Customer Reviews

We Were Young and Carefree

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was lucky enough to be a competitive athlete in the 1980's...an Iron Man distance triathlete who fell in love with cycling. It was a time when MTV and the Tour de France both made their debut on television. We learned a new language; peloton, Alpe d'Huez and riding a wheel. We also learned of old heroes and fell in love with new one's; Eddy Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, The Badger, Greg Lemond and Laurent Fignon. Laurent was the man I admired and even tried to mirror in appearance. He was fast, insane in his tactics and was the cool French guy with the pony tail! He was partly why I rode. Even why my wife and I became part of a student exchange program with a French family.

If you took up cycling in the 1980's you MUST read this book. His recollections bring back images we watched on TV of Paris Roubaix and the Tour. His stories will help you to understand the times and to make the men of the peloton like Sean Kelly and Bernard Hinault become real people not just powerful guys on bikes. I have to say there were times while reading I felt great melancholy at the knowledge these days are gone for them and for me. Though it took only two days to read the book I have already re-read pages as they instill such emotion, joy and sometimes sadness.

Laurent is a personal hero. Many Americans at that time loved to hate Laurent as he was Lemond's nemesis. And few remember that Laurent won the Tour de France twice before Lemond beat him with skill and technology. The yellow Renault jersey and The Professor will never be forgotten. Laurent is very very sick now...which brings another level of mortality to the book and to life. I wish him well and I hope he knows he DID create a legacy and a joy for many of us...as we rode our bikes over 100 mile training rides we would take up the personas of Hinault and Lemond....and I, Laurent Fignon.

I met Mr Laurent Fignon at Superweek, in downtown Chicago, in the early 90's. At the time, I was still beyond excited and proud that an American had beaten the great French cyclist in the last stage, of the greatest race of the Grand Tours. I went up to him (expecting anger and hostility) to introduce myself and immediately felt charisma, personality and strength of character to this day I still admire. I would never have guessed 20 years later my opinion of Lemond and Fignon would flip-flop. This was no ordinary Frenchman, this was no ordinary athlete. Laurent Fignon embodied the spirit of Anquetil Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape: The Remarkable Life of Jacques Anquetil, the First Five-Times Winner of the Tour de France: "Where the risks are greatest, that is the area I aim for." He had no malice towards Lemond. He states in his book his meteoric rise to champion status. Think about it, THE GUY WON THE TdF ON HIS FIRST TRY. We have no comparisons for this great racer, and we may not ever see again such a feat.

I purchased this book one week before his passing. And today we mourn the loss of a great man who left us far too soon. He starts the book with that breathtaking day in 1989, one that none of us will ever forget. His stories with Hinault (Memories of the Peloton), the battles, his admiration for "The Badger", the late nights at restaurants plotting strategy for the next stage and the epic after-parties illustrate this racer's lust for life. He recalls Directeur Sportif Cyrille Guimard (now retired) and his unparalleled insight into winning grand tours, and the fights and argument they had over the years. He leads us through compelling examples where "in life, just as in sport, you must never ever let an opportunity go." Prepared to be moved, this was no ordinary man. You will read the book and feel you are right there in there corner bistro at midnight plotting the next day's mountain stage. It's that intense.

I highly recommend this book because it is well translated, it is inspiring to cyclists and non-cyclists alike and it tells the story of a remarkable man. The story all of us know, how when you feel unstoppable and unbeatable, and how you can spend the rest of your life chasing that feeling again.

"You don't choose the circumstances in which you race" he used to say. He repeats in his book. But, in a larger sense, these are words we can all live by.

I was inspired to buy this book after the passing of Laurent Fignon and the subsequent exposure of the book. I wish I would have known of this book sooner, it's inspirational to say the least. Well translated, the personality, passion, dedication, drive and fearless freedom Fignon had during his life is shared with the reader. No, not shared. The reader is there, with Fignon, as if you are sitting on his shoulder. You are in his life. It's personnel. Before this life experience with Fignon I thought he was an arrigant self absorbed Frenchman. Now, I know him as a champion in every sence of the word. I would have cherished meeting him.

