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| Rough Ride | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Kimmage
Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £4.50
You Save: £4.49 (50%)
New (32) from £4.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 9129
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0224080172
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.62092
EAN: 9780224080170
ASIN: 0224080172
Publication Date: June 7, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Green Eggs and Ham December 30, 2007
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
"I do not like to cycle in the rain, I do not like to cycle by a train ..." While drugs might have been a part of why Paul Kimmage's dreams of cycling glory didn't come true, the fact that he hated cycling in the rain, in Belgium, on the flats, in the heat ... well, just about anywhere and in any condition might actually be a better indicator of why he never got anywhere and maybe why he's such a bitter man. Of course, by saying this, in Kimmage's book I am an apologist for the dopers in the peloton, because what is also apparent in this book is that anyone who disagrees with him is villified ...
AS for the doping part of the book, it is actually very enlightening on how easy it was (is?) to dope, how easily the mind can be turned to it just to be able to get on a bike every day to compete, how prevalent it is in the sport. But there are a couple things that I find strange about Kimmage's viewpoint. First of all, he basically implies throughout that anyone who has any success is almost certainly a doper because pro cycling is so gruelling. But then he is astounded and hurt that Stephen Roche - Giro, Tour and World Champion in the same year - cuts him out of his life after publication of the book (and Roche was very good to Kimmage during his career). Secondly, near the end of the first edition of the book, Kimmage says that, even though he 'charged up' three times in his career, he isn't a cheat 'I AM A VICTIM' (in all caps) but in his add-ons through the years, he doesn't afford this explanation to Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich or Floyd Landis. No, these men should be drawn and quartered and their pieces flung to all four corners of the earth.
Another reviewer mentioned this, but I think it's important to reiterate - the guy never seemed to train! He abandoned race after race (at one point, at the beginning of the season, he figured he needed to complete one race because he'd abandoned the first seven he was in and he was worried they wouldn't renew his contract...). He took time off because he couldn't face training and then wondered why his next race was such a horrific experience. I actually came away with the impression that, as much as he might say he loved cycling and it broke his heart, he actually hated cycling - doing it, watching it, talking about it. Every other page he was 'sickened' or 'disgusted' by something. It started to get to sound like a fundamentalist's diatribe after a while. So, read the book definitely because there are very good things in it, but don't expect it all to make sense.
 A Rough Read October 12, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Not sure what I made of this book. I was interested in the angle on doping, and to some degree Paul's explanation of the blood sweat and tears aspects of the sport almost supported the need for professional cyclists to use drugs to get through.
It certainly describes in almost brutal detail the harsher aspects of the top tier of the sport.
I don't think doping will ever be eradicated from cycling or for that matter any other professional athletic events; money and science will always attempt to out manouvre the testers.
I think we should accept it, declare its use and handicap the users accordingly.
All in all a good read for anyone interested in sport.
 Spoilt by bitterness September 4, 2007
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
Initially I thought this book was everything other reviews said it was - providing a 'warts and all' description of what it is like to be a lowly 'domestique' in a professional team. Unfortunately it degenerates into what sounds suspiciously like a winge from a very bitter man, especially in the sections that have been added since the initial edition was published. There is no doubt that the Tour, and professional cycling, has been seriously compromised by all the drug use. However, Kimmage's argument seems to be that a large proportion of his failure to succeed is down to his refusal to persist in using drugs. It never seems to cross his mind that hard graft, as well as doing a decent amount of training, might have given him more success rather than repeatedly abandoning races. Right throughout the book he describes how he failed to train properly, and yet never seems to reflect on this. His cheap snipes at Matt Rendell (as well as almost every other person who doesn't share his obvious hatred of the Tour, even extending to those who buy Trek bikes for goodness' sake) really lower the tone. For those that are thinking of buying it - stick to 'The Death of Marco Pantani'.
 A different take on the sport of cycling April 2, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed the Lance Armstrong autobiographies about his (well documented) story of success in the face of adversity. But if Armstrong's autobiographies are the only cycling books you have read (and for many they will be), the image you take away with you about professional cycling may be somewhat farther from the reality of the sport. Paul Kimmage in contrast had a less than glittering career and as you might expect, his take on the sport is in stark contrast to Armstrong's. Rough Ride is a revealing account of Kimmage's experience as a professional cyclist in a time when his own (modest) achievements were being eclipsed by his fellow countrymen Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche. Inevitably the matter of drug abuse comes up frequently, but despite being condemned by fellow cyclists at the time for muddying the waters of the sport, Kimmage skilfully avoids sensationalising any of his revelations. In fact you almost end up sympathising with lowly `domestique' who dopes, not for personal glory, but simply to make a living.
This book is a real eye-opener and whether you're interested in cycling as a sport or not, I recommend this superbly written, fascinating book.
Excellent book to be re-read at least once. September 4, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Probably the best sporting autobiography I have read, in my opion it beats It's not about the bike hands down. Shows how little money these guys made and how much of themselves they had to give just to remain at the periphery of professionalism in the sport. Made me wonder what happens to the others who don't end up as writrs/jourmalists.
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