Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Joe Parkin's Cycling Book Launches this Weekend!

Bike Racing and Belgian Beer: Come to Joe Parkin's Book Launch Party at One on One in Minneapolis!

Minneapolis, MN - September 2, 2008 - Local author and former pro cyclist Joe Parkin will celebrate the launch of his new book at One on One Bicycle Studio in Minneapolis on Saturday, September 6th at 7:00 p.m. This is a free event with Belgian refreshments provided.

A Dog in a Hat Book Launch Event with Joe Parkin
Saturday, September 6 at 7:00 p.m.
One on One Bicycle Studio
117 Washington Ave N. | Warehouse District
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401 | USA
Questions? Please visit oneononebike.com or call (612) 371-9565.

Parkin's new book is A Dog in a Hat: An American Bike Racer's Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium. The book is a memoir of Parkin's experience as one of the first Americans to race bikes professionally in Europe. The book is now available in bookstores, bike shops, and online. Parkin will autograph copies during the event.

In 1987, Joe Parkin was an amateur bike racer in California when he ran into Bob Roll, a pro on the powerhouse Team 7-Eleven. "Lobotomy Bob" told Parkin to go to Belgium to become a pro bike racer. Riding along a canal in Belgium years later, Roll encountered Parkin, who he describes in the book's foreword as "a wraith, an avenging angel of misery, a twelve-toothed assassin". Roll barely recognized him; Belgium had forged Parkin into a pro, and changed him forever.

A Dog in a Hat is Joe's remarkable story. In plainspoken, fast-paced prose, Parkin describes the true life of the professional bike racer, putting the reader into the whirlwind of this hardest of athletic educations. A Dog in a Hat begins with Parkin's terrifying first visit to his team doctor, where he is strapped to a table and monitored by humming electrodes as men in white lab coats coldly divine his future as a pro.

A Dog in a Hat celebrates the glory of bike racing, but Parkin tells the hard reality of the life-the drugs, the payoffs, the betrayals by teammates, the battles with team owners for contracts and pay, the endless promises that keep you going, and the sheer physical agony of racing day after day. Despite the pain, despite the suffering, A Dog in a Hat is a beautiful book. It is one American's story of his love affair with professional cycling, set in the hardest place in the world to be a bike racer. It is a story untold until now, and one that Parkin's readers will never forget.

A Dog in a Hat: An American Bike Racer's Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium
By Joe Parkin, foreword by Bob Roll
Paperback with color photosection | 6" x 9", 232 pp. | VP-DOG, $21.95 | 978-1-934030-26-4

Joe Parkin represented the United States at the World Professional Cycling Championships and the World Cyclocross Championships. Following his road racing years in Belgium, he returned to the United States and began a successful second career as a pro mountain bike racer. Parkin is a long-time resident of Minnesota.

For media review copies, author interviews and events, please contact:
Dave Trendler, Marketing and Publicity Manager, (303) 245-2138, dtrendler@competitorgroup.com

Distributors and specialty retailers please contact:
Jen Soulé, Sales Manager, (800) 811-4210 x169, wholesale@competitorgroup.com

No comments: