Paul kimmage rough ride pdf

He's human. All too human. That though doesn't really explain the unceasing popularity of Rough Ride. Back before the internet enabled word of mouth to cross continents with ease, back before Kimmage became a regular voice on radio - called on to comment on the latest scandal besetting our sport - Rough Ride was a word of mouth cycling classic.

Which means there's got to be something within its pages that makes it a book people read and tell others to read. Ok, let's dismiss the last two because, although cyclists have magpie-like tendencies and love everything shiny and new, they're still too recent to be considered classics.

Breaking The Chain? There's a part of that that is almost boastful, celebrating the ingenuity of those on the other side of game. It's a bit of a guilty pleasure is Breaking The Chain.

But what of Rendell's Pantani book? Personally I think that is a better book than Rough Ride : Rendell tells a darker story that touches on some of the same themes as Kimmage but still ends leaving the reader with some hope. Not of a sport without doping, but of a way of still staying in love with a sport that lies to your face.

I guess the key difference between Rendell and Kimmage's books is passion. Rendell does a brilliant job of telling his tale somewhat dispassionately. Kimmage on the other hand is all passion, shuddering with a tempered rage at the injustice of what was allowed happen to cycling. The sincerity of Kimmage's story of lost innocence shines through that rage.

And I guess a lot us who follow this sport can relate to that lost innocence. For some it resonated with their own experiences on the bike. For others it resonated with the way they'd come to see cycling as a sport.

Remember here that it was only a year after A Rough Ride was published that the Intralipid affair rocked the Tour. Even if those journalists who told us then that that wasn't doping were right, the syringe was already casting a more visible shadow over the sport. And that shadow only darkened as the years went on. Reading Rough Ride in the darkness of those years, fans falling out of love with the sport could take some comfort from Kimmage confirming that it was the sport that was betraying their love and not the other way round.

Small comfort, but some. As well as that small comfort Rough Ride gave - and still gives - some focus for fans' anger. Kimmage didn't name and blame fellow riders or those in the teams' entourages for what had happened to cycling, what had happened to him.

Kimmage pointed the finger clearly at the UCI. Dopers have come and dopers have gone down through the years since Rough Ride was published. We've heard about rotten apples and rogue teams. But one thing has remained constant: the UCI.

In the new intro and outro added to the edition of Rough Ride Kimmage ran through the rise of Gen-EPO and the inaction that that was met with by the authorities.

He also ran through some off the fallout from the book's publication, particularly here in Ireland. And then Festina happened. Rough Ride ended that friendship. Claveyrolat eventually ended his own life. Kimmage also added something else: humour. In the years after that I think he must have moved on from hard-boiled noirs and been watching screwball comedies, maybe Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday.

Take the following scene. Kimmage has just been called into his Sunday Times editor's office:. Why not cover the race from start to finish? How many times did you ride the Tour? And he did. And he went. And he wrote. And that's how come Rough Ride now ends with the Tour as a cycling screwball black comedy. One day - soon hopefully - Rough Ride will get its third update and Kimmage will get to writing his 10, words on Lance Armstrong.

Maybe he'll go back to Chandler. There'll be smoking guns all over the place. Let's end with the original message of Rough Ride , the reason the book retains its importance two decades on. The root of the problem, in Kimmage's analysis, was the lack of doping controls. Sometimes in the mornings of split-stages on tours. Often on the last day of stage races.

But particularly at too many of the smaller races that awarded FICP points. In Ireland we loved it because every month the same name headed the list: Sean Kelly. The points system seemed like a good idea at the time, a way of putting some order on the professional cycling season and guaranteeing entry to the top races for the top teams, offering their sponsors certainty.

Riders earned points based on where they finished in designated races. Teams were rated on the basis of the points scored by their five best riders. The twenty teams with the most points got to go to the best races. Performance was rewarded. The problem was with the way the points were awarded. And while the race to the sun would have some anti-doping controls the same could not be said of those minor races. Points meant pay-cheques. No points meant no contract.

