A Dog in a Hat: An American Bike Racer's Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium

In 1987, Joe Parkin was an amateur bike racer in California when pro cyclist Bob Roll told him he needed to go to Belgium to become a professional. Years later, Roll encountered Parkin riding along a Belgian canal and barely recognized him—Belgium had transformed him into a pro racer and changed him fundamentally. Parkin left California with minimal possessions: a bag of clothes, two spare wheels, some cash, and a phone number. As one of the first American professionals in Europe, he entered the windy, rainswept heartland of European cycling. The Belgians called him "a dog with a hat on"—something familiar yet decidedly out of place. A Dog in a Hat documents the realities of professional cycling: drug use, payoffs, teammate betrayals, battles with team owners over contracts and money, endless promises, the agony of racing day after day, and the glory of successful races. Set in what Parkin describes as the hardest place in the world to be a bike racer, this is his account of his education as a cyclist and his relationship with the sport.