This fine, well-written book by David Millar gives a fascinating insight into the world of professional cycle racing. It’s a scrappy, messy, intense, painful world described not through the rose-coloured spectacles of the fan press or the banal commentaries of the television, just the cynical weariness of the hardened and tired professional telling it how it is. Or as Millar puts it himself in his disappointment over non-selection for the Tour de France, “an ageing pro cyclist past his prime, steadily losing his mind, not to be counted on.”

Except of course he could be counted on. Here in 2014, his final season as a pro, Millar is a respected rider; the automatic choice for the job of team road captain. The directeur sportif plans the day’s tactics but he can’t be everywhere. It’s the captain on the road who sees how each rider is doing, calls the shots, redeploys the resources and hopefully guides the team to deliver their leader to the finish line. Millar knows how to read a race.

While the main thread of the book is Millar’s final racing season he dips into the past for some elements. From the start of the Spring Classics, through San Remo, Flanders and the Ardennes, the Giro, the Dauphiné, the national championships, le Tour, the Vuelta and the world championships Millar’s year unfolds. Along the way you’ll find out what it’s really like to ride a team time trial, to be in a major crash, or to ride Paris – Roubaix.

Two longer episodes stand out for me. Millar’s account of the stage in the Dauphiné when his Garmin team placed Andrew Talansky into the overall leader’s position above Chris Froome and Alberto Contador is a marvellous account of how a successful team works on the road. The other is the poignant story of his stage 3 win in the 2011 Giro when he came second on the stage and found himself in the overall leader’s maglia rosa, only to hear about the tragic death of Wouter Weylandt in a crash. Coping with that personally and on the following day on behalf of the whole peloton endorses Millar’s status as a respected senior rider.

He wasn’t selected for the Tour de France in his final year, which was a big blow. He uses the opportunity to describe the final stage of the 2013 Tour where he leads the race for most of the final laps. Here again the details of how to ride this world-famous circuit give a whole new insight into the race.

So thank you for this book, David. I thoroughly enjoyed it!