Nicolas Roche's book

godihatedehills

Very excited to hear about this.....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Peloton-Life-Professional-Cyclist/dp/1848271107/ref=pd_sim_b_5

His column in the indo was brilliant and it's great to hear the inside story from a current pro.

I wonder if he writes it all himself?

Chips Lovell

Deadly. Can't wait for this.

RobFowl

godihatedehills wrote: »

Very excited to hear about this.....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Peloton-Life-Professional-Cyclist/dp/1848271107/ref=pd_sim_b_5

His column in the indo was brilliant and it's great to hear the inside story from a current pro.

I wonder if he writes it all himself?

Ghost-written, as are the columns.
Fairly standard practice in the sports autobiography world..

Kav0777

godihatedehills wrote: »

I wonder if he writes it all himself?

Noooooo....not that can o' worms..... :eek:

Chips Lovell

It's probably ghost written alright, like the columns.

Lumen

...

Product description wrote:

The passionate, truthful story of life on the professional Tour by Ireland's finest cyclist and one of the rising stars of the sport

Nicolas Roche has a famous surname to all fans of cycling. The son of legendary Irish and World Champion Stephen Roche, Nicolas had to fight to make it as a professional and even harder to make his mark as his own man on this toughest of competitive sports.

His rise up the ranks has been meteoric, with top 15 finishes in both the Tour de France and the Vuelta a España in 2010, but his attitude to his chosen profession has remained undimmed. Honest, eloquent and passionate about how the cycling world should be, Nicolas has gained acclaim and a devoted fan following for his Tour diaries serialised in the Irish Independent.

Now a major contender for a podium finish in a grand tour, Nicolas is ready to expand on those diaries and to tell in full the story of life in the peloton and of the remarkable events that have brought him this far. From furious spats with teammates and exhilarating races against the world's best, this is a gripping cycling adventure and sportsman's tale.

Raam

He's well able to aim for the Tour podium. Better that than going for the win in smaller mickey mouse stage races.

kennyb3

Ah fridays thread is in

godihatedehills

RobFowl wrote: »

Ghost-written, as are the columns.
Fairly standard practice in the sports autobiography world..

Millar wrote his book.

joker77

I'm a Nico fan, and have been following his column the last couple of Tours. But I'm going to reserve judgement on the book, he's still a Pro, and I don't think it's ever really a good idea to write a book during a career.

I will be interested as to what is written about doping, very little I'd imagine. It's the huge issue of the day in cycling, and if he doesn't talk about it, he's just toeing the line and following the rule of omerta.

I'm not saying he has to talk about, just don't write a f*cking book if you're not going to.

Beasty

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

It's probably ghost written alright, like the columns.

Nooooooooooo!!!!

You've destroyed my belief

Can you please draft me a letter of complaint to send to the Books Ombudsman

jeffontour

godihatedehills wrote: »

Millar wrote his book.

Millar wrote the Roche book?

DirkVoodoo

I don't use the word hero very often...

...but Nicolas Roche is the greatest sporting hero in Irish history.

Great to see his Blackrock education is being put to good use and he is following in the literary footsteps of past alumni.

lukester

joker77 wrote: »

I'm not saying he has to talk about, just don't write a f*cking book if you're not going to.

He didn't even write the book.

That aside, I hope this raises his profile, and that we get to see his true talent soon.

I see a Tour podium in the next 3 years.

Chips Lovell

joker77 wrote: »

I'm a Nico fan, and have been following his column the last couple of Tours. But I'm going to reserve judgement on the book, he's still a Pro, and I don't think it's ever really a good idea to write a book during a career.

First edition of Sean Kelly's book (which was written by David Walsh) was very good I thought.

joker77 wrote: »

I will be interested as to what is written about doping, very little I'd imagine. It's the huge issue of the day in cycling, and if he doesn't talk about it, he's just toeing the line and following the rule of omerta.

I'm not saying he has to talk about, just don't write a f*cking book if you're not going to.

He was quite frank about it when I asked him in an interview a couple of years ago:

Roche says he is cautiously optimistic about cycling’s future, ‘‘but every time I think that, there is always a headline to contradict me’’.

