Peloton Blog

The Death of Marco Pantani by Matt Rendell

This month marks the 3rd anniversary of the death of Marco Pantani. So far there have been 3 major books published in English about the troubled Italian star. The first was by John Willcockson of VeloNews that was a collection of articles written about Pantani over the years that provided some nice snapshots, but no real overview of his career or life. The next was by his manager Manuela Ronchi, but her dealings with him started after he won the Tour de France in ’98. So while both of these are good books they did not show a complete picture of Pantani.

Now we have Matt Rendall, who also wrote the really good book on Colombia cycling, has a biography of Pantani. The first half of the book is covers his life and career through the Madonna di Campiglio. It has some of the best accounts of the races that Pantani was dominating in that I have read. It is not just the Tour and Giro stage, but also includes some of the smaller moments that I remember like his attack on the Cipressa in the ’99 Milan-San Remo. It also has a very good accounting of his life before he turned pro, and a background on his family so you know where he came from.

The second half of the books is after the '99 Giro and goes into at times excruciating detail on Pantani’s downfall and refuting all the claims from the Pantani camp to explain his medical results. There is more information about EPO and what it does then is probably needed. He also quietly ties several other riders to the doctors Pantani was dealing with as well.

The end result is that the first half builds Pantani up as one of the greatest climbers and one of the greatest personalities of the sport, and then the second half tears him apart as one of the biggest and worse examples of drug use in the sport. It leaves you agreeing with both sides of Pantani.

For the Pantani fan the first half will remind you of everything great about the man, and why many of us became members of the cult of the Pantani. The second half will prove all the negative things that have come out about him after the Madonna di Campiglio and drug use in the sport.

Edited to fix a stupid (on my part) typo

Jesper Skibby book

A new cycling book is coming out this week and it is biography by former pro racer Jesper Skibby (news), and will detail his drug use. Not sure what language it will be in or when it will be available in the US. Since the publisher’s web site is in Danish I am guessing it will be in that language. It sounds like it will be more in the vein of the Rough Ride by Paul Kimamge (review) in that it will be about his experiences and not naming other riders.

This could be very interesting as Skibby’s career from ’86-2000 spanned the rise of EPO and the blood boosters from long rumored dangerous practices by individuals to more a team controlled program under the supervision of doctors. In fact TVM was also caught in the ’98 Tour along with the Festina team, and Skibby had ridden for TVM through most of the 90’s. So we will see if he confirms or denies the perception of the use of drugs from the late 80’s through the 90’s.

Edited to fix one homophone error and one factual error that I made when I typed this out in a rush that 2 people more observant then me caught.

Books about doping and cycling

Since doping has been in the news. Here is my list of relevant books on the subject in cycling. Though I would not blame you in the least if you did not want to read any more about it.

Breaking the Chain by Will Voet (review) – the first cycling tell-all book, by the person at the heart of the Festina affair of ’98. Not that well written, and lots of stories some with names and some without. If you know much about performance enhancing drugs you will be amazed at how little the guys taking them and administering them know.

Rough Ride by Paul Kimmage (review) – Kimmage was a pro racer in the ’80s, and now a newspaper writer. This is a well written book, and is not a tell-all book, but rather a story of Kimmage and his few experiences with drugs as well as his experiences at the other end of the peloton from the stars. He did do an afterwards to the book for current printings that discusses the blood doping that emerged after he stopped racing. This book might tell you the least about doping in the sport, but is very good and shows why some riders might turn to it.

Marco Pantani by John Wilcockson (review) – This is collection of articles about the career of Marco Pantani. Worth reading if you like Pantani, but not much new information.

Man on the Run by  Maunuel Ronchi - I still need to write a review. Very good book by Pantani’s manager. She became his manager after his ’98 Tour win, so is mostly about his life after the ’99 Giro where he was kicked out. It was her view of him as his life spiraled downward that cocaine was a major cause of. In this case the use of drugs in sports led to his use of dangerous recreational drugs. It also is very much about her involvement with the team and those politics.

LA Confidential - The Secrets of Lance Armstrong by David Walsh – Never read this one, and not sure if it can still be purchased. Controversial book about Lance Armstrong. Reveled that Lance had a professional relationship with Dr Ferrari, but that was hardly a secret before this book came out.

Tell a good cycling story - Get Published

I got this a few weeks ago, but it sounds like a fun opportunity for would-be writers, or just someone with a good story to tell.

In general we are seeking nonfiction stories about cycling mishaps, disasters, deaths, comical pranks, crashes, bad judgment calls, misfortune, contest meltdowns, strange injuries, loss of wit, critical conditions, bike trips gone wrong or "non-riding episodes" that surround the cycling experience and culture. We are paying 10 cents/word.

Submissions can be sent to: casagrandepress@aol.com.

The full submission details are here.
http://www.casagrandepress.com/submit.html

They have already done a surfing book so if you are interested in seeing what they are looking for check it out at link.

Up the Road: Cycling’s Modern Era from LeMond to Armstrong by Samuel Abt

Not liking how the Tour de France is going this year? Well read a book about past races then. One that came out last year was Up the Road: Cycling’s Modern Era from LeMond to Armstrong by Samuel Abt. This books is his usual collection of short articles from, as the title implies, from 1981 until 2005. While you might think with 25 year span there would be a good variety, but most of the articles focus on the Tour and half the book covers from 2000-2005. So that works to more then half the book being about Lance including his early years.

For the section on the 1990’s it is titled A Decade in Turmoil, but only a few articles show any sort of turmoil and that would be on the Festina affair, Lance getting cancer, and Pantani in ’99. While many of the articles from 2000 on deal with drug accusations. Pantani’s death, races ending,  and other turmoil.

