Gregario

by Charly Wegelius, Tom Southam (Contributor)

Charly Wegelius, nacido en Finlandia pero criado en York, Gran Bretaña, fue uno de los ciclistas británicos más prestigiosos del pelotón internacional, donde rodó como profesional durante la primera década de este siglo. Como profesional, nunca ganó nada. Como tantos otros ciclistas que no se vistieron de amarillo o no subieron nunca a un podio, su trabajo era el de gregario: ayudar a su jefe de filas a ganar, aun cuando esto supusiera renunciar a cualquier opción de victoria o gloria personal. Era un «soldado raso» y luchó para abrirse camino en uno de los deportes más duros y exigentes que existen.
Gregario es un testimonio fascinante, honesto y duro del verdadero mundo del ciclismo profesional: el auténtico, el de los hoteles de mala muerte, el de los salarios bajos y la incertidumbre laboral, el de las caídas a toda velocidad que hacen peligrar toda una carrera, el de los dilemas del que sabe que nunca llegará a destacar y cuyo nombre no pasará a las historia. Pero, sobre todo, esta autobiografía es un canto formidable al sueño de un hombre: el de un ciclista de pura cepa que nunca se dopó —cuando muchos otros de su entorno sí lo hacían— y que llevó su cuerpo más allá del límite del dolor, sacrificando toda una juventud para poder ver hecho realidad su sueño de infancia, cuando, de niño, estudiaba fascinado los mapas del sur de Francia por donde se corría el Tour.

Genres: Cycling, Sports, Nonfiction, Biography, Autobiography, Memoir

278 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Toby McMillen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read; as a cycling fan who watches European races whenever possible (due to limited US tv coverage), I was very familiar with Charly Wegelius, and had a great deal of respect for his domestique prowess. I well remember watching him turn himself inside out at the front of the bunch on the steep climbs of the Giro.
His professional role was, as he says in the book, largely unknowable to anyone who hasn't done it. It is perhaps like the American professional basketball player who plays many years for many teams, perhaps in many other countries; a solid pro, obviously valued by those who pay the salary, but a person who is never going to get many--if any-- lines in the press. I was intrigued by the chronicles of his struggles to make it in the European peloton; he very bluntly illustrated a tough, gritty underbelly of European cycling that is not, shall we say, the subject of color commentary spotlight reports by Bob Roll during the Tour (although if you read his book it is a subject he well knows from his own experience). I also appreciated his honesty when he spoke candidly about his own mistakes and misdeeds over his career; rarely do you get that from anybody who writes a book! It made some of his more awful accounts about cycling in general easier to believe.
Although I read the entire book in 3 days and had trouble putting it down because of my interest in the subject matter, I got a bit tired of the self-indulgent manner of the dialogue. In the end it is really hard to say whether he actually enjoyed being a professional cyclist; it seemed as if in the end it turned out to be more of an addiction than a passion. He seemed to write, most of the time, from the perspective of having a huge chip on his shoulder and that got old toward the end. Perhaps that was simply the truth; it was, in my opinion (and thus just the 3 stars), overdone.
Still--if you are a cycling fan, you gotta read this!

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wegelius is whiny and mundane. Plus he doesn't like Cadel Evans. That's a non starter with me.

3.5 Stars

Edited to Add: Read the kindle edition.

[boogenhagen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting look at behind the scenes in Grand Tour cycling. While this isn't a big American sport, cycling is huge worldwide and a billion people watch the Tour de France.

CW shows what it takes to be in that kind of endurance trial and all I can say is, I can't believe anybody would put themselves through that. Yet people do and I admire the fortitude.

[Martha☀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

When immersed in the pro cycling world, Wegelius had to keep silent about the injustices and slights that were happening to him because a pro cyclist is never secure in their career. Team management and the fickle public are too quick to dismiss a controversial rider and it is too easy to simply slot someone new into the role.

In this account, post retirement, Wegelius explains what it was like to spend 10 years biting his tongue, keeping his views to himself and rolling with never-ending punches. He explains the misunderstood and previously unknown role of 'domestique', which today is a much more admired, respected and crucial position within the peleton. But back then, when most of the English-speaking public got only glimpses of the final meters of professional cycling races and tours, the hard work of the domestique was rarely seen.

Unfortunately Wegelius' memoir comes across as an angry rant. He certainly takes the glamour out of the sport and seems to be advising young people to not bother trying. He alludes to the doping which was prevalent around him (not him tho) and he explains how poorly paid he was for his efforts early on. He also reveals how different team management styles elicited completely different efforts out of their team players. With some teams, he hated the sport while with others, Wegelius would turn himself inside out to accomplish whatever goal was set for him.

