Description
In 2012, veteran cyclist Michael Barry announced his retirement from the sport after riding for several top professional teams including US Postal and Team Sky. Weeks later testified against his former team mate Lance Armstrong, as part of the USADA investigation. In a stunning piece of writing, Barry explores the dreams and passions of a young, idealistic cycling fan from Toronto, what it was like to go on to ride as a teammate alongside such giants of the sport as Lance Armstrong, Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome, and how those dreams were compromised early on in his career by a sport in crisis.
But it is also the story of his eleven years riding clean, before and after his time in the notorious US Postal Team. What was it like to head for Europe at such a young age, and what was it like to escape the environment of doping, to try to start again, all the time aware that past actions may one day catch up with him?
Offering a unique and elegiac insight into the life and mind of a professional sportsman – the pressures, sacrifices, fears, crashes, injuries and neuroses – Shadows on the Road: Life at the Heart of the Peloton, from US Postal to Team Sky is a must-read for cycling and sports fans alike.
oliver bertin –
Another excellent book from Michael Barry. It is very different from the usual run of cycling biographies because it deals with a very different subject: Lance Armstrong and drug use on the U.S. Postal team. Michael must have been under extreme pressure from his peers to take drugs, even though he knew it was wrong. You can feel the inner turmoil as he finally succumbed. It must have been a very difficult book to write. It is an important book to read.