving me with the impression that Barton is still a thug but a thug with affectations. Even a ghost writer can't smooth that out.
Cooke's book is excellent and if you want an insight into women's racing compared to men's, it's essential and compulsive reading. If I had a criticism it's its absoluteness. Cooke leaves no room for other views and whilst I'm sure that she's not lying or exaggerating, I was left feeling I'd like to read another account of the same events from a different perspective. There's also some hypocrisy in her intimation of other riders by association with only a vague acknowledgement that the same could be said of her. Nevertheless, highly recommended, especially in light of the recent Sutton and BC inquiries.
Boardman,s book was excellent, funny and insightful, especially about BC. If you want an entirely different summation of what BC have achieved than Cooke's, read it. Striking is the comparison of wages when Boardman turned professional in 92/93 with GAN, earning 90k plus bonuses. A decade later, Cooke turned professional, earning 8K and then after a successful year 20k and she had to go to court to get paid her salary.
Boardman's tales include describing getting home after the 92 Olympic win and going to the chippy, the Dolphin, were they gave him his chips free. Only the once mind, he says. High standards in the Dolphin, one Gold medal, one portion of free chips.
Particularly enlightening was the formation of the Secret Squirrel club and what they did. Not everything is sweetness and light though. There are some heavier sides to Boardman's character, the kind that are common amongst the highly driven, people who can achieve what he has done. The latter part of the book deals with his move to commentating and the beginning of his cycle advocacy and again, it's a fascinating read. Highly recommended.
Now I just have to get through the Joey Barton biography I bought for 99p on Kindle. It started well but it's now leaving me with the impression that Barton is still a thug but a thug with affectations. Even a ghost writer can't smooth that out.
Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
I hope you enjoy his sentence on his time at Rangers. "Turned up, f*cked up, took the money, lost it all on betting, f*cked off again"
I'm finding it a hard read. I'm struggling with his eulogising about the estate he lived on, which I lived next to for a bit. Anything that was stolen was in that estate being fenced in the pub down the road. There's a feint waft of bullshit to some of it too.