Myself, as a pro cycling fan who watches every moment of each of the big 3 grand tours each year, I really love reading insider accounts. I imagine that Wegelius has brought a deep perspective to his current role as EF Team directeur sportif, keeping in mind all of the hard knocks he shared within this book.

[Craig Hatton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jeez never before have I read such a woe is me autobiography. This guy has a massive chip on his shoulder but I would much rather have read about his role as a domestique in European cycling and less about his whinging

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

After listening to Charly Wegelius on Mike Creed’s podcast I decided to pick up Charly’s book, Domestique. I admit I was not familiar with Charly or his cycling career but quickly found myself engrossed in this story about the life of a domestique in the European peloton. Both Chapter 5 and 6 are particularly interesting because Charly reveals why he embraced the role of a domestique (rather than a cycling star) and explains Italian cycling culture through his experiences on the De Nardi team. In fact, having worked and lived in a foreign country myself, I was surprised to find that his experience as a professional in Italy actually transcend cycling and is useful insight for anyone adapting to a different culture and lifestyle. Charly also includes fascinating personal anecdotes, such as the one in which masseurs would often watch over the dinner table to make sure riders didn’t overeat. Although the book briefly delves into doping this is thankfully not central to the story and is refreshing considering many other recent cycling books do.

[Jorge Fernández · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Durante el Giro 2003 la gente conoció por fin lo que era ser un gregario" - Charly el humilde.

"En Italia me sentía británico y en Reino Unido me veían como un italiano más" - Charly la víctima

"Cuando veían el bus de Liquigas la gente de la calle prácticamente se masturbaba" - Charly el condescendiente.

Suena todo tan tremendamente exagerado que no me creo nada de la historia.

[Laura Walin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written sports book is a joy. It manages to to capture the intensity of a professional athlete into words and the reader notices that she is holding her breath while reading, in the same way as she would be as a spectator. The biography - or rather a memoir - of the profeccional cyclist Charly Wegelius was such a book.

I was not familiar with the world of cycling apart from a few flash images from TV on Tour de France. Cycling is not a big sport in Finland for obvious reasons (flat country, short season). Already getting to know the sport was fascinating. If anything, the roles in the team could have been made a bit clearer, but the nature of the endeavour became clear: the whole team makes an effort for one of them to win. At the same time it is an individual extreme sport where the athletes beat themselves up into insane achievements.

The book was incredibly well written. I really enjoyed how it let the reader within the head of Wegelius, to openly observe the transformation from an obsessed teenager to an adult man who was ready to give up the sport for other aspects of life. The only thing bothering me was the slightly apologetic tone in relation to doping which is of course a touchy subject in itself in the circles of professional cycling.

[PILAR SÁNCHEZ · Rating 5 out of 5]

No hace falta ser amante del ciclismo para disfrutar este libro. Es acojonante, te hace sentir mucho.
100% recomendable.
Quizás después de leerlo te conviertas en un amante de este deporte mágico

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and distinctive book – key themes include: Wegelius’s embrace of Italian racing (and his view that this led to him being unappreciated by English speaking fans and media): his naturally high haematocrit which with the 50% rule put him at a huge disadvantage as he could not benefit from training whereas riders without his natural advantage could benefit from large amounts of EPO; the controversy over his riding for the Italian team (interestingly with his co-author Tom Southam) at the Worlds which as he saw it was doing his job rather than riding for a lottery funded business which had never supported him and in some ways undermined him by paying teams to take British riders; how he quickly settled into the life of a domestique – taking pride in it but also partly as he didn’t cope with well with pressure and had a natural tendency to try to fit in with groups; how someone should have taken on Mapei’s development squad when Mapei pulled out as it was the cream of future cycling talent as well as drug free by selection and development; and more than anything - the sheer hardness and lack of happy endings in professional cycling.

[Mateo Uribe Castro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will make you, singlehandedly, love cycling (even more). There are lots of books that achieve more or less the same goal (see, for instance, The rider by Tim Krabbe). The difference with Wegelius' account of his career is that he tells the story of the average rider. This is not a book about the Pantanis, the Froomes, the Merckxs, the Indurains, the Quintanas. It is a book about the other 98% of people that ride their bikes and push their bodies to the limit for a living. Wegelius will even make you hate cycling half way through the story. But once you finish you realize, pardon the cliché, happiness is not destiny but process. You realize epic is not only in the front but in the bunch.