Abt is my favorite cycling writer, and normally his books have a better flow then this one. The only time I felt like the articles showed common themes is seeing the early article about American Shelley Verses the first female soigneur for a European pro team, and then one of the last articles about Sheryl Crow. Still there are many articles about smaller things that add so much character to the sport from the Kelme team to Chris Horner in his first year in Europe in ’97 to Betsy King doing the Bordeux-Paris race in 1984. The articles themselves are so good it is easy to overlook how the book was put together. I just wishI had known before hand that the books is mostly from after 2000/

Kings of the Mountains by Matt Rendell

Part of the allure of cycling is that since it is done outdoors and not in a stadium a big part of the sport is it’s connection with the people, culture, and geography of the roads they race over. The best writers that cover the sport like Samuel Apt give as much attention to the towns and people that follow the race as to the winners of the race. One book that is more about the country then the racers is Kings of the Mountains by Matt Rendell. This great book is about Columbia and its bike racing history as well as its history in the past 60 years.

Columbia is the only third world country so far to have a impact on pro bike racing. From the 50’s bike racing has been the national sport of Columbia though in the past decade or so both soccer and Formula One racing have become as big if not bigger. This book tells the story of Columbia of the past 60 years from the political turmoil and drug trade and how it has influenced the races and racers. It mostly concentrates on the Vuelta a Columbia. From Fausto Coppi racing there to the Santiago Botero. The best part is probably the high point in Columbia racing history of the amateur team competing in the Tour de France in the mid 80s, before turning pro. When Herrara won at Alpe d’Huez in 1984 he was the first amateur to win a stage in the Tour and what a stage it was!

After finishing this you can’t help, but start to root for all the current Columbia racers from established vets Santiago Botero and Victor Huge Pena to new starts Marico Ardila and Ivan Para.

New book by Dave Shields

For those that have read The Race by Dave Shields (review) you will be happy to know that the sequel The Tour is now available from: http://www.daveshields.com/order.html

Performance Cycling by David Morris

Now that we are in a new year riders have either developed or are working on a training plan. There are many ways to help you develop a training plan; you can make it on your own based on past experience, hire a coach, or get one out of a book. Joel’s Friel excellent Cyclists Training Bible set the bar for books, and is probably still the best start for creating one. A more recent book is Performance Cycling by David Morris.

Performance Cycling is really directed for riders that have a power meter and while it tells how the programs can work just a heart rate monitor I have my doubts on how effective that would be. For those riders that have a power meter (I think if you don’t you should be making plans to get one) this book is far better then Cyclists Training Bible. This goes more into the Training Block concept of more harder and more easy days, and is easier to incorporate at different parts in the year. Following this book gives more flexibility in the plan, but you need to understand the principles behind it.

There is also the usual sections on weight training (that he is a big promoter of), nutrition, testing, and ergogenic aids. There is some good info in all of these, but nothing in depth.

Performance Cycling is a very good book for the more experienced rider, and it can easily be used for some mid-season adjustments, or to try something different without having to start from scratch.

23 Days In July by John Wilcockson

While watching this year’s Tour de France you might want to go back to the 2004 edition with the book 23 Days In July: Inside Lance Armstrong's Record-Breaking Tour De France Victory by John Wilcockson. Wilcockson, the VeloNews, editor has done a book about the Tour most every year since the 1998 Tour. This book is more about Lance in the month of July in 2004 rather then about the Tour de France.

Wilcockson choose to focus on Lance, Jan Ullrich, and Tyler Hamilton. The fact that 2 of those riders were a disappointment in the '04 Tour makes that decision a questionable one, but these 3 riders and the significant people around them are the thrust of the book. Each chapter is a day in the race and it usually is about what happened to Lance on that day, but the other riders that were significant are given the appropriate attention.

It is not all Lance though. Many of the towns that host the start or finish of the stage stories are told about the town and it's history with the Tour or cycling in general. For example for the small town of Junhac the story is told about when Charly Gaul stopped at the town well to get rehydrated in the 1959 Tour that he battled with Bahamontes. These stories are when the book really shines in combining the history of the Tour along with the current race.

The other place this book shines is making the book very readable to both the novice as well as the experienced bike fan. In the back of the book there is a FAQ and a glossary that is great for someone not familiar with the terms, and it is easy to skip for those that don't need it. Wilcockson fills in the necessary details and history so the casual fan will not get lost, but not get in the way for the serious fan who has heard all this stuff before.

Wilcockson must also be a fan of writers and journalists as there are plenty of little stories about the men who have written about the Tour. These men include the likes of Ernest Hemmingway and sports columnist Red Smith.

The new paperback edition also has a new afterward written last April and includes the news about Lance’s retirement and the saga of Tyler Hamilton.

I am not a Lance fan, and I thought the '04 Tour was perhaps the dullest in over 20 years; however this book really brings out the best of the race and shows why even a dull Tour is still a great spectacle.

Velo book

You can’t tell the players without a scorecard! And the best scorecard is the book Velo published every year in Belgium with full results from every race the previous year, and full career results from all the current pros and a lot of women racers.

For a shameless plug I have this book available for interested people. Impress your friends while watching the Tour with the knowledge that Carlos Sastre turned pro in ‘97 for the ONCE team and that Robbie McEwen won 30 races in 2002! A great gift or something to have at the ready on your bookshelf to resolve those arguments on how many stages Lance won in the Tour in 2000. Also good for prizes in bike races or club competitions so contact me about that.

For more details go to http://www.pelotonbooks.com/ if your interested feel free to email me as well tim@madden-family.com no reasonable offer turned down.