All I would say is that having read his book, you wouldn’t get that impression at all – quite the reverse, he writes with great fondness of cycling in Colombia and of his respect for the Colombian cyclists. Which I guess you can read as either that he was just trying to psyche out the new guys in the 80s, or more likely that he now regrets what he said. It’s a very good read in any case.

Jimenez remembered that Laurent Fignon was hard to deal with, and openly disliked the Colombian team:

“He was extremely unpleasant to us. I remember a journalist asking him what he thought of us (Colombians) and he said we were from an inferior race. I remember him purposefully throwing elbows in the peloton, and speaking badly of us during stages. It was for that reason that we kept attacking him in the mountains. Even still, the fucker won the tour that year.”

shame laurant. shame.

I’ll be on the lookout for the book.

when lemond won by 8 in ’89 i was stoked, not because fignon had lost, but because the open, candid aero-bike riding greg had won. lemond really was a gutsy rider.

however, looking back with what i know now, my feelings for fignon have soured. through reading the excellent cyclinginquisition blog, i now know that he was a bully and a racist, constantly telling the columbian riders they had no place in the pro peleton and making derogitory comments about their dark skin.

such a shame to discover a cycling great was a bigot.

“Ma course en enfer” (My race through hell) by Fouad Chouki, a 1500m runner who came fourth in the 2003 World Championships before being disqualified for EPO doping. A really fascinating insight into the motivations and pressures of top-level athletics and the pervasiveness of doping, which, if Chouki is to be believed, seems at least as prevelant as in cycling (but rather less publicised…)

I’d say it’s the best book I’ve read on the subject (and I’ve read most of them – Massacre à la chaine, Rough Ride, LA Confidential etc.) and a good book in its own right. Chouki comes across as a decent guy who found himself in a situation basically outside his control.

Highly recommended, and certainly deserves to be translated into English.