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

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You see pictures of me when I was a first-year pro in 2008, 22 years old and looking like I’m 15. In modern cycling I might never have made it to where I did – because I wouldn’t have been allowed the time to develop. How many talented riders are we going to lose now?” Martin, as just about everyone knows at this stage, has cycling in his blood. His father, Neil Martin, made it as far as ACBB, cycling’s Sorbonne for the men of the Foreign Legion in the 1970s and 1980s, before returning to the UK where he made a name for himself on the domestic circuit. His mother, Maria Roche, is the sister of Stephen Roche. According to Jonathan Vaughters, Martin’s mother’s genes are the more important, because of something to do with midichlorians and the Force. Or is it mitochondria and genetics? It could be either, when Vaughters is involved. Whichever it is, the grá for the sport, the love and the passion, that came from his father. Tour de France, 2019: Dan Martin climbs the Tourmalet. Tim de Waele / Getty From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada: Known, thanks to his racing style and attitude, for being one of road cycling's last romantics, Dan has always shied away from revealing too much about himself and his story. 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.

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

That business about foregoing painkillers, is that really true? Interviewed by Paul Kimmage in 2017, Martin was asked about Tramadol: The opening chapter is about the fear of crashing and reprises Martin’s wipe-out on the final bend of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, he’d given his rivals the slip and was just about to overhaul Giampaulo Caruso only to slide out in sight of the finish line. Here Martin reveals a mystical side: According to Chased by Pandas, Martin never saw doping, he was never offered drugs. He was even reluctant to take medicines for his allergies – which used to ruin his form in Spring – for fear of the side effects. As for dealing with pain, “I would take a paracetamol to help mask the fatigue and dull ache that three weeks of brutal racing inflicts on your body, but I then found out it was more of a placebo. 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.” 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. The fallout from that incident would cast a long shadow over the early years of Martin’s career, the VC la Pomme days and the early days of Garmin. But it doesn’t cast a shadow over Chased by Pandas. The “sulphurous Tours de France (1999-2005)” and the “EPO decade” are more a small stain on the carpet than excrement smeared on the walls of the sport. 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”. Many riders have their superstitions, such as putting their right shoe on first and so on. Martin seems to be on a higher level, there are later examples of him having premonitions of victory, sending messages to his family to say “I’m going to win today”. 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”. Sure enough Martin won.Dan Martin: ‘I retired still loving riding my bike, and loving racing, and that was a very fortunate position.’ Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian Martin’s favourite current cyclist is Tadej Pogacar – whom he calls “a miraculous rider”. They first rode together in January 2018, when the Slovenian was 19, and since then Pogacar has won the Tour de France twice, in his first two attempts at the race. Known, thanks to his racing style and attitude, for being one of road cycling’s last romantics, Dan has always shied away from revealing too much about himself and his story. 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. 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.

Chased by Pandas by Dan Martin | Waterstones Chased by Pandas by Dan Martin | Waterstones

In his Libé article, Carrey reminded Martin of those days at VC la Pomme, “a factory of champions [...], broken little guys who sacrificed their youth”. Martin was broken, physically and mentally, but came through it with his self-belief, his confidence, and his morals intact. Carrey called Martin a hero, but one who refused the title, preferred to hug the walls of the world. He saw Martin as having been part of a group of riders who opened a doorway for a better form of cycling, he saw Martin as having helped inspire other riders, including Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet.Look at Tom Dumoulin. He continued racing the last two years, but he wasn’t the same. He essentially retired two years ago at the age of 29. Fabio Aru, an incredible talent, also retired at 30. These guys made this huge commitment and sacrifice, and were phenomenal young riders, but it was unsustainable. Guys like me had a sustainable way of racing that meant you could stay competitive for a long time. Those days are over. If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find Us Chased by Pandas] is not a conventional study of wins, losses and conquering mountains but overcoming the mental challenges of a sport into which he was seemingly born’ – The Times What’s in a title? “My Way” wouldn’t be original but it could be deserved. 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. He’s had an interesting column over the years with Pro Cycling magazine and recent media appearances, like The Cycling Podcast, are always worth listening. So a whole book is promising…

Chased By Pandas by Dan Martin – Signed Edition - Coles Books

Away from such murky terrain, Martin sounds blissfully happy with his family in Andorra where he is working in a new investment business and about to publish his first book. I’m currently on chapter three (I’ve also started Gone Girl and my brain seemingly cannot comprehend following over two books at the same time), and my verdict so far is that it’s refreshingly candid and personal. PK: Another area of abuse is anti-depressants, tranquilisers and painkillers - Tramadol. So again, what is clean?It sounds like he has sympathy for young cyclists today. “My sympathy lies with the guys who have to make more sacrifices than I ever did just to be in the peloton. Just to be on the start line in the Tour you have to do altitude training camps, honed nutrition, you need to be super, super, skinny. You have to be doing what Team Sky did. But I got top 10 in the Tour de France, training out of my front door every day. Today that’s not possible. That was 2003 (if you’re one of those people who forever bangs on and on and on about 1989 – the year, not the Taylor Swift album – I’ll bet that makes you feel really old) and Martin was still British, not yet Irish (the following year, 2004, he came the British U18 national road race champion). 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. We cover all these subjects – including Martin’s concern for young riders today – but first he reflects on an initially “devastating” moment. When he was 18 and one of the leading young cyclists in Britain, Martin was told that Brailsford had “nothing” to offer him. “It set me a challenge to prove him wrong and make it anyway,” he says. With its descriptions of the profound boredom that oozed from Monaco, or the Tourmalet’s telluric faults and anarchic curves (“like a piece of spaghetti through pesto”), Chased by Pandas is definitely one of the better written chamois memoirs – even if it is another of those chamoirs where the subject’s voice is often lost behind that of the ghost – but at heart it is as light and as trivial as most of the others. Given that both Martin and Carrey have strayed further into the sport’s dark places in interviews and articles, it seems even lighter still. The modern chamois memoir, though, is more an exercise in PR and image management than it is an exploration of a sport forever telling us to ignore what goes on in the shadows and just enjoy the spectacle. An enjoyable read from an idiosyncratic rider who did things his way. As an autobiography this saunters through Martin’s career and given plenty happened there’s a lot to cover. 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.