A Significant Other: Riding the Centenary Tour de France with Lance Armstrong - Softcover

Rendell, Matt

3.3

100 ratings by Goodreads

9780753818749: A Significant Other: Riding the Centenary Tour de France with Lance Armstrong

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753818744 ISBN 13: 9780753818749

Publisher: Phoenix, 2005

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New in Paper
An inside look at the 2003 Tour de France through the eyes of Lance Armstrong's right-hand rider, Victor Hugo Pe�a--who also helped Armstrong ride to his unprecedented sixth victory in 2004. Pe�a served as Armstrong's domestique, a crucial yet unsung position unique to cycling. The domestique handles a variety of tasks, but his most important is to ride ahead of the team leader, creating a wind tunnel that makes it aerodynamically easier for the "star" to continue pedaling. This is the essence of cycling, and the key to Armstrong's victories. Now, in revealing the true role of the domestique for the first time, Matt Rendell gives a more vivid and insightful portrayal of professional cycling than ever before.

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About the Author:

MATT RENDELL survived Hodgkin's Disease and lecturing at British and Latvian universities before entering TV and print journalism. He has written for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, including British coverage of the Tour de France, and he edited The Tour de France Centennial 1903-2003 (Weidenfeld and Nicolson 2003). The National Sporting Club named Matt Rendell 'Best New Sports Writer 2003'

Review:

'Half the book is made up of Pena's account, filtered through Rendell, of the key stages in Armstrong's tour victory last year. Much of the rest is devoted to Rendell's reflections on the Tour's history and culture, from the sadism of its founder Henri Desgrange to the present, with a Tour that has become less Gallic and more global.' INDEPENDENT (5.7.04) 'Rendell elegantly elucidates the tactical technicalities of cycling's unique mixture of cooperation and competition, teamwork and individualism...The beauty of Rendell's brief book is that he has secured the cooperation of a real-life domestique, the Colombian Victor Hugo Pena, who was a key member of Lance Armstrong's US Postal squad on his way to a record-equalling fifth Tour won last year.' -- Matt Seaton GUARDIAN (10.7.04) 'Rendell packs[s] in a great deal of very useful information, while that unforgettable day is recaptured vividly.' -- Geoffrey Wheatcroft DAILY MAIL (16.7.04) 'there is a scholarly quality to A SIGNIFICANT OTHER, a short but powerful book that uses the diary of a domestique in the 2003 Tour de France as the counterpoint to the author's exploration of the true nature of top-class competitive cycling...you won't find a better analysis of the extraordinary collective feat that is a team of cyclists working together at speed.' -- Simon O'Hagan INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY (18.7.04) 'Rendell's explanations of the technicalities of cycling formations combine admirably with the chapters in Pena's voice, when we see these moves put into practice. The result is a rare sports book that actually gives an idea of the experience of being a professional athlete.' -- David Horspool TLS (30.7.04)

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