Come and Gone: Blue Collar Racing
Joe Parkin’s sequel to A Dog in a Hat is out and our review copy arrived last week. Come and Gone: A True Story of Blue-Collar Bike Racing in America picks the story up when Joe returned to the US and his struggles with a new American team and mountain biking.
Reading it now.
I met Joe last month on the Bike Culture panel at the Seattle Bike Expo. Remember those scenes in American Flyer/Breaking Away when the bearded-grunting Russian and our hero are climbing or he’s chasing the Italians. Right before the Russian tries to push him off the Mountain or the Italians put a pump in his wheel, Joe would’ve buried himself to get up there and give his team mate a wheel. Then totally blown up and possibly crossed the finish line, if not picked up by the team car first.
He was that kind of cyclist and that makes for interesting stories. Because you’re hearing from a domestique, a grunt in the pack, that worked for a living.