|
A Dog in a Hat: An American Bike Racer's Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium | 
 enlarge | Author: Joe Parkin
Publisher: VeloPress
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $13.59
You Save: $8.36 (38%)
New (16) Used (5) from $13.59
Avg. Customer Rating:  67 reviews
Sales Rank: 6741
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 1934030260
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.6
EAN: 9781934030264
Publication Date: September 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In this brutally frank book, Joe Parkin puts readers in the whirlwind of the extreme world of professional bicycling, starting with his first visit to his team doctor, where, strapped to a metal table and monitored by humming electrodes, his future as a professional racer is coldly determined. Parkin pulls no punches, celebrating the glory of bike racing at its best, but also exploring the harsh reality of the life behind it. The author covers it all from an insider's perspective: the drugs, the payoffs, the races bought and paid for, the misery of training, the physical agony of racing, the battles with team owners for contracts and money, the endless promises, and the betrayals by enemies, teammates, and friends. Set in Belgium, the epicenter of all that's daunting and dazzling about the sport,A Dog in a Hat is one American's story of his love affair with professional cycling.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 62 more reviews...
 What Makes Pro Cyclists Tick? August 7, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I knew absolutely nothing about cycling until I got interested in the TV coverage of the Tour de France several years ago. My nephew had raced a little (before breaking collar bones several times in accidents), and he explained me most of the general strategy and most interestingly how the peleton can catch guys that are 15-20 minutes ahead.
A Dog in a Hat completed my education by describing the life of an average cyclist not pre-destined to ever wear a yellow jersey or get a stage win. I would always marvel at these guys ability to race day after day up and down steep mountains. Joe Parkin tells it all based on his pre-Lance Armstrong life in Belgium as a minor professional bike racer. He lays out the pressures to use pharmaceutical products to get every last ounce of energy from the cyclist's body. He reveals the "negotiations" at the head of the pack as cyclist's attempt to bribe for a win. Truly amazing stories all.
His story telling ability reminds me of Bob Roll in the VS coverage of the Tour de France. One gets the feeling of unvarnished truth being rolled out before you without regard to economic consequences late on down the road.
This is a great read. Unfortunately its pages roll by with the pace of sprinters during the last 100 yards of a time trial. It was way too short for my taste, and it leaves me hungering for more.
Fast-paced August 25, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book is a memoir of coming of age on a bicycle. At 18 years old, Parkin decided to try his luck bike racing in Europe. He already had some early racing successes to his credit. A chance conversation with racer Bob Roll sent him to Belgium in 1986. Over the next 5 years, while his compatriots plugged away at American colleges, Parkin learned the sport of professional bike racing, competing on a series of Belgian teams. In this book, Parkin describes his adventures as a professional bike racer in the late 1980s, discussing not only the personalities and techniques of his teammates, but also the drug pushing that was so common at the time.
The book is quite fast-paced, with its behind-the-scenes stories of professional racing. It provides a window into the world of team riding, and into the pressures and politics of professional sports. Amateur bicycle enthusiasts and racers alike may find much of interest in this book.
Excellent writing, interesting book September 30, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm surprised by the negative comments about how this book is written. I'm an aspirational triathlete, not especially knowledgeable about cycling & really more of a voracious reader than anything else, and I thought the quality of the writing compares with the best of what's out there in this vein. It's not, in other words, an entirely straightforward and linear non-fiction book (like Lance Armstrong's "It's Not About the Bike" or Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential," mentioned below, both of which are indeed very good books which take the goal of explaining things very thoroughly and clearly for a non-specialist audience, in Armstrong's case for inspirational purposes and in Bourdain's for the purpose of satirical expose); it's a more impressionistic & really VERY well-written account of some scenes in the life of the bike racer, and I enjoyed it very much indeed. It's worth mentioning in the same breath as Tim Krabbe's classic "The Rider," which surely was in Parkin's mind as he was writing - anyway, I highly recommend this book, especially if you're a more literary-type person as well as a cycling type!
One Wild Ride July 25, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
July 4, 1987.
For Joe Parkin, that date provided special fireworks, as he signed his first professional cycling contract after a year of showing his stuff in the European amateur ranks. It was a start of wild ride of chasing dreams as - what the Belgians call - "a dog with a hat on" (something familiar, yet decidedly out of place).
The sketches in the memoir chronicle the five years that Parkin rode in the professional peloton as one of the few Americans competing full-time in Europe. Parkin mixes the craziness of the mobile road show with the controversies and tragedies that continue to grip the sport. "The European teams of that era (in Belgium especially) didn't think highly of goody-two-shoes riders," he writes. "Like the vaunted Blue Code of Silence among police, pro bike racing definitely had the Lycra Code of Silence."
But some initial impressions cover the entire course. Parkin was not impressed with the already bitter cyclist, Paul Kimmage, which was several years before he published a controversial book - Rough Ride - that exposed the shadows within professional cycling, including the illegal drug use on teams.
Parkin says he mostly avoided the performance-enhancing drugs of the day, only once taking a mixture of pop and a chalky substance during a particularly tough spot in a semi-classic event. It was given to him by a team official when he complained of an upset stomach.
"Many of the team managers, teammates, friends, and fans I had while living in Belgium would have looked at not taking the drugs as a failure to give 100 percent to being a cyclist," Parkin writes. "A doctor once told me that a well-trained athlete can find about 85 percent of his potential, whereas a well-trained athlete on amphetamines will be able to perform at 105 percent."
But through such pressure comes some incredibly hilarious moments. At one point, Parkin found himself being deported from Belgium when it could not be officially determined what cycling entity was paying his salary and he had a number of high-speed moments in cabs and team vehicles while just trying to get to events.
A brief conversation with Greg LeMond during one major event - as the pair struggled in the back of the pack - found the legendary Tour de France champion heeding some tough advice from the journeyman. "'You'd better quit, man. I can't see that we're possibly going to be going any slower,'" Parkin said. Later, LeMond dropped out of the Tour of Ireland.
But in an era when contracts could be negotiated with handshakes, Parkin seemed to be a day late in finding one during the closing months of what became his final season as a European road racer. He eventually switched to mountain bikes and infrequently returned to Europe for competitions.
And though he may not have had the form to stand on the podium after a major event - and never competed in the Tour de France - Parkin wears a yellow jersey for sharing his recollections on this trek during a special time in American cycling: "....I smile when I tell the stories because my body has long since forgotten the pain I asked it to endure."
I actually liked it a lot September 6, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is coming from a guy who has no personal experience cycling and normally wouldn't have looked twice at the book except for the free sample aspect and I've been on a big personal story kick recently. The way this book sucks you in is by being so amazingly heartfelt and genuine amazing considering I felt that I would hate the book. The author tells you about the good times and does not (as these types of books often do) gloss over those parts that would be considered less then flattering.
Overall-Excellent book.
|
|
|
|
Powered by Search-Save.com
| |
