The Descent - Softcover

Dekker, Thomas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1785036580 ISBN 13: 9781785036583

Publisher: Ebury Press, 2017

Synopsis

'I have success, money, women. I've been lionised by the public and the media. The world is at my feet. I've spread my wings and here I am, soaring above everything and everyone. But in reality, the descent has already begun.'

Thomas Dekker was set to become one of pro cycling’s superstars. He represented the Netherlands at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and won the Tirreno–Adriatico in 2006, followed by the Tour de Romandie in 2007. But before long, he found himself buckling under the pressure to perform and sucked in by the lure of hedonistic highs. Now, after years of leading a double life, Dekker exposes the truth.

In The Descent, Dekker tells his shocking story of hotel room blood bags, shady rendezvous with dealers, partying with prostitutes at the Tour de France and the consequences of prolific EPO use. This is Dekker’s journey from youthful idealism to a sordid path of excess and doping that lays bare pro-cycling’s darkest secrets like never before. It is the story from a man who has nothing left to lose.

About this title

Book Description

In his tell-all book DESCENT: My Epic Fall from Cycling Superstardom to Doping Dead End, elite professional cyclist Thomas Dekker reveals a sordid way of life full of blood bags, drugs, prostitutes, and money.

From the Back Cover

A BRUTAL PORTRAIT OF LIFE AT THE TOP

At age 20, Thomas Dekker was earning $150,000 a year―as an amateur bike racer. The next year, he turned pro and was soon swimming in more than $1 million as he established his place on one of Europe’s wealthiest superteams.

As quickly as he rose, though, Dekker found himself drowning in a corrupting shower of blood bags, drugs, prostitutes, and money, and cracking under the pressure to perform at a superhuman level.

In this fast-paced, tell-all memoir, Dekker delivers a page-turning tear through one man’s rise, fall, and redemption during cycling’s EPO-fueled boom years. And Dekker is not alone: He names those who fell with him and those who aided his downfall. Yet he blames no one but himself.

You won’t be able to turn away from this unflinching look at the sordid truth about the European peloton and what it reveals about professional sports.

“The most shocking doping memoir professional cycling has produced.” ―Daniel Friebe, author of Eddy Merckx: The Cannibal

“Each chapter is a conscious move toward self-destruction, and when the end arrives, the reader, too, feels ruined.” ―Erik Raschke, CyclingTips

Edition details

• Publisher: Ebury Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1785036580
• ISBN 13: 9781785036583
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224