7-Eleven: America’s Greatest Cycling Team is the first book to tell the full story of America’s first and greatest pro cycling team.

Founded in 1981 by Jim Ochowicz and Olympic medalist Eric Heiden and sponsored by the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores, the team rounded up the best amateur cyclists in North America and formed them into a cohesive, European-style cycling team. As amateurs, they dominated the American race scene and won seven medals at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. As professionals, beginning in 1985, the team went to Europe and soon received invitations to the Tour of Italy and then the Tour de France, putting Americans on the podium in landmark victories that would change the face of American cycling forever.

Prepared with the enthusiastic cooperation of the team members and co-authored by the team’s founder, Jim Ochowicz, 7-Eleven is not only the most important missing piece in the story of American cycling, but the book that American cyclists have been waiting for ever since the 7-Eleven cowboys snagged that first yellow jersey.

There was American pro cycling before the Lance Armstrong era, and if you want to know about it, here’s your passport.

From Eric Heiden to Andy Hampsten, Ron Kiefel, Alex Stieda, Davis Phinney, Chris Carmichael, and Bob Roll, all the members of the first American cycling team to make it in European professional cycling are here, orchestrated by Jim Ochowicz. Eddy Merckx and Greg LeMond appear, along with other members of the peloton interacting with the 7-Eleven team.

The writing flows smoothly, holds your attention, and there are plenty of quotes from the riders. This history is personal: it’s about the riders, rather than the abstract forces of cycling history. Some nice photographs as well.

You can read it in a few hours, and you may well go back and leaf through for favorite passages from time to time.

When you finish this book, you’ll certainly know a lot more about where all these people in cycling came from.

This is a good book to cover the start of professional bike racing here in the U.S., but the writing leaves a lot to be desired. Lots of info on the startup, but once the story moves to Europe, it gets very spotty, and like many sponsorship breakups, it ends very abruptly and without a great deal of anaysis.

I enjoyed the reading, but it was very hit and miss. Would like to have seen a little more description of the racing history through more of the years the team was together. I think I was expecting something a little more like Bob Roll’s or Chris Carmichael’s memories; but the sudden wrap-up here leaves you a little confused and disappointed.

What happens when the talented amateur becomes the paid professional cyclist? With the backdrop of the 1998 Tour de France in our history the re-release of this book is a poignant reminder that these riders are not super men. This book answers that question in graphic and, occasionally horrifying, detail.

Some, to compete in a grueling stage race, subject their bodies to horrific potential consequences. Most of them are not the leaders but the “domestique” who ride in support of the leaders. They lead them in their draft, carry water bottles back and forth, only to drop out just before the glory moments.

Why do they do it? Perhaps it is the sponsors. Perhaps the fans. Perhaps it is just the difference between the team leader and the team support, for whom the team win is more important than finishing.

Rough Ride: Behind the Wheel With a Pro Cyclist is very hard to put down, even though I am strictly a recreational rider with no racing experience I found the story painted very vivid images. Paul Kimmage pours it all on the table, sometimes trying to be neutral, other times being very judgmental.

This book is a chilling look at all professional sport through the lens of professional cycling. The book feels very honest in presenting the history of drugs and cycling. I would definitely read more of his work.