A Significant Other (Matt Rendell)

Matt Rendell
A Significant Other: Riding the Centenary Tour De France with Lance Armstrong

An interesting read if you like cycling. It covers the centenary tour of 2003 from the point of view of one of Lance Armstrong's team (domestiques) the Colombian Victor Hugo Pena. Chapters alternate between Rendell's very interesting explanations of bike racing strategy and techniques, and history of le Tour, and then various stages of the 2003 tour from Victor Hugo's viewpoint (I think through Rendell's interviews with him). Being a domestique is a tough job with little glory although Victor Hugo did wear the yellow jersey for a few days which, as he says, is more than many greater riders who came before him and who will come after him. Victor Hugo's viewpoint covers the pain of riding and also his personal history. It's also very interesting as written before Armstrong's accusations of serial doping and subsequently being stripped of all his Tour titles which also showed how dominant and bullying he was within his team and across the entire peloton. As I say, an interesting read given history since the book was written. 

As an aside. The 6 tours that Armstrong won (1999-2005) were stripped from him and not awarded to the 2nd placed rider (as happened in other years) as there was so much (known) doping going on. Jan Ullrich came 2nd in 4 of those but was also shown to be doping. The 2006 tour was stripped from Floyd Landis for the same reason. So whilst the original official results show no winner for 1999-2005 the official le Tour web site now has the 2nd placed shown, without mention as to why there is no 1st placed, including Ullrich. As if Armstrong and the doping at the time are airbrushed from history. Now, drug taking and chicanery have always been part of cycling and whether or not you believe it's now a "clean" sport may or may not mar your enjoyment of the spectacle. It was definitely exciting at the time and only in retrospect do you feel slightly cheated. But there are times when you think "are they really that good without drugs" such as Chris Froome's 50 mile solo mountain break in the Giro d'Italia whilst he was embroiled in his own drugs accusations. There again part of me thinks that I don't think anything less of a Nik Turner sax solo just cos I know he was probably off his head on drugs. Or am I mixing my entertainments?