Rough Ride: Behind the Wheel With a Pro Cyclist (Yellow Jersey Cycling Classics)

As a kid, Paul Kimmage dreamed of cycling glory — yellow jerseys, roaring crowds, the Tour de France. And he didn’t just dream it; he chased it hard. Through his teens he was riding 400 miles a week, earning a place on the national team and finishing sixth at the World Championships. By 1986 he’d turned pro, ready to take on the world.

Then reality hit.

What Kimmage found inside the peloton wasn’t the heroic world he’d imagined. It was brutal, exhausting and fuelled by a culture of silence — and drugs. Not the kind that made you win, but the kind that simply kept you upright long enough to finish. The cost was physical, emotional and moral.

So he walked away and wrote the book that blew the lid off cycling’s darkest secrets. Rough Ride is raw, honest and still one of the most important accounts ever written about life inside professional sport. It’s part exposé, part personal reckoning, and completely unforgettable.

This updated edition includes Kimmage’s return to the Tour in 2006 and a moving tribute to a former teammate — adding even more depth to a story that already hits hard.

If you care about cycling, sport or the human cost of chasing a dream, this is essential reading.