A dog in a hat : an American bike racer's story of mud, drugs, blood, betrayal, and beauty in Belgium
In 1987, Joe Parkin was an amateur bike racer in California when he ran into Bob Roll, a pro on the powerhouse Team 7-Eleven. "Lobotomy Bob" told Parkin that, to become a pro, he must go to Belgium. Riding along a canal in Belgium years later, Roll encountered Parkin, who he described as "a wraith, an avenging angel of misery, a twelve-toothed assassin." Roll barely recognized him--Belgium had forged Parkin into a pro, and changed him forever. This is Joe's remarkable story. Parkin lays it all out: the drugs, the payoffs, the betrayals, the battles for contracts, the endless promises, and the glory of racing day after day--the unforgettable story of the un-ordinary education of Joe Parkin and his love affair with racing, set in the hardest place in the world to be a bike racer.--From publisher description
Print Book, English, ©2008
Velo Press ; Distributed in the United States and Canada by Publishers Group West, Boulder, Colo., [Berkeley, Calif.], ©2008