Today was a bit of a milestone. I read (from the first page through to the last)an entire book. It's been close to 20 years since I did that. There have been many cases of me reading the first quarter or even half of a book over the past 20 years, but I've never gone much past that point.
The book in question was Dog in a Hat, by Joe Parkin. I can't say that I really recommend it. If you're completely clueless about what bike racing is like on the inside, this book may enlighten you. What it won't do is give you any real insight into racing strategy, or even really put the sacrifice and pain that goes into being a competitive cyclist into perspective. It also doesn't provide any sort of philosophical wisdom. I don't want to slam Joe, but I would have thought that if a guy had a history that was worth a book, he'd have some sort of life lessons or wisdom he'd be able to pass on to us all. That doesn't happen in this book. Joe just basically summarizes what he did in his cycling career in Europe. If you close your eyes and imagine what an American would do racing in Europe for four years you've pretty much read the book.
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