A Dog in a Hat: An American Bike Racer's Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium

ISBN: 1934030260

Author: Parkin, Joe

Condition: New

In 1987, Joe Parkin was an amateur bike racer in California when he ran into Bob Roll, a pro on the powerhouse Team 7-Eleven. "Lobotomy Bob" told Parkin that, to become a pro, he must go to Belgium. Riding along a canal in Belgium years later, Roll encountered Parkin, who he described as "a wraith, an avenging angel of misery, a twelve-toothed assassin". Roll barely recognized him. Belgium had forged Parkin into a pro, and changed him forever. A Dog in a Hat is Joe's remarkable story.Parkin lays it all out: the drugs, the payoffs, the betrayals, the battles for contracts, the endless promises, and the glory of racing day after day. A Dog in a Hat is the unforgettable story of the un-ordinary education of Joe Parkin and his love affair with racing, set in the hard place in the world to be a bike racer.

• An American Bike Racer's Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium | A Dog in a Hat is the remarkable story of Joe Parkin | In 1987, Parkin left the comforts of home to become a bike racer in Belgium, the hardest place in the world to be a bike racer | As one of the first American pros in Europe, Parkin was what the Belgians call "a dog with a hat on - something familiar, yet decidedly out of place | Foreward by Bob Roll Paperback, 232 pages, 6 x 9"