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In Pursuit Of Glory (2010)

by Bradley Wiggins(Favorite Author)

3.64 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0752884034 (ISBN13: 9780752884035)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Orion

review 1: I found this book really interesting and insightful.The man doesn't have an easy ride to the top and at times has to really fight.... Once there he seems to have a habit of self detonating when things are going well. A constant battle.Sometimes the early chapters of these books are a bit of a bore, this wasn't, with talk of his early life, minus a father figure and watching Chris Boardman on the TV in the Barcelona Olympics as being the trigger that got him into cycling, I found the whole thing quite pacey and good to read. Being brought up by his Mom, much in the way Lance Armstrong was.His career takes him to the Athens Olympics where he wins Gold and meets up with his Alcoholic former Pro waster of a father. A man who never seems to be proud of him throughout the book.B... morerad went off the rails after this and at several other times in his career to date and with the guidance of Chris Boardman himself, Dave Brailsford and the various Sports Scientists and Psych's at team GB, keeping Brad in check seemed a task and a half as he regularly went AWOL.I found Brad to be a very vulnerable character and often selfish, not giving a proper turn for Mark Cavendish in the Madison final as Wiggo had already won Beijing Olympic Golds the day before jumps to mind and I've read of similar behaviour in David Millars autobiog when riding for Garmin and securing a top 4 in the Tour, Wiggo wouldn't return the favour by work the the teams sprinter on the final stage.......However, I also felt like I associated and bonded with him at various points greatly and recognised character traits as similar to my own.I enjoyed reading of the hardship of a young pro on the road, particularly the 2007 Tour De France where he was so unceremoniously dumped out of the tour amid the Cofidis doping scandal. (A team-mate was doping, Brad was an anti-doping voice and was not guilty).A well written autobiog that although not in the league of "It's not about the bike" (Armstrong) or "Racing through the dark" (Millar) it gives a very good look into the life and demons of a high profile sportsman. Recommended
review 2: This was a gift - I'm not much of a fan of bio especially vanity projects like the ghosted "autobiography" of a sports star - so I'm not the target readership.I would give it 2.5 stars if I could. He comes across as full of himself at times - but if I had the talent & the tenacity to do what he has done I would likely be pretty full of myself too. He talks about things I can't imagine wanting to share with the rest of the world which makes me feel uncomfortably voyeuristic and his tales about his drinking would worry me if he were a friend or family member - especially given his father's problems with drugs & alcohol. [I think there's enough evidence for a genetic predisposition towards addiction issues that you are a fool to ignore it or assume you're not at risk if you have those problems in your family; even if you don't grow up around an addict.] He claims to have conquered his demons and to have that under control so good luck to him.The style is clunky and uninvolving at times; it doesn't sound remotely like someone just talking to you ("I stretched my long legs out" - I don't imagine he really thinks about himself like that) but it is also too poorly written to be acceptable as a professionally written biography presented in the first person. I think the author was striving for "in his own voice" - and missing as far as I am concerned. Yet I stayed up hours past a reasonable bed-time to read it so it clearly was engaging. Or maybe I wanted to see how it ends?He mentions that he met his wife through the national cycling championships but (since he never talks about her except to present her as the love of his life and a hugely supportive partner) he never explains how or why she stopped competing - assuming she did. I don't suppose it's any of my business but I did want to know more about her story. The original was written after the 2008 Beijing Olympics and then there's some additional stuff about the next season or so included for the paperback edition. Bearing in mind what little I know of his career since then it is interesting to read his views on his chances in the Tour de France - as reported for public consumption, of course. He states categorically that he has no chance of winning it but would like to get a stage or 2 before he retires. He doesn't even seem to be much of a contender on the tour at the point the book ends. He does correctly predict that a British rider will win it fairly soon though. The book ends with him finishing 4th in the TdF & suddenly he's decided he is a serious contender to win it after all.The book is quite repetitive & poorly edited ["visa vie" indeed & lots of typos]. I am not particularly interested in cycling & don,t know much about it but it was fairly interesting overall. However, it was a real anti-climax reading it after this summer of British sporting triumph! Might be worth waiting for the next edition. less

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