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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Cycling, skateboarding, rollerblading > Cycling
AUTHOR OF INTERSTATE, STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016
"Julian's tales of weaving through the streets of London on two
wheels bring to life the gig economy, showing how things have
changed in the modern workforce but have also stayed the same.
Messengers gives the reader insights on what goes on behind the
grand lobbies of the UK's banks and large companies, to see the
people who really make business work" Financial Times Messengers
sees Julian Sayarer return to work as a London bicycle courier,
after six months cycling around the world. From saddle and
kerbside, his stories of delivering flowers to politicians, and
administration notices to banks toppled by the financial crisis,
make for a social history of a less seen city, written from the
perspective of someone stuck in one of London's most insecure and
poorly paid jobs. Underneath the deliveries, we meet London's
bicycle messengers, a family drawn from jaded graduates, jailbirds
and recovering drug addicts. The riders all share their brushes
with the law, struggles on the breadline and compete together in
alleycat races, forming an unlikely but tender community upon the
streets. With a bicycle the one constant that seems to make sense
of everything else, Messengers is a two-wheeled portrait of
everyday life in a modern city at the start of the twenty-first
century. "Sayarer is a precise and passionate writer . . . The vast
energy of his commitment to discover, observe and communicate makes
for engrossing, often incandescent prose. We need writers who will
go all the way for a story, and tell it with fire. Sayarer is a
marvellous example" HORATIO CLARE
**Winner - Sweetspot Cycling Book of the Year** For 11 years I was
a professional cyclist, competing in the hardest and greatest races
on Earth. I was in demand from the world's best teams, a well-paid
elite athlete. But I never won a race. I was the hired help. When
my mum dropped me off in a small French town aged 17, I was full of
determination to be a professional cyclist, but I was completely
green. I went from mowing the team manager's lawn to winning every
amateur race I entered. Then I turned pro and realised I hated the
responsibility and pressure of chasing victory. And that's when I
became a domestique. I learned to take that hurt and give it
everything I had to give, all for someone else's win. When the
order came in to ride I pushed out with the hardest rhythm I could,
dragging the group faster and faster, until my whole body screamed
with pain. There were times I rode myself to a standstill,
clutching the barrier metres from the line, as the lead group shot
past. But that's what made me a so good at my job. As my career
took off, I started looking at the fans lining the route, cheering
us like heroes. The passion for cycling oozed off them, but they
couldn't know what it was really like. They didn't see the terrible
hotels, the crazy egos or all the shit that goes with great
expectations. Well, this is how it is...
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