The Rider
The book tells the story of a rider during a cycling race. Trougth a major competition, the rider describe his feelings and compares life itself with a bike race. "Bike race is not a metaphor for life. Life is a metaphor for a bike race"
Stats for nerds
2recommend
4mentions
2people
2012–2018years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If Bannister interests you and you haven't read Once a Runner go and do it now[1]. I go back and forth on if Once a Runner or Tim Krabbe's The Rider[2] is the best fictional sports novel ever, but today I think is the day for running.
[1] http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2008/12/speed_...
- in 1853, when the story was written, the term “office”—and the sort of labor that was performed there—had nowhere near the universal significance it has now.
This is a nice piece of writing. It's a pity that it's technically wrong. While it's true "clerks" have become less significant, "office" has pretty much always been at a fairly high level of use[1]. There's a quote that seems accurate here[2].
[1] https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=clerk%2Coffice...
[2] When Geldermans told me that Anquetil always moved his water bottle to his back pocket during climbs, so his bike would be lighter, I began paying attention. I noticed that in all the old pictures of Anquetil climbing, his bidon is always in its holder. That’s straining at gnats. Geldermans’ story strikes to the soul of the rider, and is therefore true. Those pictures are inaccurate.; "The Rider" - Tim Krabbé.
- I think that's one of the anecdotes that I read regarding that strategy, but I didn't know it was from Krabbe.
I agree it probably works better in blindfold play, but it works well in normal simul too (I used it successfully once, though that wasn't against a GM, and I had fairly recently stopped playing competitive chess).
Now going way off topic, but Krabbe's cycling book "The Rider"[1] is probably the best book about cycling I've ever read. Along with "Once a Runner"[2] I think it probably the best piece of sporting fiction ever:
My whole life had only one goal: making that last wheel, here, now. I was wasted. But that elusive finish line, eight, seven, six and a half meters in front of me, kept my hope and desire awake. I coughed and slobbered. I remembered the words of advice ‘Shift, when you’re really, truly at the end of your rope, to a higher gear.’ I shifted. A few hysterical kicks on the thirteen, then clenched power of a mortal struggle. I was there. I was sitting on that last wheel. I was in the lead group.
[1] http://cyclingtips.com.au/2010/11/the-rider/
[2] http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2008/12/speed_...
- When I meet successful people in business from time to time, I more often than not find that having conquered the business world - physical challenge brings them more happiness than another business success could. Especially if it just a 5k that some average athlete shrugs off; all challenges are personal. Sometimes, if running a profitable business, building and managing people effectively is not a challenge, a 40 min 5-k can very well be.
Book recommendation, not just about cycling: The Rider, by Tim Krabbé
"The greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is nature’s payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you’. Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few friends these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms, she rewards passionately.”
http://www.belgiumkneewarmers.com/2008/01/tim-krabbes-the-ri...