Enhanced performance was being encouraged by the UCI. That's the problem. What was the solution, what was Kimmage's call to action in Rough Ride? The governing body must be prepared to wash its dirty laundry in public if the sport is to hang on to some decency.

He details each stage of each tour. But most interesting to me was the behind the scenes look at the rather unglamorous and frankly dangerous life of a professional domestique. Racing in the rain, snow and sleet. Taking amphetamines, Irishman Paul Kimmage is not going to be winning any awards for writing any time. Taking amphetamines, not to win, but merely to keep up in crits with pre-determined outcomes. Washing their own kits. Sleeping in dives. Racing day after exhausting day. The deceit and the corruption are astonishing.

Kimmage took a lot of heat for his unabridged look into the world of cycling and breaking the code of omerta that exists in the peloton. This book ended more than a few friendships, as the author details in the preface. Perhaps that's why more retired riders haven't written about their experiences.

Kudos to Kimmage for coming clean. Oct 02, John Penn rated it it was amazing. I love this book!! Even if you dislike the prickly nature of Paul Kimmage and his abrupt style you have to appreciate the guys moral grounding. By staying true to what he believes in Paul Kimmage has alienated himself in a world he truly loves, everyone has to have massive respect for that.

As the tales of doping within the peleton are finally being admitted and the omerta is broken Kimmage can well and truly hold his head high. The book is a heart breaking tale of how a childhood dream is ruined I love this book!! The book is a heart breaking tale of how a childhood dream is ruined by the harsh realities of being part of the professional cycling world. All the hard work and hours of training to be a considered below average because you refuse to DOPE.

You really get a sense of Kimmage's pain and anguish and the mental struggle he has to keep himself on the right side of the line. After summoning the courage to speak out about what happens in the pro ranks. Kimmage then has to deal with people who were his closest friends, turning there back on him to protect their own livelihood's and the sacred Omerta that binds the peleton together.

For any cycling fan this is a must read book! For any sports fan this is a must read book! For anyone else this a must read book. I personally wanted more gory insight into the daily life of the peloton, but at the same time I realize what it took to write a book like this. More than the content itself, the courage to come forth woth this should be highly acclaimed. Feb 16, Radu rated it it was ok Shelves: abandoned. I found it rather boring, not particularly well written and could not really care for author's struggling with cycling.

After working in the cold and headwinds for a while I used the same strategy the author applied for the races in his first year as a pro, I abandoned. View 1 comment. Dec 06, Catherine Howard rated it liked it. Because he isn't as emotionally raw, it seems, about his time in pro-cycling, as Hamilton was—perhaps that's because it's much further behind him—and because the drugs problem he describes was only the prologue of what was to come, the whole thing seems to pale in comparison to Hamilton's story.

The worst things in Kimmage's era were caffeine tablets and maybe amphetamine shots; EPO was only a whisper. But by the time Hamilton arrived, EPO was the minimum requirement to compete and the top cyclists were having their own blood reloaded into their body on the eve of their races, along with other medical horrors.

Also, I really didn't feel that this book was about drugs in cycling. Kimmage made a point that he didn't want to implicate anyone, that he believes the sport is to blame and not necessarily the individual, and therefore he was less about pointing fingers and more about telling his own story and the pressures he was under to perform.

But I read this book in one sitting and I felt there was actually very little talk of drugs, especially if you exclude the epilogue. I definitely got that there was pressure, but what was missing I felt was the point that there was pressure because the playing field wasn't level. But maybe that's because Kimmage didn't want to point fingers It's a catch But this is still a good book, just a little outdated perhaps—it's shock value diminished by what has happened since. Speaking of which, I would be VERY interested to read a book by Kimmage about what has happened to him since he last updated this book, and the vindication I hope he feels now that all of pro-cycling's dirty laundry Armstrong's, in particular is out in the open.

I hope he's working on it Jun 05, Jimmy Burns rated it it was amazing. Paul was an excellent cyclist but was not world class and he followed in the wheeltracks of other Irish cyclists such as Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and Martin Early, however, any lack of ability on the bike was made up in his ability to write.

