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Rough Ride | 
| Author: Paul Kimmage
Publisher: Yellow Jersey Press
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  23 reviews
Sales Rank: 9106
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0224080172
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.62092
EAN: 9780224080170
ASIN: 0224080172
Publication Date: June 7, 2007
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| Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Simply the best book on the topic December 9, 2008
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 and his own role in what went on.
That he felt wretched being a part of the politics and cheating is part and parcel of an aspect of cycling that few people knew about until recently. Kimmage's high-profile spat with Stephen Roche was a precursor to Greg LeMond v Armstrong - for similar reasons.
This book was a genuine ground-breaker - Kimmage really put his neck on the line and had to face the predictable fallout for what he wrote. A far cry from the disingenuous "apologies" and press conference conversions we've seen from the likes of Bjarne Riis.
The original and still the best. Unfortunately, it's still all-too relevant.
 Reveals more about Kimmage than about cycling? November 19, 2008
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 meaningfully in it; so I'm not going to dwell on that. The anecdote about Sean Kelly and the sauna is sufficient: I won't ruin it for you here. Unlike Kimmage, Kelly was notorious for his brutal training regime. In his own words, from the mid-1980s, Kelly said that if he expected to be able to race for seven hours, then his training 'spins' had to last for eight hours or more. On the evidence he presents in this book, it's hard to imagine Kimmage spending eight hours training on his bike in a week, making it easier to understand why he was only ever an also-ran at best.
What the book does remind one of is how ghastly and brutal a sport professional cycling is; and this is written as one who has raced and has followed the sport enthusiastically for over two decades. No other mainstream sport comes close to the relentless physical exertion, pain and injuries that are a guaranteed by-product of competing on the bike. Even the most casual student of the sport will be familiar with the endless list of doping offenders, virtually from the sport's inception, and including many of the greatest champions, from Coppi to Hinault and onwards. And all those top riders who loathed cycling - Lucien van Impe possibly the most famous. Son of a Belgian miner, it was the bike or the pits. He hated both, but at least the bike meant being in the open air.
Apart from the winning and the money, does anyone enjoy the actual act of competitive cycling itself, aside from the dubious and fleeting pleasure of inflicting pain on your opponents when it's going well? It's a sport dominated by the sons of working people, for whom pain and a grim working environment appear a necessary and accepted part of life. They are tough, brutal people, marked out by extreme tenacity and utter physical ruthlessness. And if everyone else is doping, why not join them? Who gives a stuff, in the end? Especially if you know the chances of getting caught are tiny, even today. Just look at the recent Olympics and the endless string of new world records, with sprinters cruising in at sub-9.8 times. Dope anyone?
Kimmage was an idealist in a world of realpolitik. Naive and, you get the impression, hiding his lack of real appetite for his sport behind his principles. And, in the end, he just wasn't tough enough. He didn't want it enough to play in the big time. But at least he did find out what he is good at. The writing is great and it's a compelling, very enjoyable read, take from it what you will. To anyone who knows the sport at all, learning that so many riders dope is not exactly up there with Saul on the road to Damascus. But there's a lot of good stuff in here and some great anecdotes. Well worth a read.
The Date, The Day...It's All Written Down September 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Paul Kimmage is an award-winning sports journalist who writes for the Sunday Times newspaper in the United Kingdom. Born in Dublin, he is a former professional cyclist who competed in the 1980s - alongside compatriots Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and Martin Earley. In "Rough Ride", Kimmage looks back on his life on the bike - he touches on his amateur years, though he focuses more on his time as a professional. While the move into professional cycling was a dream come true for Kimmage, the reality of professional cycling wasn't quite the dream he had hoped for : never mind the physical and psychological difficulties associated with the sport, cycling had a widespread drugs problem.
The 1980s were great times for Irish cycling - Sean Kelly was successful from one end of the decade to the other, while Stephen Roche won the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the World Championships in 1987. Kimmage, however, was a domestique and never won a race. He entered the professional ranks with RMO in 1986, before moving to Fagor-MBK in 1989 - where he rode alongside Stephen Roche until the Tour de France. He abandoned that race and - despite having intended to quit at the end of that season - he never rode professionally again.
Kimmage was one of four new pros taken on by RMO in 1986 - however, as one of the few non-French riders, it was initially difficult for him to integrate into the team. Nevertheless, Andre 'Dede' Chappuis quickly became a friend - as, in time, did Jean Claude Colotti and Thierry Claveyrolat. As an amateur, Kimmage had heard rumours about the drug-taking in the professional ranks. However, he was determined to stay clean - even, initially, refusing to take the vitamin shots. (The shots were injected and, in Kimmage's mind, syringes meant doping. Nine stages of the 1986 Tour de France changed his mind : he wouldn't have been capable of starting stage 10 without a shot of Vitamin B12). So far as I know, vitamin shots don't count as doping - I may be wrong - but they certainly would certainly appear innocent enough to the man in the street. Similarly, caffeine tablets also sound reasonably innocent - however, they would return a positive test. Nevertheless, they were quite commonly used - taken early enough in the stage, the caffeine would've been out of the system by the time the cyclist reached doping control.
However, things in cycling went far beyond vitamins and caffeine tablets. Kimmage remembers arriving at a race in his early days carrying a briefcase, something that caused a bit of a slagging from the other riders. It was only later that he discovered many other cyclists carried pills and syringes in theirs - while Kimmage himself was only carrying his passport and a few letters. Since not every race tested for drugs, cyclists knew which races they could 'charge up' for safely. While it was never openly encouraged by the management, they were occasionally reminded of their duty as professionals - especially when there were world ranking points at stake. It wasn't uncommon for syringes full of amphetamines to be used, not only in these races but also in Criteriums. EPO, of course, only arrived in the 1990s - but Kimmage also touches on it in the second edition.
"Rough Ride" was first published in 1990 and, while he wasn't expecting it to be universally welcomed, he wasn't expecting the reception the book received. His friendships with Sean Kelly and Martin Earley survived - both are thanked for their support following the book's first publishing - though Thierry Claveyrolat and Jean-Claude Colotti weren't quite so understanding. Worse, things worked out terribly with Stephen Roche. It's clear from reading the book that Kimmage idolised Roche and that riding alongside him at Fagor was a dream come true. Roche, however, seemed to view the book as a personal attack, and was very quick to talk about the possibility of legal action. I'm not sure if the court case ever arrived...the cleanup cycling certainly hasn't. A sad book, but a very highly recommended one.
Phenomenal book, full of the contradictions of life on a bike. August 3, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Loved it. The latter edition has some articles and interviews which reflect on the ethics of the peloton not having changed from 89. Many people complain about Kimmage's partisan ire and lack of impartiality, but in the initial book it is nothing of the sort. The book is essentially a diary of his personal sporting troubles, and the acceptance that the organisations of cycling force nearly all young riders to reflect that to compete for any length of time doping is a necessity. He talks about his teammates drug use, but in the main it is a general look at the pressures and reality of doping during the tour/season.
It's full of contradictions that nearly all of us have apart from the Merx's, Hinault's and Armstrong's. Kimmage doesn't avoid the accounts of multiple failures and retirements from races. It's clear that he doesn't have the single-mindedness mentality and dedication for winning but also that he had the talent to compete in stages. Without performance enhancers he would never compete on his favoured routes.
The bitterness froths on the subsequent cycling & media aggression towards him. Was he right? Yes. He wasn't attacking his fellow cyclists, bombastic idiots like McQuaid saw fit to undermine him at every turn. It's a shame that McQuaid didn't put some effort into preventing the systemic drug abuse, that led to so many lives being destroyed by EPO in the 90's.
To all the people criticising Kimmage for his lack of proffessionalism, take a moment to think if you ever could get anywhere near finishing the tour. Then think if your true love of cycling would sustain through having to waste yourself for the team, whilst knowing you were racing
against doped up rivals. Yes he becomes very bitter, mainly after the abuse he receives from the cycling administration that should be ensuring a clean peloton.
Interesting insight July 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 victims of the pressure to dope just to survive however put Landis and Rasmussen up there in the same situation and they are villans.
However what must be remembered is that the villification of Landis et all by Kimmage happened a full 14 years AFTER the first part of the book.
By this time Kimmage has seen countless sabre rattling false dawns of "we'll clean this up" and each time it comes to nothing.
It needs to be remembered that Kimmage's peers that doped in the 80's are running the sport now.
I've read some of his comments in his newspaper articles and it seems has been left betrayed that the sport he loved could harbour so many
years of cheats. Even the great Jacques Anquetil said "Do you think we did all that with just water in our bottles?"
Even the new holier than thou brigade (David Millar) don't come out of this clean on his return to the Peleton he takes advise from the very doctor who 2 of his clients have been implicated in the Peurto scandal. So you can understand Kimmage's "will they ever learn" attitude.
Ironic as i write this that Spain have just won Euro 2008 and yet in the Puerto scandal of 100+ samples seized 24 are alledged to come from La Liga footballers.... Football has no EPO or blood doping controls just amphetamines and class A drugs......
A good enthralling read.
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