In his view, doping threatens the future of many young riders. ‘‘One rider who doesn’t play by the rules can destroy an entire team if the sponsors pull out," he says. ‘‘The less teams there are, the less chance there is of someone enjoying a long career, since many professional contracts are only one or two years long - and very few riders stay with the same team."

kilns

I'll certainly be buying it, meet him at his bus after the Luz Ardiden stage this year, he had plenty of time to give, posing for photos and a chat

Lumen

Roche didn't even ride the Vuelta in 2010. It was Ger Cromwell in a Nico Roche thinsuit.

RobFowl

godihatedehills wrote: »

Millar wrote most of his book.

FYP

RobFowl

Lumen wrote: »

Roche didn't even ride the Vuelta in 2010. It was Ger Cromwell in a Nico Roche thinsuit.

Ger rode and finished the RAS, rode for a team in Brittany for a season and in his comeback a few years ago went from C to B in a weekend. Got close to an A licence then "retired" again...

Lumen

RobFowl wrote: »

Ger rode and finished the RAS, rode for a team in Brittany for a season and in his comeback a few years ago went from C to B in a weekend. Got close to an A licence then "retired" again...

He'd still need a thinsuit.

ednwireland

Lumen wrote: »

He'd still need a thinsuit.

i need a thinsuit, where does one purchase such a suit

buffalo

godihatedehills wrote: »

Millar wrote his book.

I particularly liked the realistic picture in last month's ProCycling of him sitting at his typewriter with his lycra on.

Hermy

jeffontour wrote: »

Millar wrote the Roche book?

Robert or David?

petethedrummer

Hermy wrote: »

Robert or David?

Who is David Roche?

jeffontour

petethedrummer wrote: »

Who is David Roche?

http://www.davidroche.com/

Pretty inspirational guy. Not heard much of him on a bike though.

Raam

Don't forget Robert Roche. He does cleaning.

Lumen

Raam wrote: »

Don't forget Robert Roche. He does cleaning.

I think there was someone called Stevo Roche at the TdF this year. He's a VIP taxi driver.

Hermy

Raam wrote: »

Don't forget Robert Roche. He does cleaning.

Yeah, but he doesn't ghost write books.

TinyExplosions

godihatedehills wrote: »

Millar wrote his book.

along with a bit of help from Jeremy Whittle...

elduggo

TinyExplosions wrote: »

along with a bit of help from Jeremy Whittle...

which was bizarre seeing as he gave out about Whittle in his book, which Whittle would have had to have written for him

ROK ON

Raam wrote: »

He's well able to aim for the Tour podium. Better that than going for the win in smaller mickey mouse stage races.

You mean like Phil Gilbert for example:D

Raam

ROK ON wrote: »

You mean like Phil Gilbert for example:D

Gilbert is best known for his wins in one day races and some stage wins, not over all in some 5 day GC in god knows where.

ROK ON

Raam wrote: »

Gilbert is best known for his wins in one day races and some stage wins, not over all in some 5 day GC in god knows where.

Surely now his victory at the Tour of Belgium and his recent success in the Eneco tour will be top of his Palmares?

Raam

ROK ON wrote: »

Surely now his victory at the Tour of Belgium and his recent success in the Eneco tour will be top of his Palmares?

Do you really rate them higher than LBL, Amstel, Fleche Wallone, Lombardy? Be honest.

Colonialboy

looking forward to the book, Nico is class.
I think his columns have been faantastic, and I dont expect he 'physically sits down after 6 hours in the saddle and a 2 hour transition and drafts, edits and rewrites teh whole text... I do believe he just calls it as he sees it , dictates the days proceedings and someone edits it up for print. Nothing wrong with that.
Journalist write , cyclists cycle.

Paddy1111

"Irelands finest cyclist"? I'm a big fan of Roche, helped no end by his Independent blog (not ghost written). But to say that he is Irelands finest cyclist is a bit of an assumption, Daniel Martin has had a lot more success in the past couple of years. Saying that I think it's great that Ireland has two top cyclist competing again, it will be hard to reach the heights of the Kelly-Roche era, but can only be good for the sport in Ireland.

Slideshowbob

The latest UCI rankings tell a tale:

DM 18th
NR 132nd

Also, Philip Deignan has won a stage in a grand tour. Roche ....

cipo

I like reading sports books especially cycling but not sure if I could Hadley Roche's stories!!