This book describes the sweat and torment that is professional cycling and Paul writes of a time when illegal doping was taken for granted by most of the peleton, the leaders doped themselves to win whilst the domestiques did so in order to survive. Paul's i Paul was an excellent cyclist but was not world class and he followed in the wheeltracks of other Irish cyclists such as Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and Martin Early, however, any lack of ability on the bike was made up in his ability to write.

Paul's insistence to race 'clean' was heroic but it made him a pariah to team mates and other cyclists who could see no wrong in cheating whilst their director sportifs and cycling lawmakers looked the other way. By making public what racing afficiados had known for years took courage, this book exposes the excesses of this beautiful sport but it is through the richness of Paul's writing that the physical and mental hurt he endured is transposed to the reader.

Thankfully, today the sport of cycling has made massive changes in it's attitude to illegal drug use and is the most tested sport seeking out any wrongdoers and the writings of Paul Kimmage have had a large impact in order to allow this change of attitude to come to the fore. Oct 04, russell barnes rated it really liked it Shelves: biog , cycling.

I don't know what it is about cycling memoirs but I find them the most fascinating of all sports books. They rarely stray into laddish bantz or larks, instead are a more cerebral proposition, mainlining stoicism, pain and fortitude. The thousands of hours hours spent in the saddle seems to predispose cyclists to thinking about the universal questions. And how many footballers say, would describe themselves as "Cartesian by nature" like Nicolas Aubier is quoted in Rough Ride?

Little nuggets like I don't know what it is about cycling memoirs but I find them the most fascinating of all sports books. Little nuggets like Aubier's quote of a quote admittedly are what makes Rough Ride such a standout cycling memoir. Unlike the giants of the road Kimmage's reminiscences are mainly about grovelling up climbs, abandoning or just about making the time limit. His crusade against doping also stands the test of time, sadly remaining relevant in as it did when he first published in The truth has come out and he's been proven right time and time again, and we should be glad his bitterness in cycling has created such a passionate book, even if it did destroy his career.

Chapeau Paul. Interesting, if rather bitter and at times, bleak portrayal of life as a domestique in the peloton of the lates. From the commotion and notoriety that surrounded this book, I was expecting a tirade against the evils of doping in sport. I guess in predating the EPO deaths and Festina affair such mild criticism was out of the ordinary, but most of this book was about the troubles of scraping a living as a professional, and certainly made a change from the books by serial winners.

I found the early bit about his childhood a bit dull I much prefer the more modern trend of jumping into the arena the subject is From the commotion and notoriety that surrounded this book, I was expecting a tirade against the evils of doping in sport.

I found the early bit about his childhood a bit dull I much prefer the more modern trend of jumping into the arena the subject is famous for but it was relevant, as Kimmage was an avid cyclist from an early age.

As he described his adult racing career the book got more interesting, and as someone who had left the peloton he was freer to go into the sometimes small-time politics of a team and be frank about those he had less respect for.

Kimmage was not too self absorbed either, well aware that team-mates had the same worries about their insecure positions. The many contrasts with more successful riders had their own intrigue as well, abandoning many single stage races without it being the end of the world, and being very pleased with a top 20 placing.

Sometimes he would list results and you would wonder how he manged to get a ride for the following season, only for Kimmage to play a good supporting role in a stage race.

He also seemed more lax in his training regime, sacking off weeks because he was down about his results, which must have had any modern coaches reading this tearing their hair out.

But at the same time there was a humanity, a genuine sense this was a job he was ok at, rather than lip service to prove he's a regular guy. Although written well, and seemingly more adoring of Roche and Kelly than his wife, this didn't quite grip me from cover to cover even if it was revealing. But it was nonetheless passionate and a good insight into the average pro cyclist's life on the continent.

Mar 15, Bryan rated it liked it. In tracing his mixed fortunes, Kimmage describes not only the grueling pressures of the sport but also the seamier side: the widespread use of drugs to enhance. A Rough Ride to Redemption. He may be little known today, but Ben Daniels was a feared gunman who typified the journeyman gunfighter every bit as much as those whose names have become legend. Yet his story has eluded researchers and yarn-spinners alike—until now.

Two prominent western historians have teamed up to tell the story.