[Gali · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have very fond memories of Charly Wegelius from his time in the peloton, always seemed like a stand up guy, and I had great hopes for this book... and it kind of made me dislike Charly. The start was great, good take on his early years and early career and then it all went to shit when he started talking about the last 5-6 years of his career (so basically the latter half of it) and everything became someone else's fault and he tried to justify all his choices and why he wasn't wrong. Maybe it's because the book was written so close to those events, he just didn't have time to digest them and take a step back and try to understand what happened. I don't know. It was quite disappointing in the end.

[Simba Sagwete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book that takes the sheen of the world of professional cycling. A classic illustration of "be careful what you wish for". Most books about cycling focus on what's so great about it but this was a dissenting voice. Charley Wegelius focuses on the less glamorous parts of being a professional cyclist which is more true-to-life in my eyes. Everyone watches the Tour de France, but apart from the die-hard fans, who watches the Roma Maxima? And What does it feel like to do a 100km turn at the front of the peloton only for your leader to screw things up and fail to win while you in the mean time, tire yourself out so much that you barely make it to the finish?

[Dan Cohen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book by someone who went through the wringer of being a "domestique" in European pro cycling for many years. I thought the author laid it on a bit thick at times about how unglamorous the life of a domestique is - did anyone think otherwise? He comes across as a rather cynical and jaded person, and perhaps someone who does not have much sympathy for those weaker than himself. I found particularly interesting his insights into his own personality and how he came to realise how he had been subjugating his own wishes to those of his teams for so many years. Made me think...

[Ron S · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best look at life in the peloton since Paul Kimmage's Rough Ride (1990). Wegelius began his career riding for Vendee U in 1996, and his career included stints with the Linda McCartney Racing team, Liquigas, Silence-Lotto and most notably, Mapei during their heyday. Highlights included supporting Danilo Di Luca to Giro victory, a Grand Tour he rode from 2003 to 2010. A great read for any cyclist with a remote interest in racing, or those that enjoy sport biographies in general.

[Sergi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Por un lado me ha gustado mucho conocer desde dentro el mundo ciclista, las muchas anécdotas que explica, la grandeza (y dureza) del giro, del tour... Por otro, de las tantas veces que se queja a veces entran ganas de decirle "Espabila tío, que eres afortunado por el trabajo que tienes!". Sea como sea me ha gustado su lectura, es muy entretenido y se lee con facilidad. Ahora a por "Ganar a cualquier precio".

[Gregg Kellogg · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exciting account of the life of a yeoman professional cyclist. The inside into the world of professional cycling and the inside scoop on the workings of road races is illuminating. Charley makes you feel the pain, both physical and emotional, of what it takes to compete. I also sympathies with the experience of living in another land; enjoying it, but never quite belonging,

[Rcornejo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un 5 porque es obligatorio para un ciclista. Un 3 para el resto

[Daniel Silva barrera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente libro que muestra sin atenuantes la verdadera realidad del día a día de los deportistas de alto rendimiento que no están en el top de la "farándula deportiva"

[Jim O'Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review contains a spoiler alert, if such a thing can apply to a nonfiction book chronicling events that are widely known already. Most readers who choose this book will already have an awareness of what’s expected of a domestique, and will already have some familiarity with the exploits of its author.

The book’s last chapter clarifies for me all that precedes it. Charly enjoys riding his bike and excels at it, but he seems to not enjoy at all the interpersonal dynamics at play in professional cycling. When he finally burns out, he does so without imploding or without blaming anyone around. In the end he spells out what I had been feeling throughout the book — he simply had no way to achieve happiness as a pro rider.

These days society speaks more freely about issues of mental and emotional health than was common during the years of Charly’s career. I thought many times as I read this book that Charly sounds mostly miserable for one reason or another during most of his career . . . not all of it, but most of it. He seems like a person who values control and predictability — which is reasonable — but inhabits a world that really doesn't offer him much of either. It sounds like he may have suffered at times from depression. The book never mentions this, but to me it seems plausible.

He was unsatisfied with his prospects remaining in England, yet he never feels settled as a pro in Italy. He changes teams as he seeks better station in his career, and he tells himself and the reader it’s all part of the business but each time he bemoans something about the conditions in his new environment. Too little attention leaves him feeling underappreciated, and too much attention brings pressure he doesn’t want. Not every chapter includes an outright antagonist, but every chapter includes an examination of various obstacles that suggest he may be a man-against-the-system.