The sport of cycling in his days are different from what we are exposed to now. The move from the way it was to the way it is now, through his eyes, is insightful especially considering the issue of doping. I love the sport of cycling. You will love it even more after this book as you will experience the soul of cycling and witness the change that is taking place. There is still a soul, it's just different. I don't want to say more. Read it.

I was hoping to learn more about cycling during that generation but it was more about the personal struggles and conflicts that Fignon had to deal with. He comes off as a little cocky and unapolagetic for his behavior. Maybe its personality or maybe its cultural but it was a little annoying after a while. He starts to talk about doping but like many others gracefully talks around it and doesn't really name names.

I got the book during this years Tour as I usually read something cycling related in July but have to admit that I found it boring and it took me until the end of August to get through it. Last year I read Wiggos book and that went by much faster and was more enjoyable.

first off, i'm a huge fan of laurent fignon - was then. am now. and my belief then, and now, his 1989 loss to lemond was technological, and yes, maybe it was laurent's own fault, for failure to embrace "the new". either way, a great athlete, with his own prickly, and somewhat unpleasant nature. i did say i liked him, didn't i? i did, and i do, still.

not that this book does him, or his reputation, any good. while i do think fignon was a thoughtful guy - especially if one were to compare him to say, lemond, a sniveling, whiny child - the book is mostly self-justification, a lot of it childish self-justification. it's full of contradictions and it's full of when-i-was-a-boy-we-were-real-men self-satisfied pap. i really don't get what is so unique about the book, or about his supposedly great revealings. at the end, i felt like i knew what he wanted me to know, and maybe what he himself wanted to think. but as far as real revelations, real insight into his character, well, maybe he could not have been expected to provide that. he was a great cyclist, after all. not a great biographer.

even for fans of laurent's - skip it.

i am so sorry that he died, much too young. in pictures, he looked content in his forties. i hope so. RIP Laurent.

Very rare book for cycling fans. As a racer here in the States for over 15 years I always knew what made guys like Lemond great was equally great competitors such as Laurent Fignon. Yes, the book has Fignon's arrogance in it, but that is part of the reason it is a fun and great read. How strange that I purchased this book shortly before Fignon's death. It is as though Fignon felt a need to leave us all with lasting impressions from a great career. Sometimes as athletes and fans we forget about the spirit, and competitive fire that is involved in sports and life and that can be felt by winners, and losers alike.
Because it is in the "fight" and "spirit" that all of us are victorious. This book captures what is clearly missing in cycling today, and maybe it will return. An inspiring read from one of the greats of cycling.

Laurent was my idol growing up as a teenager. While everyone seemed to be on the Greg LeMond bandwagon -- there was something about Fignon I could identify with. This was a great book about a wonderful man who will be dearly missed.

I love racer bios, most are in the third person however Fignon's is in the first person and it is a delightful read. He is a racer we may have seen on TV who lost the Tour by eight seconds to Greg Lemond. I never appreciated the talent and ground rules Laurent Fignon lived life and raced by. An honest insight into the man and his amazing cycling career. An excellent book if you want to read about the almost impossible life of a top echelon racer.

We were Young and Carefree is what you would expect from Fignon. It is essentially a chronological account of Fignon from when he was a child to when he began commentating on Television a few years ago. Thankfully, he was able to write this before he passed last year.

The book is very interesting in that it takes you behind the scenes of Fignon's falling out with Bernard Hinault, and Cyrille Guimard. Fignon also makes his thoughts of Greg Lemond apparent. Although he talks about the 1989 Tour De France, he gets past it quickly. Although I was not a great fan of Fignon, I feel his career was so much more than than his 2nd place in the 1989 Tour. Finally, he spends a lot of time on drugs in cycling in the 90s.

If you are fan of Fignon you will find a very confident champion in these pages. If you are not a fan, you will find sort of a whiner and strange person.

No matter, if you were a cyclist in the 80's you will enjoy this book.

I would have given 5 stars but there is nothing really about modern cycling eg. Lance Armstong, Contador, etc. even though he was very involved with modern cycling before his untimely passing.

I fortunately have the opportunity to cycle in France regularly and ride the roads that Fignon writes about in his book-The narrative gives the reader a sense of the comraderie of the teamates as well as insight into the "Old School" cycling that Fignon said was dissapearing. A good read of anyone that is a cyclist in their heart, or on the road.