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'Allan Peiper was always a little bit different - an excellent rider who could sometimes pull off a remarkable win and an awesome competitor to have riding against you. However Allan's life was a lot more complicated than it seemed. His difficult childhood, his struggles when he came to Europe and the traumas he went though after he retired are brought to life in this remarkable biography.' Phil Liggett, Cycling broadcaster ITV; 'You won't read a more revealing, heart searching and poignant book about a professional cyclist than this one.' Luke Evans, Cycle Sport; 'They were called the "Foreign Legion" - that advance party of English-speaking riders in the early 1980s taking on the Continentals at their own game. It needed dedication and humour to survive, and Allan has both. This book will amuse you, but also provide a unique insight into the life of a pro bike rider.' David Duffield, British Eurosport
Product Description
As a child growing up in Australia, Allan Peiper never knew where home was. The son of an alcoholic and abusive father, and a mother who chose him rather than her son, Peiper found that the only thing that didn't let him down was his bike. Eventually cycling became his escape when, as a 16 year old, he took the extraordinary step of leaving his shattered family and moving by himself to Belgium with the idea of becoming a professional cyclist. In this book he tells of the new world and culture he discovered, as he fought prejudice and deceit, made friends and won races on the way to riding the Tour de France and becoming one of the most respected professional riders of the 1980s. Cycling became Peiper's new family, and each chapter revolves around one of the many, varied and colourful characters he met, raced with, and sometimes had to fight against - men like Jan 'the papers' who gave him his first accommodation in a run-down Ghent boarding house; Peter Post who ruled the Panasonic team with a rod of iron; Eddy Planckaert, the youngest of the Flandrian cycling dynasty; Robert Millar, Britain's most successful ever stage racer; and the legendary fellow-Aussie, Phil Anderson, and many others. Eventually, he had done that all he could do in the sport, and then, as Peiper says: 'The rooster came home.' Life as a professional cyclist is hard, but for many, life afterwards is even harder, and it is something very rarely talked about. Typically, though, Peiper relates this part of life as freely and lucidly as he does the drama of racing. He had bad times and good and, in common with many ex-professional sportsmen, it has taken years to readjust. Now he is back in the sport as a director of one of cycling's biggest teams, and bringing his own brand of humour and humanity to the job. It's all in this book - cycling from the saddle and from the team car, and all the trials and tribulations in between. Peiper talks freely about every aspect of his life, and every aspect of professional cycling, a sport whose ethics do not always fit in with the Corinthian ideas of how the game should be played.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An unusual sporting biography. To me, the book read on two levels. Firstly the cycling aspect, the description of the travels through the ranks of cycling in Belgium and further abroad. Secondly there is a sub-text of an ongoing search for some kind of spiritual answer in life. You can open the book at any page at random and you would read barely two or three pages before Allan's search to make sense of his life surfaces. A kind of philosophical biography as much as a book about bike riders I suppose. One moment you'll be reading about track riding then "synchronicity" appears in the story. The thread of this search weaves itself in and out of the story. I was left wondering what he might have achieved in cycling had he had found what he was looking for in his personal life. You have to admire his candour in describing his emotions at various points in his life. However, the thing that comes across in the book, is the fact that Pro cyclists exist in a bubble and leaving that environment can bring the whole house of cards crashing down. Allan's description of that period in his life is again refreshingly candid and I respect the fact that he doesn't try to gloss over his emotions at the time. So, light hearted tales from the peleton? Definitely not. A very personal story of one man's journey through life? Yes, definitely. A good read? Not bad, I liked it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Well worth the read. The story of a man who just happens to be a pro cyclist trying to make sense of his life. Not feeling though he really belongs anywhere he is looking for himself. Really this is not as heavy as it sounds.Son of an alcoholic father he left Australia at 17 to go to Belgium to try and make it as a pro cyclist.
Short snappy chapters make the book easy to read and a compelling story make it difficult to put down worth reading even if you are not a cycling fan a truely fascinating man........
Short snappy chapters make the book easy to read and a compelling story make it difficult to put down worth reading even if you are not a cycling fan a truely fascinating man........
Format:Paperback
This autobiography is 185 pages of reality. I read half of it immediately after opening it. It held my attention. Alan tells it like it was: his tough upbringing; breaking into professional cycling in Belgium, his time in the peleton, and then cycling management. This is a quality read, much like "A Rough Ride" or "Wide-Eyed And Legless", about cycling in the peleton where money is scarce, rivalries are fierce, and bonds are strong. This is a third reprint, and it is reprinted because it sells. it is a good read.
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