His columns are mildly interesting & give SOME good insight into racing at the top level

But IMO his persistence with basing his whole season around the Tour is just ridiculous!

Not sure if some of his opinions are lost in translation via his random English speaking & his ghost writer & his weird racing / form problems over the last 2 years but I'm not a believer anymore!

Really think he needs to move teams and be given a reality check!!

Reckon he ll pull out of the worlds- DNF as usual!

I'm normally never this down or negative on someone especially Irish sports stars but Roche's persistence and failure every year is just weird for a guy who obviously puts out massive numbers for his team to believe so much in him!!

Fair enough vuelta 2010 was a great result but since then...

I'm waffling now.

To finish, I'm reading the new Shay Elliott book- His palmares was unreal. The amount he won is quite incredible!!!

fat bloke

cipo wrote: »

I like reading sports books especially cycling but not sure if I could Hadley Roche's stories!!

His columns are mildly interesting & give SOME good insight into racing at the top level

But IMO his persistence with basing his whole season around the Tour is just ridiculous!

Not sure if some of his opinions are lost in translation via his random English speaking & his ghost writer & his weird racing / form problems over the last 2 years but I'm not a believer anymore!

Really think he needs to move teams and be given a reality check!!

Reckon he ll pull out of the worlds- DNF as usual!

I'm normally never this down or negative on someone especially Irish sports stars but Roche's persistence and failure every year is just weird for a guy who obviously puts out massive numbers for his team to believe so much in him!!

Fair enough vuelta 2010 was a great result but since then...

I'm waffling now.

To finish, I'm reading the new Shay Elliott book- His palmares was unreal. The amount he won is quite incredible!!!

Failure me hole. He doesn't owe you or me or us anything, he's representing himself and Ireland on the world stage and fair play to him. That's an awesome achievement for anyone.

I'd love to buy and read his book, just as much as I look forward to reading Daniel Martin's book if and when it comes out. It's a long time since we had a choice of biographies of currently internationally competitive Irish cyclists to read, and I for one am happy to celebrate that fact.

Captain Havoc

Being team leader in the TdF is a huge achievement and would limit his opportunities of a stage win.

dermur

Representing Ireland...has he not gone on record as considering himself French?

Slideshowbob

Wonder how many copies they'll have to sell to break even?

I'd say they'll be doing well to sell 10,000 in Ireland.

fat bloke

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Wonder how many copies they'll have to sell to break even?

I'd say they'll be doing well to sell 10,000 in Ireland.

10,000 copies of a book is a lot of books. It's a lot of anything. You'd have to presume that a publisher wouldn't have taken it on if they weren't confident enough with their predicted sales figures. For sure (as he'd say himself ) he's not going to retire on it but....

Is there a sad depressing irony in the suggestion that, if he'd been found lying unconscious in a pool of EPO and hookers that he could comfortably sell 100 million copies...

which could be followed up by a tell-all autobiography and self help book / dvd series /seminar a couple of years later... :rolleyes:

Slideshowbob

what's a pool of hookers?

Beasty

No pictures, thanks ....

fat bloke

Slideshowbob wrote: »

what's a pool of hookers?

It's kinda where, once you've paid your entry fee at the door, you just dive in and work away...

furiousox

Slideshowbob wrote: »

what's a pool of hookers?

Slideshowbob

Will there be a French language version of it aswell?

Beasty

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Will there be a French language version of it aswell?

Une piscine du prostituée?



... if you could please pardon my French

elduggo

fat bloke wrote: »

Failure me hole. He doesn't owe you or me or us anything, he's representing himself and Ireland on the world stage and fair play to him. That's an awesome achievement for anyone.

I really hope thats not the way he thinks or he'll never win anything.

Hes a very talented cyclist of that theres no doubt. But certainly not successful. Why is it that Ireland is the only place where its good enough just to compete? A little more ambition wouldn't go astray.

I hope he moves team too. I feel he has it too easy at Ag2R. If he goes somewhere new where he has to impress all over again, who knows what he could do.

And I'd rather he didn't ride the tour next year. Vuelta for sure and maybe the Giro, and put a lot more effort into the 1-week races. Thats where he could really do some damage.

dave2pvd

Slideshowbob wrote: »

what's a pool of hookers?

The Hef version: