Inside the Postal Bus: My Ride with Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Cycling Team [Paperback]

Michael Barry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2005

During the professional cycling season, the members of the United States Postal Team live, train, and work together for weeks on end while traveling to competitions throughout Europe. With wit and singular insight, Michael Barry, a professional cyclist and member of the United States Postal Team, shares his first-hand knowledge of the sport and of his fellow cyclists, describing intricate pre-race orchestrations; the efforts of the coach, mechanics, team chef, and other staff members; the personalities and idiosyncrasies of his international teammates, including six-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong; and the thrilling races themselves.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"From winter training camp to the Tour de France, Inside the Postal Bus offers an accurate, behind-the-scenes view of our team."—Lance Armstrong

"Barry has a keen eye for the minor details of professional life. This is the main reason that the book offers a real and rare sense of what it is like to be a part of a major squad."— Cycle Sport magazine

"A great read!"—Phil Liggett

“An evocative account of life as a domestique.” — Cycle Sport magazine

"Inside the Postal Bus is so descriptive I felt I knew the riders and staff on the team before I actually met them. Chapter after chapter you really feel like you become a member of the team and get the sensation of what it is like to be on the bus with the boys."—Tom Danielson

"Michael's no jaded pro. His love of the sport is both evident and inspiring, and we are lucky indeed to be privy to his unique insights on being 'Inside The Postal Bus'."—Davis Phinney

"Written in an articulate fast flowing style Barry's gift as a writer is to lift the lid on anecdotes which range from the informative to the chilling." — Cycle Sport magazine

"Michael is so eloquent about cycling. He really told me how it felt to be a cyclist… When you look at it objectively, at the risks and rewards, nobody should be a professional biker. But speaking to Michael Barry I realized why they do it."—Daniel Coyle, author of Lance Armstrong's War

"...check out Inside the Postal Bus by Michael Barry, a Canadian teammate of Armstrong's, who didn't make the cut for the Tour but provided a highly pungent description of the intimate motor home used by the Armstrong entourage."—George Vecsey, New York Times

“Fans will regard Inside the Postal Bus as manna from Heaven in terms of finding out what goes on inside one of the most secretive teams of the peloton. The book offers a real and rare sense of what it is like to be a part of a major squad. Written in an articulate, fast-flowing style, Barry’s gift as a writer is to lift the lid on anecdotes which range from the amusing to the informative to the chilling.” — Cycle Sport magazine

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: VeloPress; Later Printing edition (April 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931382611
• ISBN-13: 978-1931382618
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #865,270 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars a flat tire., June 8, 2005

By 

Joe Coldebella (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside the Postal Bus: My Ride with Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Cycling Team (Paperback)

*Note I wish I could have given this book 2.5 stars*

I so wanted to like this book. As a cycling junkie since 1985, I have tried to get my hands on anything that involves European cycling. Especially first hand accounts of the European peloton. (peloton = main group or pack in a race)

I just finished Michael's book and to be honest, I was disappointed. It's not a bad read but the title of the book is a little misleading:

Inside the Postal Bus my ride with Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Cycling Team.

Now if George Hincapie or Floyd Landis had written this book, you might have gotten a more intimate picture of Lance Armstrong. But Michael usually rode for Postal's "B" team so I wasn't too shocked or disappointed that there wasn't too much material on Lance.

That being said, this was supposed to be a book about the Postal Bus and what goes on in it.

There were glimpses of what goes on in the bus and the team but Michael never goes very deep.

Maybe I'm too hard-core but I felt like he never really tells us anything about the races or the racers.

I wanted to read a few funny stories. Heck any stories. Stuff that the general public never gets to see. The closest he comes is when he and Dave Zabriske are in an elevator and they see a famous French cyclist and make fun of the fact that he has a mullet.

Unfortunately, the best and most revealing passage is not written by Michael but is in fact written by George Hincapie.

George tells us how he told Lance how much he respected and admired his gutsy performance after Lance had had a rough time trial during the 2003 Tour.

Lance said that he was touched by George's words. It was a great passage. And not for the fact that it involved Lance but because it showed the human side of the cyclists. If only the book was filled with stories like that. Whoa!

I wish he would have talked more about how hard it is to make the postal tour team.

And on how disappointed he was of not going and having to watch the tour on TV. (He had to have been disappointed it's every cyclist's dream to ride the tour. I know it was mine and when I raced I sucked).

Give us some emotion please. (If Michael was on a lesser team, I'm convinced he could be a tour rider - yes he's that good.) But we don't get anything.

If you want a more entertaining look at cycling in the European peloton, read Bob Roll's first book Bobke: A ride on the wild side of cycling. The only unfortunate thing is that it's from a different era. But it's funny. Hilarious in fact.

VELOPRESS had a golden opportunity to get an inside look at one of the greatest cycling teams ever (and not just becuase of Lance i.e. Bruyneel, Ekimov, Heras, et all)

But instead of getting inside the bus we get thrown under it.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm new to cycling, so this helped, May 16, 2005

By 

Terry Mathews (a small town in east Texas) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Inside the Postal Bus: My Ride with Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Cycling Team (Paperback)

Michael Barry's peek inside the world of the former US Postal Pro Cycling Team was a fun read for me. I'm new to cycling and don't know much of the inside scoop, so Barry's vignettes entertained and educated me about life on a pro team.

Maybe an editor could have given the stories more "flow." However, I read the book in one sitting, laughing all the way through. Barry is a cyclist, not an author . . . and the stories show just how much he loves what he does.

I recommend this book to other cycling newbies and will read more from Barry, should he choose to put pen to paper again.

Enjoy!

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars average at best, May 9, 2005

By 

Joseph W. Smith "opus54" (Chula Vista, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside the Postal Bus: My Ride with Lance Armstrong and the U.S. Postal Cycling Team (Paperback)

I liked the inside look at a pro team but the writing was simplistic and reminded me of someone writing home from summer camp. Very little here outside of "what I did today."