"The Rider"- Book Review

So I read this book recently after my mate forcibly lent it to me. The story, translated from the original Dutch text, is written from a first-person perspective and the protagonist is called Tim Krabbe, which, funnily enough, is also the name of the author. How queer.
So it is refreshingly unclear whether we are reading fiction or a real-life memoir as we sit, stand, pedal, sweat, grimace, pant, spit, blister, get chafing etc. etc. in tandam with Krabbe, soley through 137km of bicycle racing.

It was written and set in the late 70's but it is hard to remember that as, while bikes would be less shiney, socks would be pulled up and shirts would be heavier and made of old potato sacks or whatever, not too much would be different about the sitting, standing, pedaling, sweating, grimacing, panting, spitting, blistering, chafing, etc. etc.

The characters, the other racers, are well drawn and familiar enough that we can imagine racing against friends, family, bosses, shitheads we know, etc. and we realise that we are actually racing against them everyday of our lives. Well, 'realise' is a bit presumptuous but we are forced to consider that it might be the case, at least. Or perhaps not, I do not know, but it is my review so I get to write whatever the hell I bloody well want to.

Around the pages, Krabbe sprinkles anecdotes about former Pro Tour winners and valiant competitors and we oblige ourselves to sit at Wikipedia, research them and become overnight experts on them. We want to got to work and shamelessly self-indulge by telling the stories like we have always known them, to people who could not care a shit. We want to click links to information about other top cyclists that are not mentioned in the book but raced against the ones that are. We want to check out the actual course that is ridden in the book and click links to other courses and read about them as well. We want to click link after link after link on cycling. We want to start a cycling blog, write a review about the book and assume that we are the mouthpiece for how other people not knowledgable about cycling might feel if they read it too.

There are a few ways that I could end this review with so, just like a special edition DVD, I will offer an uninspiring selection of alternatives.

Ending #1: My advice- Read it now to give yourself enough time to get sufficiently excited and prepared to get into watching the Tour de France in July (I could tell you all about May's Giro d'Italia).

Ending #2: My advice- Start looking for bikes before you read it because you will not want to waste time not riding one immediately afterwards.

Ending #3: The next time you are in a sports shop after reading the book, you will be casually stroking the frames and squeezing the tyres of bikes, feeling like you have infinately more knowledge about them than before.

Ending #4: So the next time you are sitting on the throne with your piles- standing, sitting, sweating, grimacing, panting, spitting, blistering, chaffing, etc. etc. you might realise that you are just a set of pedals away from being a rider.