Alvento - We were Young and Unconscious by Laurent Fignon

DESCRIPTION

At 23, he is already the winner of two Tour de France. At 24, a serious injury almost ended his career. At 25 he founded his own professional team and even designed its jersey. At 28, he suffered one of the most painful defeats in the history of the sport: a Tour lost on the last stage, and by only 8 seconds. Laurent Fignon burnt out the stages of his career. But he was also burned by life: he died at the age of only 50, in 2010.
The year before, he had learned that he was seriously ill with cancer just as he was about to send his autobiography to press. In those pages he had written about himself, his profession as a cyclist and what it meant to be a sporting celebrity, with the vehemence, audacity and shamelessness of someone who was never afraid to call a spade a spade: the ecstasy of success and the bitter taste of defeat, the impertinent challenge thrown down to the sacred monsters and the recklessness and compromises of the long doping season.
Immediately recognised as a milestone in sports literature, 'We were Young and Reckless' is Professor Fignon's last lesson, from which contemporary cycling has perhaps still much to learn.

"Cycling has turned into a defensive sport, forgetting that its only reason for being is to attack [...].
I'm not saying we were better in my time, we were different. I think I lived through cycling's brief hippie interlude and I am proud of it'.

THE AUTHOR - Laurent Fignon

Born in Paris in 1960. A professional cyclist between 1982 and 1993, he was one of the strongest champions of his generation.
He won two Tour de France (1983, on debut, and 1984), a Giro d'Italia (1989), two Milano-Sanremo (1988, 1989) and a Fleche Wallonne (1986).
He wore gold-rimmed spectacles that gave him the air of a professor or, at least, an intellectual. In fact, compared to most of his colleagues, he had read quite a few more books.
His autobiography, 'Nous étions jeunes et insouciants', published in France in 2009 - with the collaboration of Jean-Emmanuel Ducoin, writer and columnist for the newspaper L'Humanité - and now, after thirteen years, translated into Italian, is considered a classic of cycling literature.

SPECIFICATIONS

Weight: 0.6 kg
Dimensions: 27 × 16 × 2.5 cm
Author: Laurent Fignon
Year of publication: 2022
Packaging: paperback with flaps
Paper: 100 gram ivory-coated usomano
Number of pages: 296
Format: 13 x 20 cm