Charly may be a terrific guy and his dedication to his calling is worthy of the reader’s respect — no doubt. But the book deals mostly with negatives, interspersed with quiet moments of satisfaction he gains from overcoming some obstacle in his path. There’s a passage in which he describes a feeling of achievement in having the financial means to support buying his first house, but he quickly falls into despair when contemplating that he’ll be living there alone. Late in the book he finds a woman he will marry, and it soon becomes apparent that whatever motivated him to become a pro rider is all used up.

In the end, he seems to wonder if any of it was worthwhile. While all pro riders must suffer these same feelings to some extent, I wonder if his example is typical of most of them, or if the hardships were particularly difficult for him.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Due to the recent success of the British Cycling program, most cycling books tend to be successful Britons or tour winners from other countries whose translated books might find a big enough audience. My perception of Wegelius was that he was outside the British Cycling circlejerk, and that proved to be the case, in a book that did give a good account of what it was like to scrap as a professional cyclist.

This was a bit like Kimmage's Rough Ride in its subject matter, but on the whole there was a lot less bitterness and Wegelius didn't have the hero worship or jealousy that was in the Irishman's book. I liked the narrative style, focusing in depth on some issues and skipping a lot of individual races, as he struggled to prove his worth in a professional team having dominated age group races. Obviously there is some dramatic license but you did get an idea of how precarious cycling contracts are, and the level of effort seeded just to survive, as Wegelius was honest about how much he tried to fit in, even changing his personality to match his team's. But it paid off, as a few of the names mentioned had shorter careers despite winning more races or jerseys.

There is a lot of pragmatism, as he doesn't want to call out dopers and is honest about wanting to get into the right cliques, rather than trying to rise above it. Such pragmatism has its limits though, and I don't know why he went to such lengths to defend his decision to take the money from the Italians in the World Road Race - he could have saved writing a whole chapter if he'd just said 'I wanted to take the money' rather than pointing out that really, Britain weren't interested in winning it anyway and his actions didn't affect the team he was meant to be representing.

Although he can come across as a bit dull, this was nonetheless an original insight into the life of an average professional cyclist, and the realities of life off the bike. The road race aside, there was less self-justification than in other cycling autobiographies, and more general discussion than a list of failures and successes. The last chapter unfortunately succumbed to cliched sports glory writing but the very end was fitting.

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Domestiques are the cyclists who do the donkey work for the stars. Froome and Thomas can't win without the likes of Kwiatkowski and Stannard. The former get the glory - and the book deals - but this book covers what life is like for the latter.

Before the rise of Team Sky only a handful of British riders had made it to the professional peloton and with British Cycling focussed on track glory, there was no obvious route into it for the ambitious. Wegelius started at the bottom and worked incredibly hard to become a much-respected domestique.

In his book, Charly Wegelius lays bare the agonies of pro cycling. No glamour, just hours of going back to team cars for bottles, of suffering on mountain climbs, of riding hard on the flat to reel in a breakaway. As well as a straightforward memoir, he offers a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at the motivation and morality of top athletes.

Although I've followed road cycling since the 2007 Tour de France which started in London, I was under the misapprehension that a scientific approach - marginal gains et al - arrived with Team Sky. It was really interesting to read about Charly's time with Mapei, who were already trying to do things differently (i.e. cleanly) way back in 2000 at the height of the Armstrong era.

Despite his disenchantment towards the end of his riding career, Wegelius continues to work in cycling as directeur sportif for UCI WorldTour team EF Education First-Drapac. I would have liked a chapter on his transition from rider to management.

[Caponato · Rating 2 out of 5]

Charly Wegelius, ese famoso gregario, tan trascendental para las victorias de sus líderes... eh... no. ¿No? Un famoso don nadie, destacable por ser uno de los pocos británicos ciclistas profesionales en su época, antes del famoso golpe de estado en la UCI (Unión Ciclista Internacional) por parte de los británicos. Vale, eso sí. Rara avis. Los italianos, ya se sabe, gritan mucho y eso no es vida. Un tipo que empezó corriendo con Mapei, ese equipo tan profesional e importante que "era el equivalente de lo que es el Team Sky hoy; esa planificación y esfuerzo extra que se invertían en el equipo es lo que les permitía superar a sus rivales" (sic), que pasó por Liquigas para ayudar a ganar el Giro a Danilo di Luca, pero yo nunca me dopé, ni vi nada raro (once años de profesional estuvo el tipo, oiga, y nada, porque claro es que tengo el hematocrito tan alto). En fin, es tal la hipocresía -porque supongo que hay mala fe y no tontunez-, que el libro no vale para nada excepto por un par de anécdotas del montón, porque además el tono es muy negativo y está regularmente escrito.

