The second is that Kimmage is utterly frank about doping in cycling and the extent to which it was both accepted as part of the sport and covered up by everyone involved in. Family life is hard to sustain and there is the constant worry about contract renewal at the end of each season. There are rare highs punctuated with plenty of lows. Make no mistake, if you are not team leader then much of one's life is drudgery and misery. First it tells us just how tough and unrewarding life as a pro cyclist can be. The frankness of the book can be seen in two distinct parts. It is unusually frank for a cycling book and is also unusual in that Kimmage – who is now a successful journalist – wrote it himself while most pro cyclist's autobiographies are ghost written. He rode first for RMO and then Fagor, never with outstanding personal success but often as the man who set up victories for his team-mates. It tells of Kimmage's youth as an amateur in Ireland before turning pro after finishing sixth in the World Championship. Rough Ride is the tale of Paul Kimmage's career in the pro peloton and his life as a domestique in both the Tour de France and the Giro, the Classics as well as numerous less glamorous races across Europe. It seems a bit strange to be reviewing a book first published nearly 25 years ago but Rough Ride definitely deserves a wider audience and it particularly relevant given the debate about doping in pro cycling today.
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