The Rider

Thanks a lot to Joe K., who first insisted that I read this book. Even though the English translation was published in 2002, I didn't learn about The Rider till now, so I thought others might not know either.

The Rider. By Tim Krabbé. Bloombsbury, 2002; 148 pages; about $6.

“Non-racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me.” Every cyclist who has raced more than handful of times must read this book. Non-cyclists, on the other hand, will not even begin to understand it.

This is the first fiction book I have ever read about bicycle racing. And I think I shall never dare reading anything else—“The Rider” has set the bar so high that I fear any other book will let me down.

Set in 1977, The Rider describes a 137km amateur race in southern France, from the point of view of one of its protagonists. The narrator is a 30-something year-old Dutchman who started racing at the ripe age of 29, rising to notable success in the amateur racing scene of Belgium/Netherlands. The novel begins and ends with the race, but it takes you through numerous detours through the narrator’s infancy, his cycling career, local racing lore, and even stories from professional racing. (No prior knowledge of cycling history is needed, but you’ll enjoy the book the most if you know who De Vlaeminck was, for example.)

The Rider fills your head with faded images of dangerous descents on rain-soaked roads, weary legs attacking a climb, toe clips, forty-three nineteen, figs and half an orange in a jersey pocket, exhausted riders sitting on a curb after the effort of their lives. This book articulates all the epic of road racing, without any of the podium glamour, team radios, or soigneurs waiting for you at the finish line.

Two ingredients make this book stand out, in my opinion. The first is Mr. Krabbé’s candidness. The protagonist of this odyssey, a modest amateur racer at best, does not hesitate to share his fantasies about riding with Merckx and Coppi, and even calls himself “a hero.” But he also lets us see his humanity, and even his mean side.

The second ingredient is passion for cycling. The opening quote in this review says it all. This is a human being who lives to race. Somebody would be tempted to say that Tim Krabbé the rider would not exist without bicycle racing. I would say that if racing didn’t exist, it would have to be invented, just because of this man.

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Other blurbs about this book:

-by Belgium Knee Warmers

-by Rapha

-others