[RubberDuck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I deeply enjoyed this book.

Thanks Charly for sharing your "not a fairy tale" story rather than sugar-coating career difficulties. This is not the usual "champion biography" where super athlete X tells the world how he won among difficulties blessed by divine strengths that was bestowed upon him: there are way too many such books. This book casts lights on the ups and downs of the pro cycling industries right from the center of the Peloton. Plus, as a native Italian, I appreciated thoroughly Charly's admiration but also frustration with the country-system. For the same reason, having lived abroad myself for many many years like the author, I could understand Charly's hard relation with, for example, British Cycling, or the complete lack of support from the fan base in that country.

The only problem I found with the book is the sloppy writing (I know Charly did not write it himself): at least in my edition (Ebury Press, 2014) there were a lot of misspelling, missing punctuations and even repetitions. Certainly that could have been fixed with rounds of editorial review?

[Javi Hernández · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A menudo la gente se maravilla de que los ciclistas sigan corriendo cuando han sufrido heridas horribles, y creen que son tipos duros. Pero la realidad es que no les queda otra opción. El ciclista vuelve a montar en la bicicleta, ensangrentado y dolorido, e intenta seguir adelante porque tiene que hacerlo.”

Después de Open, probablemente el mejor libro biográfico sobre deporte que haya leído. Una apertura en canal por las penas vestidas de glorias a las que se expone un ciclista, concretamente en las faenas de gregario, siempre marcadas por poner el él/ellos antes que el yo.

Se adentra en el sufrimiento siempre vinculado a la pregunta. A la salida de guion, tan poco vista en deportistas de alto nivel, pero que conlleva un final normalmente alineado a esa satisfactoria construcción de acciones coherentes con mis valores.

No soy fan del ciclismo, a partir de aquí puede ser, pero cuando el contenido es de calidad, el continente importa menos.

[Thomas Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wegelius gives a very honest and revealing account of what it's like to be a supporting rider in a professional cycling team.

He doesn't try to make the reader like him, and confronts and lays out his mentality and behaviour over the years- some of it doesn't endear him, other bits you respect him a lot for- but the context means you can sympathise with him throughout.

I would have liked a few more anecdotes of the oddities of the tours, I'm sure he must have loads of little stories- but I can understand that his focus here is more on telling his own story- so bear that in mind if you're deciding whether or not to read.

[Joseph Ramsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

My dad had been reading this when he died. When I picked it off the shelf, it still had the hospital’s lunch menu inside which he’d been using as a bookmark. Really happy that I finished it for him.

Was a good read and a great insight into the world of the domestique. Wegelius comes across as bitter, but justifiably so - he gave a lot for a little.

Being a patriot, there was one part of his story I really struggled with. I couldn’t understand how he’d not understood that what he was doing was wrong. But I respect the fact that he presented his thoughts on the matter as they’d been to him. You don’t get that a lot in a memoir. This is a true account. Thank you for that.

[Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charly Wegelius' no doubt ghostwritten memoir isn't great literature, but it's worth reading nonetheless. It's a window into the life of a pro cyclist, and a sort of pro that we don't often hear much about. The domestique is a key part of the success of a cycling team and its star(s): he sets the pace of the peloton, leads or pulls back breakaways, leads out sprinters, and saves his teammates' energy for the big finish. Wegelius lets us see this kind of career realistically, with all its pain, lousy hotels, and disrespect -- and a few friends and triumphs along the way.

[JoJo · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a cycling fan and one who reads many books on the subject, but doesn't partake in the actual activity it was so nice to read a book which actually seemed real - not a winner who tells you how hard they worked or how much it was all down to them, but one of the heart and soul riders who make those winners but rarely get the glory. I found it to be well written and genuine, and reading this during the actual Tour de France makes me look at those athletes and make me very glad that my chosen career was far more sedentary.

[Ethan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably too shallow for cycling fanatics, and too esoteric for general audiences. I’m somewhere in the middle so it was a decent read. Decently organized but amateurishly written. There’s whining, as other reviews mention, but some of that is justified. Some bragging too, but some of that is also justified. This is not at the level of Ball Four, in terms of being a shocking tell-all that sheds light on the unknown aspects of a sport and its lifestyle, but there are some decent stories and “huh”-worthy insights.