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Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar
 
 
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Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar [Hardcover]

David Millar
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Orion; Hardback edition (16 Jun 2011)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1409114945
  • ISBN-13: 978-1409114949
  • Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 3.3 x 23.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Millar
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Product Description

Review

His tale - bizarrely - has become just about the most inspiring in all of cycling, perhaps any sport. If you want to find out how cyclists dope, it's here; if you want to discover why they do it, there has never been a more vivid account. But the defining achievement of RACING THROUGH THE DARK is that it makes you believe in cycling again. (OBSERVER )

One of the great first-person accounts of sporting experience... laceratingly honest, detailing every twist in the argument by which he convinced himself to take a step he had previously considered unthinkable... anyone seeking to understand the motivation of a drug cheat, or wondering why such a man should be allowed back into his sport will find their curiosity satisfied here. (Richard Williams GUARDIAN )

Unbeatable as a snapshot of the professional peloton, its agonies and ecstasies... Emotional yet in no way overwrought, Millar's memoirs read like a parable more than a manifesto... essential reading for all young riders as well as fans. (PRO CYCLING )

The greatest strength of this plainly but compellingly told story is that it doesn't shock. Millar is searingly honest about his own failings and neuroses but his book is intelligent, subtle, nuanced, not flowery or overly descriptive - and it is all the more powerful for it...This will go down as one of the great sporting autobiographies (SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY )

RACING THROUGH THE DARK will be a shoo-in for every award going this year with its controlled writing about the ins and outs of his descent into doping and personal crisis and his return to the world (William Fotheringham OBSERVER - Tour Diary )

A sporting masterpiece, a timeless snapshot of a sportsman plumbing the depths and miraculously bouncing back both as a rider and a man. (DAILY TELEGRAPH )

[An] excellent autobiography... well written... surely one of the sports books of the year. (METRO )

He has, as this excellent work testifies, seen it all and done it all, full throttle. This is a shocking expose of the corruption at the heart of a wonderful sport. Those who run cycling at every level would be well advised to closely study it, though history tells us they probably won't. (Conor Lally IRISH TIMES )

Britain's most intriguing cyclist... this is no ordinary memoir... this is an extremely rare first-hand account of what drugs and doping have done to the sport of cycling over the last two decades (LITERARY REVIEW )

The story of his [Millar's] fall from grace is gripping. (SPORT MAGAZINE )

An incredibly personal, moving and compelling story. (CYCLING PLUS )

Millar recounts with stark, unshirking honesty the spiralling pressure which saw him drawn into a murky world of doping (GLASGOW HERALD )

A well written, well paced and addictive (appropriate n'est pas?) book. None of its 354 pages can be considered padding and though there will probably always be murky goings on in top level cycle racing when so much is at stake, David Millar is to be comgratulated not only on 'fessing up, and recounting every last humiliation in print, but for giving us mere mortals an inkling into the machinations of the modern peloton, both good and bad. (THEWASHINGMACHINEPOST )

Outstanding... This is a stunning account, comparable to Matt Rendell's THE DEATH OF MARCO PANTANI... His [Millar's] book is already being mooted as a contender for the year's best sports book. (BIRMINGHAM POST )

Searingly honest (MAIL ON SUNDAY )

Brutal, honest, realistic - words that can be used to describe this fantastic, sweeping view of a pro cyclist... This is purely and simply sports book of the year and Milar deserves all the credit not only for turning his life around, but for writing an exceptional autobiography. (BURTON MAIL )

Well written and worth reading. (THE PRESS (YORK) )

One of the better sports books, which non-cycling enthusiasts will find easy reading and fascinating. (PLYMOUTH INDEPENDENT )

"Gripping... The subject matter for the most part might be bleak but the passion that underpins Millar's renaissance as he falls back in love with the sport for its own sake is ultimately uplifting.' (Owen Gibson OBSERVER )

"A great autobiography from the eloquent pen and mind of the Scottish pro cyclist.' (HEALTHY FOR MEN )

"A searing portrayal of the moral ambiguities of drug taking.' (Matthew Syed TIMES )

"Redemption is literally the last word in this brave book' (Alan Pattullo SCOTSMAN )

"Thought-provoking' (Claire Allfree METRO )

"A compelling read' (Christopher Maume INDEPENDENT )

"As gripping in telling Millar's personal tale as it is in detailing the dark underbelly that once threatened to envelop professional cycling.' (SPORT )

"In this vivid first person account Millar not only reveals his personal descent but the jaw-dropping scale on which doping took place.' (FINANCIAL TIMES )

A superb book....Millar's fall and rise is a modern morality tale (Jim Holden DAILY EXPRESS )

'A harrowing account of his [Millar's] fall from grace and subsequent redemption.' (Simon Redfern INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )

Book Description

Tour de France cyclist comes to terms with drug use and cleans up.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
By William
Format:Hardcover
I had this pre-ordered for nearly two years, but it has been well worth the wait. Largely self-authored, according to what I have read, this is a beautifully written account by someone who really does have a story to tell. It reveals more about the doping era in pro-cycling than any number of enquiries or investigations could ever achieve. It also puts Millar's own misdemeanour into clear perspective. One of Britain's all-time greats, deserving of the status of 'legend' when he eventually retires, Millar may, with this book, have produced the greatest legacy of his career. Anything that beats it to the 2011 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award would have to be truly exceptional.
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40 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Painfully honest 10 Jun 2011
By Big Jim TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've seen David Millar interviewed on TV many times and he comes across as a very decent, honest if slightly humourless and intense man. This has not always been the case as he states himself, being honest about previous dishonesty should have been cathartic but he may not have found writing this enthralling and important book as cathartic as it might have been but if it serves to inject (pun intended) some truth and self examination into big time pro cycling then it will have done him and the sport a huge favour. I just wonder though if he is being a bit naive or indulging in a bit of wishful thinking at least in his belief that most (surely not all) riders in the forthcoming tour de France will ride "clean". He hopes so,surely everyone with any interest in the sport hopes so, but after years of proven and suspected drug cheating there will be a cloud cast over the race that will take some shifting.

Mind you, he is not convinced that the drugs he took actually helped him, so he may be right. Mayve the drugs don't work. Despite having said above that he comes across as a bit humourless when interviewed there are numerous ironic and wittily mischevious moments recorded in this book so it is not all doom and gloom by any means.

I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in sport not just cycling, or indeed anyone interested in the human condition that drives men and woment close to and sometimes over the edge of competitiveness. I will be very surprised if this book doesn't make it onto the shortlist for the next sports or even biography book prize. It is that good.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
RESPECT 15 Nov 2011
By Bobcat
Format:Hardcover
I've always loved cycling as a recreational hobby. I've also enjoyed watching the pro racing when I can, and when it gets on TV - which is very rare in the UK - thankfully getting better now with ITV4 and Eurosport.

I am also a keen rugby afficiando, football too, in fact any sport really. I have to say this is one of the best sports autobiogs I have ever read.

It fits perfectly on 2 levels - firstly, the mind of the author. Secondly, the workings of the sport - whilst I knew that cycling was far more popular on the continent than it is in the UK, I don't think I realised just how big it is in terms of sponsorship investment, and the implied perils and pressures that go with that to get results.

And the salaries too - almost premiership football levels!!!

Hats of to David Millar. Will never be as famous as Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish etc but he is right up there with them in terms of ability and guts.

And he can't ride in the Olympics after all that?

Shame on the BOC. If ever they need a team captain / unselfish rider he is the man. He did the crime, he owned up when many others didn't, he served the time and practically went bankrupt over it too.

We've all messed up at times - that's life.

One word sums it all up,

RESPECT
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
everyone deserves a second chance
This is a really good book. a fast read and an insight to the true state of cycling in the two previous decades. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Mr. Alastair Burnett
a must for any fan of pro cycling
As most cyclists have always been aware there is a drug problem in the sport that we love, something we sometimes try to forget or excuse as just the odd individuals. Read more
Published 23 days ago by Mr. Michael Kelley
Cracking read
This book was a real cracked. It offered genuine insight without being sensationalist. Some similar books focus on the wrongs of others rather than facing up to the issues... Read more
Published 24 days ago by parge
Boyfriend loved it
Bought this for my boyfriend who's training for cycling event. He really enjoyed it. He said 'The writing might not be top quality but the story is gripping'. Worth buying.
Published 1 month ago by R Menzies
Eloquent and intelligent sportsman with something to say
We heard David Millar speak at the Hay Festival about the drug culture in professional cycling, his own descent into use of performance enhancing drugs and his subsequent... Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Hillmann
If you read one sports book this year, make it this one
I purposely waited a few months before posting this review, because once the dust settled I wanted to see if my initial impression remained the same: that this is amongst the... Read more
Published 1 month ago by J A C Corbett
It aint no sin to be glad you're alive
David Millar confronts his demons and lays them open for all to see, it would be easy to criticise and say he got what he deserved, perhaps he did, he certainly paid the price, but... Read more
Published 2 months ago by BOLTBY
Life story so far of David Millar.
Did not know what to expect from this book when I came across it. Having watched the national news and noting that David Millar was banned for taking drugs I was interested in... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Donald Young
Well written and insightful
A really well written account of Millar's rise and fall in the sport of cycling and emergence from it all as a stronger and better person. Read more
Published 2 months ago by beijingkenny
Brillaint book - real page turner
The hype about this book is all justified - a great read and as the cover says it reads like a thriller. Read more
Published 3 months ago by BigNeil
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