Chased by Pandas: My life in the mysterious world of cycling

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The panda was to become a talisman for him though he never discovered who the person was inside the suit. The book is packed with anecdotes to the point where some are almost mentioned in passing, his decision to change nationality gets less than page when it could be a bigger deal. Weaknesses: At times the book comes close to dealing with darker aspects of professional cycling but backs off in favour of a warm and uplifting view of the sport He won Liège, he won Lombardia, he won stages in all three Grand Tours.

Things go from bad to worse, while outwardly their bid to make him a GC contender didn’t work, Martin reveals he was close to breaking his contract and ending his career. In the 2014 edition of the race approaching the finish with the possibility of a second victory but no panda chasing him fate intervened and he inexplicably crashed in the final sweeping bend of the race. The locals hang them to dry and on the outsides of their houses in the town of Espelette, which they’re named for and where the time trial was due to finish.But others in the peloton also saw great significance, young riders like Romain Bardet thought if he could win then maybe they could as well. The most interesting aspect is Martin and his approach the sport and there are often moments in the book where you wish for more, as if you could pause the autobiography and ask for more opinion but hopefully there’s a second career ahead for this. He covers this crash on the Mont du Chat in some detail, his thinking of why Porte was a good wheel for the descent, how he had an unwritten pact with Porte for the Tour that year and more. Given that both Martin and Carrey have strayed further into the sport’s dark places in interviews and articles, it seems even lighter still. You look at Martin, though, and there’s no hint he’s a gourmand, there’s no hint he’s ever eaten a square meal in his whole life.

He also won stages in each of the three major tours as well as another of the big one day classics, the Giro di Lombardia. That Tour of 2003, it’s one of the swipe-left Tours, won by Lance Armstrong and best remembered today for Jésus Manzano leaving it in an ambulance, electrodes attached to his chest. Yes, Dan has a place for such things, but he balances it with a healthy dose of common sense along with doing things his own way.

It covered 78 kilometres and included two Pyrenean passes, and then the same route in the opposite direction. Dan is unashamed when it comes to exposing these dark feelings, his weaknesses and how he tried to deal with them, his attitude exemplifying Mark Twain’s quote: “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear”. In his Libé article, Carrey reminded Martin of those days at VC la Pomme, “a factory of champions [. Along the way there are oddities, Martin’s been one of a handful to reject traditional post-race massages – they are a ritual, can be relaxing but there’s little evidence to suggest performance gains.

Dan Martin piques your curiosity and draws you in to keep reading with a refreshing deep descriptions of being at the business end of the breakaway. This is a fascinating page turning account of the life of an intelligent quirky puncheur, an outsider riding for some of the less glamorous teams in the "mysterious world of cycling" and making a success of doing it his way.Operación Puerto itself is mentioned once, in passing, Martin noting that the man whose shadow he seemed to become, Alejandro Valverde, had been “implicated in the Operation Puerto doping affair”. Martin may well be a 60-something kilo whippet, but he loves his food, and he loves talking about food. On one level, Dan Martin’s chamois memoir (chamoir) Chased by Pandas – ghosted by Carrey – is that article stretched out to book length. The books featured on this site are aimed primarily at readers aged 13 or above and therefore you must be 13 years or over to sign up to our newsletter. Each chapter’s title has a sub-title based on a typical cyclist’s fear: the fear of losing a race, the fear of retiring from the sport, the fear of mountains or downhills, the fear of doping and, ultimately, the fear of death.