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news
Riis-Stages-of-Light-and-Dark-by-Bjarne-Riis-May-2012New book in May: Riis - Stages of Light and Dark
Bjarne Riis, the former professional cyclist, Tour de France winner and now owner of the Saxo Bank WorldTour team is launching his autobiography in English this coming May, having already been a bestseller in his native Denmark and in Germany.
The thoughtful Danish broadsheet newspaper Politiken said about the book, "It is very rare to find such a well-told and honest biography as this one, where the main character fearlessly sacrifices himself."
According to the UK publishers, "Brutally honest and as furiously fast-paced as one of his breakaways from the peloton, Riis has a powerful insight into the life and mind of one of the sport’s key figures and the latest addition to the growing list of classic cycling books."
As well he might, speaking from the perspective of a team manager and rider who has scaled the heights of success and admitted he was one of the dopers in winning the Tour de France in 1996.
This will be a must-read whatever we think of the famously taciturn Dane, not least because of his personal insider's tales from the modern era of pro cycling: from Fignon, Hinault and LeMond to Armstrong and Ullrich and on to the Schleck brothers and Alberto Contador. For some of us that will be our whole cycling lives.
Riis - Stages of Light and Dark by Bjarne Riis
ISBN: 978-1907637-51-3
320pp in paperback with 16pp of colour pictures
Publication date: 14 May 2012
Price: £12.99
Details: visionsp.co.uk
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5 comments
Don't worry about making a cheat rich, I hear he's hired a literary agent dubbed 'Mr Sixty Percent'
Decster thats a pretty jaundiced view
agree with your point about riis, suprised you mentioned the schlecks, how rubbish would they be without peds
? and i think even the UCI agree with you on Contador...
BUT if you doubt even likes of garmin and HTC with very public anti doping systems and to my mind pretty believably middling results in grand tour GCs as a result, who've you got left clean, anyone?
There are individuals that are still in the sport from the epo era, riders, managers, and i'm sure there are still people doing things but overall the racing seems more believable again - the roulers cant climb and the climbers can't time trial anymore - i read the sport more clean than not clean, especially in the classics.
btw on topic - i'll be interested in the book.
I wonder why his 1996 title hasn't been stripped from him? Possibly because they'd have to dig deep in the rankings to find the first clean finisher I suppose.
My enduring memory of Riis was him throwing his TT bike away the following year like a petulant child.
Have not seen Riis redeem himself and he is still part of the doping omerta that thrives in pro cycling.
Schleck brothers are about as clean as open sewer and Contador no better. Riis plays the game the same as the rest of the sport has always done.
As for Garmin being clean, I still question that considering their performances against the likes of HTC (former T-mobile), BMC (former Phonak) RadioShack(Bruyneel/Ferarri) and Saxo/Riis.
As much as I love the sport I watch it with both eyes open.
Millar was ratting out Suanier Duvall and calling spades spades on that team but not calling out USPS/Discovery/Phonak etc etc.....
Slight uneasy feeling about making men who became rich by cheating, more rich.
The same has to be said of David Millar's book.
Both men have taken steps to redeem themselves and act as spurs to a clean sport. Undoubtedly this would be an interesting read.
But still the uneasy feeling persists.