About this title: A bicycle racer named (like the author) Tim Krabbé enters a grueling race over the mountains, and while he rides he tries to figure out why on earth he is doing something so dangerous and pointless. Why, in other words, is he obsessed with it? The answer, he finds, has less to do with his love of the sport than with his hatred of something else.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9781582342900ISBN:1582342903
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Plc USA
Date Published: 2003-05-01
ISBN-13:9781582342900ISBN:1582342903
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781582342900. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780747559412ISBN:0747559414
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780747559412ISBN:0747559414
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 160 pages. (160 pages) describing a 150-kilometre race, this book features the bumbling lebusque, the aesthete barthlemy, the young turk reilhan and the mysterious 'rider from cycles goff'. (Paperback) read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9781582342900ISBN:1582342903
Description: Very Good-Used in None as Issued jacket. / 1582342903. Some marks on pages on side of book. Ships with confirming email. 100% money back guarantee. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780747559412ISBN:0747559414
Description: New. Describing a 150-kilometre race, this book features the bumbling Lebusque, the aesthete Barthlemy, the young Turk Reilhan and the mysterious 'rider from Cycles Goff'. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: BLOOMSBURY
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9781582342900ISBN:1582342903
Description: New. Originally published in Holland in 1978, "The Rider" became an instant cult classic, selling over 100, 000 copies. Brilliantly conceived, it is a loving, imaginative, and, above all, passionate tribute to the art of bicycle road racing. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780747559412ISBN:0747559414
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780747559412ISBN:0747559414
Description: Good. Good, never read-books may have a tear, creasing, or other defect. Apart from this, good condition. No.1 BESTSELLERS-great prices, friendly customer service-usually dispatched within 24 hrs. read more
"For anyone who has ever done....things...to watch the Tour (de France, you philistines) or the Giro or Vuelta, this book is absolutely gripping. And I learned a new moniker: "sweat-thief"."
"Wonderful book, and despite being a translation from Dutch, still filled with plenty of nuance. Basically a first-person account of a bicycle race, with flashbacks to training, first starting to ride a bike, plenty of personal reflections, and remembering cycling legends and lore... like Anquetil and his water bottle."
"This short, dense, gorgeously written book is the Dutch Krabbé's first-person account of a 150-kilometer bicycle race from 1977 (when it was written). The writer, who is also an accomplished chess player, started racing professionally when he turned 30. In time he became quite accomplished in many of the shorter day-races in northern Europe.
It succeeds on so many levels: the rider's accomplishment, the true descriptions of racing, this historical depth (many seamlessly-woven accounts of great moments in cycling), as a kind of autobiography, and most of all as a long translation of the racer's mind. Time stops, starts, reverses. The brain conjures impossible visions and dreams. The rider's will breaks and resuscitates itself numerous times. It's a philosophical meditation on pain: "Suffering you need. Literature is baloney."
In its density it reminds me of Peter Handke's AFTERNOON OF A WRITER. For the first time in over a year (since the last paragraph of Joshua Ferris' AND THEN WE CAME TO THE END), I had to put the book down to savor it.
And it elevates other work: it brings a new light to McCann history I just read of the tour, illuminating some of that book's factual details, and reminding me what a solid foundation McCann laid out for my cycling knowledge.
I won't tell you who wins the race. Krabbé wins the writing.
*
WHY I READ THIS BOOK: During this year's Tour de France, I got inspired to read some books on the subject, and discovered this one on Amazon (and eventually at the Seattle Public Library)."
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