A Significant Other: Riding the Centenary Tour de France with Lance Armstrong

by Matt Rendell

Book Overview

An inside look at the 2003 Tour de France through the eyes of Lance Armstrong's right-hand rider, the Colombian Victor Hugo Pena. Pena served as Armstrong's domestique, a crucial yet unsung position... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0297847163
• ISBN13: 9780297847168
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: George Weidenfeld & Nicholson
• Length: 182 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Best Cycling Journalism I've Read

This book is on a different level, artistically and intellectually, from most cycling journalism. I've read a bevy of Tour de France books and this is the best by far. It takes a different angle on professional cycling, the perspective of the domestique, to show you things about the sport that you would never learn reading yet another book about Lance or the other stars. The story of Victor Hugo Pena (now exiled from Lance, but riding with another team, Phonak) is far more representative of life in the peloton than that of the stars, and so tells you so much more about the cruel, beautiful sport of cycling.

Well worth a read

This is a curious book, cutting between Pena'a narrative of an individual stage, which is great if you're a racing cyclist (I am) or an enthusiastic fan, and Matt Randall's history and philosophy of bike racing. Matt could be accused of overly philosophising, especially when he's trying to use professional cycling as a metaphor for the sins of globalisation, which is a bit of a stretch. I enjoyed the read, the book misses out on a top rating because of Matt's final chapter. It's a bike race, fortunatly Pena provides the narrative to carry the politics!