Customer Reviews

The Yellow Jersey

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

 

 

The Yellow Jersey reminded me of the 1998 Tour De France. The opening stages were superb and gripping. The middle stages had moments of drama and inspired performances. The end came quickly and sweetly with no huge surprises.

But in the middle of that tour was the tedium and distraction and high melodrama of the Festina Affair. Watching the bike race, I didn't need to see Richard Virenque in tears. I didn't need to hear the Tour directors and cycling bureaucrats thump their self righteous and pompous chests and screech forth platitudes. The book is like that. There is a big middle section where we're subjected to page after eye-skewing page of the first person narrator drone on through the muck of a mid-life crisis. The reader will find that they could care less about how many "birds" Terry had bedded or whether the screwed up teenager he seduced is actually pregnant.

I had to stop several times during my read and put the book away for fear of gumming up my brain with the sap which poured out of the wounds in the middle of this book.

Still, The Yellow Jersey does redeem itself in a huge way once the Tour de France starts. Hurne has either ridden mountain stages or has a highly developed sense of empathy for those who have. The descriptions of the tortuous climbs and the limbs which just give out rank way up there with best Russian literature when setting a mood of pain and suffering. But Hurne makes you work for it. A good editor could slice out 100 pages from the middle, not lose one tilde worth of actual content and make this one a fast-paced classic.

Being a cyclist and an indoor cycling instructor, (Spinning), I found the author's description of mental focus, rhythm, pace, and,oh yes, the pain - so honest and truthful. And guess what, he captured all that as he grew older. I'm motivated to keep be cycling for a very long time!

I found myself laughing out loud and catching his British accent and humor that sneaks in like Monty Python, Benny Hill and Ab Fab.

So what if he was pining over some 'bird' - that's only human, especially to a cyclist. We clear a lot of things out of our heads when we're pedaling. Lance Armstrong even admitted he was a 'player' when racing and practicing in Europe. I'm buying this book as Christmas gifts for all my cycling buddies!

Saying this is "the greatest cycling novel ever written" is like saying "This is the finest book of haiku about bowling". What's the competition?

That gripe aside, this is a book that is at its best when describing cycling, yet the author gamely tries to put cycling into the context of a life. Terry Davenport is (in his own words) "a bit of a lad" (American translation: Ladies' Man). He has Austin Powers' sensibilities about the sexual revolution (sometimes when describing women he refers to them as "it"). He spends a good deal of his non-racing life trying to juggle simultaneous affairs with 3 women.

Davenport's arrested Peter Pan existence is given one more chance at the Tour De France, and this is where the author really shines. You are taken inside the mind of a rider, the exhaustion, and the courage needed to keep pedaling. I found myself riveted by the end of the book.

Not a great novel, but a decent one. It would be 3 stars on character developement, but 4 stars for the riveting cycling descriptions.

The essence of elite-level cycling has been captured in Ralph Hume's The Yellow Jersey. The dicotomies that exist between physical suffering and victory, and the personal life and life in the peloton are realistically and vividly portrayed. Terry Davenport, the crafty veteran cyclist hired to mentor a young prodigy, must learn to balance these equations and let go of his youthful fantasies before he can accomplish this task. One of those fantasies that must be put to rest is winning the Tour de France, the world's most grueling sporting event.

I have to say in the end, I really did enjoy this book. I also have to say I'm a road cyclist. I came close to putting this book down several times during the first half. It is tough to take all of Hume's ridiculous, dated (70's), English sexist colloquial jargon. At times it is impossible for an American to understand. This book would really benefit from a bit of current editing.

That being said, the book really picks up when the Tour starts, and Hume's descriptions of the stages is riveting, original, and unpredictable.

It would be a far better book if he would have dropped all the romantic/sexual nonsense and concentrate on the cycling, which he so masterfully portrays.

It would be hard to compare this book to a classic, but it definitely is a great read. I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed a Grisham novel. Its main character is complex. If you are looking for a book that is about describing the Tour from cover to cover, you probably want to look elsewhere. However, if you are looking for a novel about the complexity of a person with a lot of cycling thrown in, this is your book. I read the first couple of chapters the first night I got it. I read the last 250 pages on the second night. It was good enough that I was up way too late and missed riding or running the next morning. For an American, some of the English terms I did not understand, but most are in context enough to get the meaning. I recommend this book, even the first half.

I picked up this book along with a couple of others to read while recovering from a surgery. I didn't really know what to expect from it and was surprised that it was mostly about sex to begin with. I came to find, it wasn't so much about sex as it was about a man unsure about life and somewhat unsatisfied with it, doing what he could to deal. I could relate with the main characters views towards life and love, and while not totally agreeing, I could see where they came from. It became a discussion on what the point of it all is. Why do we care about the things we do, why do we love, why do we live, what's the point? The author gives such a good description of the mental and physical agony that comes with bicycle racing that I found myself reliving those feelings that I've had while racing as I read the book. A story of a man facing his own mortality, watching the fitness he enjoyed in his youth fade, and trying to deal with the loss.

2nd best cycling novel ever, despite flaws (best is Tim Krabbé's "The Rider"). 'Jersey' is extremely engrossing and realistic. You'll stand up flushed and sweaty cheering for this guy... out loud! Suffers 1970's era sexism, but, oh well.

I have read very few books that I could not put down; this was one of them. I don't race, but I love to ride, especially long tours. I actually felt I was riding the tour, I felt tired, exhilerated, beaten, all at the appropriate times in the book. He was a little consumed with his sexual prowess, but maybe this is the real Ralph Hume! My only regret is that there is no apparent sequel, I am left wanting, sort of an empty feeling, like when you read the last Sherlock Holmes adventure! Please, Ralph, let us know what happened to the rest of your character's life!

Ralph Hurne's novel The Yellow Jersey captures the inner world of a ready-to-retire professional cyclist. Terry Davenport, a moderately successful racer, spends his days in his girlfriend's antique shop, in between affairs with her daughter and training younger members of his team. Tasked to get Romaine Hendrickx, a young and promising climber, ready to compete in the Tour de France, Terry divides his time between training rides, womanizing, and considering his post-bicycling career options. One day he falls for a young woman in the antique shop. Desperate to impress, Terry enters a local race, wins, and suddenly finds himself on the Tour de France team in support on Romaine. Unfortunately for Terry, his new found love departs for England and he has to deal with the conflicting realities of obligations to his girlfriend, his affair with her daughter (who also happens to be Romaine's fiancee), his duty to train and mentor Romaine, and his own competetive drive. The book's last chapters fly by as Terry and Romaine take on the field in the Tour. Although the racings a little dated ("I tightened my toe clips" - some readers may not even know what these are...) , its a great read and sure to delight any cyclist.