I preferred to be in touch with my body’s messaging, to feel where my limit was, so that I could more accurately balance on the tightrope that is the upper regions of performance. the most rational hypothesis was that there was an oily residue on the road at that point and the dampness in the air had made it slippery. On a recon ride in the Alps ahead of the Giro he explores the Sega di Ala climb and a gets a “very strong premonition”. This is a fascinating page turning account of the life of an intelligent quirky puncheur, an outsider riding for some of the less glamorous teams in the "mysterious world of cycling" and making a success of doing it his way.

Dan also discusses every aspect of the professional cyclist’s life – food, discipline, money, dreams, friendship and betrayal. Many anecdotes get a paragraph or two but could be a whole chapter although the hardback already runs to 300 pages. In a peloton which sometimes seems populated by smooth-pedalling clones, it was always pleasing to be able to pick out Dan with his distinctive, inelegant but effective style.

The book is packed with anecdotes to the point where some are almost mentioned in passing, his decision to change nationality gets less than page when it could be a bigger deal. In his free time, Dan wrote a monthly column in Europe's greatest cycling magazine, Procycling, over an unusually long period, from 2008 to 2021.

The books featured on this site are aimed primarily at readers aged 13 or above and therefore you must be 13 years or over to sign up to our newsletter. Written with his long-time friend and best-selling author Pierre Carrey, this is the story of a rider who never sought to conform to modern cycling’s norms and someone who, in many ways, embodies an age in cycling which has long since disappeared. One of the local specialities is Espelette red peppers, which are aromatic, moderately hot, sometimes with a smoky taste.His time at Quick-Step seems the best, one small anecdote goes a long way to explaining the “wolfpack” mentality: at the December training camp everyone sits down for dinner together, riders, mechanics, soigneurs all mixing. Dan is unashamed when it comes to exposing these dark feelings, his weaknesses and how he tried to deal with them, his attitude exemplifying Mark Twain’s quote: “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear”. Interesting and insightful on the interaction between personalities, strategies, and team functioning and their impact on the riders' careers. On one level, Dan Martin’s chamois memoir (chamoir) Chased by Pandas – ghosted by Carrey – is that article stretched out to book length.

Operación Puerto itself is mentioned once, in passing, Martin noting that the man whose shadow he seemed to become, Alejandro Valverde, had been “implicated in the Operation Puerto doping affair”. Now, having retired at the end of the 2021 season aged 35 and no longer bound by the constraints of the racing circuit, Dan feels the time is right to tell his story in the same forthright and honest manner that he rode his bike. Dan Martin piques your curiosity and draws you in to keep reading with a refreshing deep descriptions of being at the business end of the breakaway. There are of course more constructive ways use one’s time than to read road cyclists’ autobiographies, but I dare say – even before I’ve read the book myself – that STS would be positively surprised if he bought (or loaned) the book and wasted a couple of hours of his time by reading it!In 2013 as he took victory in Liège-Bastogne-Liège Dan Martin wasn't even aware he had been chased by someone dressed as a panda. With no disrespect to Pierre Carrey, I do wonder if Martin’s literary agent, David Luxton (Brendan Gallagher’s Corsa Rosa, Peter Cossins’ Climbers, Geraint Thomas’ According to G franchise), may have missed a trick and should have brought Hannah Grant in as Martin’s ghost. Dan Martin said no to British Cycling and even changed nationality to forge his own path, reinventing himself several times along the way to win two monuments and stages in all three grand tours. I think it’s fair to describe Dan as more of a classics rider, his favourite race being Liege-Bastogne-Liege (La Doyenne), notably fifth in 2012, winning the race in 2013 and second in 2017. The good vibes he sent through the peloton were rewarded by a Most Aggressive Rider prize at the 2018 Tour de France, where he took his trophy on the final podium on the Champs-Elysees.