Chased by Pandas: My life in the mysterious world of cycling

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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”. Perhaps planning accounts for plenty, after all if you find a climb that suits, if you know you’re on form and are targetting mountain stages in the third week of a grand tour then the odds begin to narrow, all the same the confidence is notable.

I’m sure I also remember, for example seeing riders with CC Giro (Dan’s club) jerseys when on Audax rides in the area! Even though I think I can safely say that I’ve got a rational mind, I ended up developing an almost mystical rapport with the bike.Many anecdotes get a paragraph or two but could be a whole chapter although the hardback already runs to 300 pages. The most interesting aspect is Martin and his approach the sport and there are often moments in the book where you wish for more, as if you could pause the autobiography and ask for more opinion but hopefully there’s a second career ahead for this. Martin’s freewheeling approach to cycling, it extended to the dinner table, where he rejected cycling’s myth of monk-like existence. 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. That Tour of 2003, it’s one of the swipe-left Tours, won by Lance Armstrong and best remembered today for Jésus Manzano leaving it in an ambulance, electrodes attached to his chest.

Yet imagine our surprise when we got back to the HQ for the results and a cuppa: the lad had ridden over to the break, then straight over them to take to win. So instead of going to Lourdes like everyone in Ireland, that Pyrenean holiday saw him and his family going to Luz-Saint-Saveur, 30 kilometres south and a shrine of a different kind, situated as it is at the base of the Tourmalet.I’ve always aspired to race like that since (rarely succeeding thanks to adhd driven impulsiveness) but it was so clinical and enjoyable to watch him constantly positioning himself in the right place the whole way through that day. Weaknesses: At times the book comes close to dealing with darker aspects of professional cycling but backs off in favour of a warm and uplifting view of the sport He won Liège, he won Lombardia, he won stages in all three Grand Tours. One thing for sure you can say about him is there’s nothing wrong with his metabolism, he’s got a fully functioning Thyroid.