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The Descent By Thomas Dekker
Release date: 07th July, 2017
Publisher: Ebury Press
List Price: £9.99
Our Price: £9.09
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The Descent is a sports book with a difference. Itās not often that prior to its official launch, an author says he doesnāt care whether his book sells a single copy (his publishers may feel otherwise), but former professional cyclist Thomas Dekker clearly isnāt particularly fussed: āI just felt that I needed to write this story down,ā he told one interviewer by way of cathartic justification.
However, we should be glad that Dekker submitted his often hedonistic, occasionally sordid tale to print. Moreover, given its riotous, frequently Bacchanalian nature, thereās every chance itāll become a huge best-seller.
While his star was still in the ascendant, Thomas Dekker represented the Netherlands at the Athens Olympics and after turning professional, he won the TirrenoāAdriatico in 2006 and the Tour de Romandie the following year.
Desperate to be accepted as one of the gang, Dekker tells of his introduction to pro-cyclingās highest echelons, an episode which involves a towel, a team-mate and a porn movie; it was, ahem, unconventional, but it sets the tone for a compelling tale of excess.
You sense his descent began the day he walked in to his German hotel room and introduced himself to his Rabobank team-mate assigned to look after him, though weāre unsure whether a porn movie was part of Dekkerās induction. Sure enough, before long, Dekker is as accomplished at doping as he is adept at blood transfusions. He would serve a two-year ban for drug-taking, but this appears to have had little effect.
Refreshingly, Dekker acknowledges that he only has himself to blame for wrecking such a promising career. In an age when far too many people apportion the responsibility for their predicament on someone else, Dekker has no desire to be considered a āvictimā. In an interview prior to the bookās UK launch, Dekker maintained that The Descent is āā¦not a publicity book for myself...Itās honest [and] Iām not blaming anybody else.ā
What a relief it is to hear a former pro sportsman take responsibility for his actions. Perhaps this is what makes The Descent so different; it certainly accounts for it being unputdownable.
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