Flying Scotsman : Cycling to Triumph Through My Darkest Hours by Graeme Obree
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The startlingly frank autobiography of Graeme Obree, cycling world champion and twice one-hour record holder. Written mostly while recuperating in the hospital after one of a series of nearly successful suicide attempts brougt about by ever worsening series of manic episodes, it chronicles his journey from a terribly abused childhood at the hands of classmates, to the death of his brother, to his eventual attempts on his own life all the while reaching astonishing levels of cycling greatness.
An innate gift for engineering design compelled him to create “Old Faithful” a hand-built bike upon which he broke the one-hour cycling record, widely acknowledged to be the single most difficult record in all of cycling, not once, but twice. The hand-built bike was derided by the cycling authorities (the UCI - no surprise there) who eventually outlawed most of his innovations, sometimes with “super secret” unwritten rules conjured up at the last moment, literally minutes before a race.
It’s unclear whether the book had a ghost writer, my guess is that it does not, as it’s a bit uneven, but eminently readable. There are parts I wish would have been developed more, but on the whole, it’s a fantastic book of interest to anyone who is at all interested in cycling, or anyone who has dealt with the demon of depression.
Some day I would like to shake his hand.
June 30th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
[...] Watch or read The Flying Scotsman for an example of just how petty and spiteful the UCI can be. Double that for [...]