Alan Peiper

I am reading the autobiography of Alan Peiper, who was always one of my favorite riders and cycling writers in the 1980s, and who had a good column in VeloNews and Winning Mag back in the late 80’s early 90s. What strikes me about the book is that almost all of his riding compatriots (mostly high level domestiques) are dead. Dead from car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, drugs, accidents, you name it. I’m afraid the cyclists from the late 70s through the 1980s were star-crossed in some ways. I don’t know if it’s all the amphetamines they did—possibly its just that professional cycling is just too hard on the body? It’s the greatest sport in the world, but there is not a small amount of tragedy lurking in the background (which makes it even greater in some ways).