Iron MAC: The Legend of Roughhouse Cyclist Reggie McNamara - Couverture rigide

Homan, Andrew M.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0803254806 ISBN 13 : 9780803254800

Editeur : University of Nebraska Press, 2016

Synopsis

At a time when cycling in the United States rivaled baseball as the nation's most popular professional sport, along came Reggie McNamara, a farmer's son from Australia. Within a month of his arrival in the United States in 1913, he had earned the moniker "Iron Man" for his high tolerance of pain and his remarkable ability to recover from seemingly catastrophic injury. The nickname proved justified. Not only was he tough, he was also one of the best and highest-paid athletes in the world.

During his thirty-year career, McNamara won seventeen punishing six-day races along with an inestimable number of shorter distance races, including high-profile events on three different continents, peaking in 1926-27 at the age of thirty-nine. The fans, media, and his fellow professionals all idolized him as an example of the true grit needed to succeed in this grueling and dangerous sport. Late in his career, however, hard drinking and injuries took their toll, and McNamara became estranged from his wife and children. He fought back just as he always had on the race course, conquering his addiction to alcohol and becoming one of the earliest success stories of Alcoholics Anonymous.

In this humorous and exciting biography of the original Iron Man, Andrew M. Homan pulls McNamara back into the spotlight, depicting a flawed but beloved man whose success in those unrelenting six-day races came at a price.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Andrew M. Homan is the author of Life in the Slipstream: The Legend of Bobby Walthour Sr. (Potomac Books, 2011). His writing has appeared in several cycling magazines, including Cycle Sport, Peloton, Ride Cycling Review, Road Bike Action, and VeloNews.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Nebraska Press
• Date d'édition: 2016
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0803254806
• ISBN 13: 9780803254800
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 256
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible