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A Rough Ride: Insight into Professional Cycling
  
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A Rough Ride: Insight into Professional Cycling (Paperback)

by Paul Kimmage (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)

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Hardcover (2nd Revised edition) 12 used & new from £3.50
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Product details

  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Hutchinson; New edition edition (4 April 1991)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0091749263
  • ISBN-13: 978-0091749262
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 894,417 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

The Times

'Paul Kimmage's Rough Ride pierces the essence of the race more
than other [book]'
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.


Product Description

The personal account of what life is like in the world of professional cycling by a member of the lower echelons where the supposed glamour wears thin. Paul Kimmage tells the story of his struggles as a young Dubliner trying to make his way in the highly competitive arena of French cycling. Kimmage was accepted as a professional by the RMO team and in tracing his mixed fortunes including the big tour races and the drugs issue, he describes the life of a professional cyclist in all its detail.

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Customer Reviews

27 Reviews
5 star:
 (19)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (27 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars True account of life as a pro cyclist, 26 April 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Rough Ride (Paperback)
I think Paul Kimmage's book is outstanding. The newer edition adds details of the events following the book's first publication (about 12 years ago) into context and how it affected not only the sport of cycling but Kimmage's relationships with one-time pro colleagues (such as Stephen Roche) and the pro cycling 'brotherhood' generally. It is especially sad that the book led to him being an outcast yet in 1998 when half the peloton in the Tour de France were found to be doping, it was treated as a huge shock - yet Kimmage and others had tried before to reveal the truth. This book is a superb contrast to books by authors such as Graeme Fife, whose dewey eyed reviews of glorious champions and direct criticism of Kimmage's book are really put in their place. Read this book if you really want to find out about cycling.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding, 2 Jun 2005
This review is from: Rough Ride (Paperback)
Many sports books are written to celebrate the glory of winning and achievement. Kimmages book is different because it is an honest account of an also-ran, a dreamer, a slogger. Paul never enjoyed the trappings of success, never earned anything more than a pithy wage and experienced in rare measure the dream of winning.

Against all this, Paul is forced to deal with the ever-present tumour of doping in cycling. As he struggles to accept his physical limitations as a human cyclist, he finds himself having also to compete against the drugs that fuel those around him to success. Eventually he leaves the sport, disillusioned, bitter but with his head held high.

The honesty, frankness and innocence of the book makes it compelling stuff, and I think it should appeal to anyone, not just those interested in cycling or sport. The 1998 drugs scandal, which happened several years after this book was published, sadly verifies much of what Kimmage describes.

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping from beginning to end., 12 Aug 2006
By Mr. K. J. Keeling (Liverpool) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Rough Ride (Paperback)
Having just read Matt Rendell's Death of Marco Pantani and Willy Voet's Breaking the Chain, this is the book which puts everything into perspective.The gritty reality of the world of the domestique as portrayed through Paul's experiences offers the reader great insight into this lifestyle and is written in such a manner that you just can't put the book down.
Thoroughy recommended reading for anybody interested in cycling.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars An easy yet informative read.
Well written and easy to read and follow.

Kimmage gives an honest, but bitter insight into the world of professional road racing. Read more
Published 20 days ago by Matt the moaner

5.0 out of 5 stars No Rough Ride!
The book I purchased from Amazon entitled "Rough Ride" is excellent. The condition is as NEW and it is just what I've been looking for to give as a present to a cyclist friend... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Mrs. J. M. Bates

3.0 out of 5 stars Diary of a judas.
If a friend of mine upsets me, I might tell him, I don't go to the newspapers, or worse, condemn them for all time by writing a book. Read more
Published 8 months ago by E. Coolican

1.0 out of 5 stars Rough Read
I eventually got round to reading this on holiday - it being the last in a pile of cycling biographies I had been advised to read by a cycling journalist friend and which I had... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Coco Junior

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the best book on the topic
I know that some have complained about Kimmage's bitterness, but that's what makes this book so good - it's for real, he doesn't shy away from examining himself, his own failures... Read more
Published 11 months ago by turkle

4.0 out of 5 stars Reveals more about Kimmage than about cycling?
Plenty of other reviewers have picked up on the obvious bitterness that Kimmage displays towards his chosen sport, as well as his obvious lack of real drive to succeed... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Bezza

5.0 out of 5 stars The Date, The Day...It's All Written Down
Paul Kimmage is an award-winning sports journalist who writes for the Sunday Times newspaper in the United Kingdom. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Craobh Rua

5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal book, full of the contradictions of life on a bike.
Loved it. The latter edition has some articles and interviews which reflect on the ethics of the peloton not having changed from 89. Read more
Published 15 months ago by C. Tatnall

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting insight
I've read this book twice now.

I agree with some reviewers that there seems to be hypocrisy in Kimmage's accounts - he claims some of his friends and himself are... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mr. Terence Jones

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sad Tale that Had to Be Written
What's it like to be a wonderfully talented amateur bicycle racer who gets thrown into the meat-grinder of professional cycling? Read more
Published 21 months ago by Bill McGann

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