No one had more fun being bad than Thomas Dekker. In his new book DESCENT, Dekker spares no one as he tells the story of a yearslong bender that exposes the brutal truth of his life as a professional cyclist.
Here’s what the media has said about Dekker’s award-winning, international best-seller:
“The most shocking doping memoir professional cycling has produced.” —Daniel Friebe, author of Eddy Merckx: The Cannibal
“A remarkable story of a fallen cycling hero.” —CyclingReview.nl
“Brutally honest.” —CyclingNews
“It’s been a long time since there was so much ado about a cycling book. It’s a shock when you realize that a cyclist has a rock-n-roll life instead of a monk’s existence. It’s time to read it yourself and judge it.” —Racefietsblog.nl
“A staggering underworld of blood bags, testosterone patches, and injections. No one is spared.” —Eric Palmen, BiografiePortaal
“Thomas Dekker has done something brave here: He has opened sutured wounds with the hope that the rot will dry up. And for that alone we should be thankful.” —Erik Raschke, CyclingTips
“Let one thing be clear: For the average cycling lover, this is a hard confrontation with ‘dirty’ cycling.” —Laurens De Greef, Bicycletta Read & Ride
“Arguably the most shocking yet. . . . It is the uncomfortably raw, matter-of-fact descriptions of the hedonistic lifestyle of a professional cyclist just one decade ago, and the depths to which he sank as he tried to navigate his way through that minefield, which are most shocking.” —The Telegraph
“Unlike others—David Millar, Tyler Hamilton—Dekker doesn’t try to pass responsibility for his doping elsewhere: It was his choice. He shows a self-awareness that’s been lacking in most recent ’chamoirs’ and has been absent from most doping kiss-and-tells. Dekker’s willingness to accept responsibility for his own actions is refreshing.” —Podium Cafe
“Descent . . . has something that one rarely comes across in a cycling memoir—vulnerability.” —Erik Raschke, CyclingTips
“Descent should also be course material for cycling: Every commissaire, every DCO, every DS, every wrench monkey, everybody should be made to read Descent, not to see where Dekker failed himself but to see where the sport failed him and to learn how not to let it fail others.” —Podium Cafe
“What a relief it is to hear a former pro sportsman take responsibility for his actions. Perhaps this is what makes Descent so different; it certainly accounts for it being unputdownable.” —Sports Book of the Month
“Readers will be shocked by many passages about sex, drugs, prostitutes, and the hedonistic excessiveness and egotistical drive that it takes to succeed in pro cycling. . . . Each chapter is a conscious move toward the final stage of self-destruction, and when the end arrives, the reader, too, feels ruined.” —Erik Raschke, CyclingTips
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Descent is Dekker’s unflinching look at the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle of the Euro peloton as it roared through the EPO era. What we see is shocking, yet no one’s story reveals more about professional sports than Dekker’s page-turning fall.