You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Bloomsbury Sport scoops former British road racing cyclist Dowsett's autobiography
Bloomsbury Sport has scooped a "brutally honest" autobiography of former British road racing cyclist Alex Dowsett.
Publisher Matt Lowing acquired world all-language rights to Bloody Minded: My Life in Cycling from Jonathan Marks, managing director at MTC, and will publish the book in hardback on 14th September 2023.
Dowsett is a six-time British time trial champion, who has ridden Grand Tours and Classics for elite teams including Sky and Movistar, and in 2015, he broke the iconic World Hour Record, the ultimate time trial challenge. In the book, he shines a light on how he succeeded despite being the world’s only top sportsperson with haemophilia A.
The synopsis said: "With humour, insight and brutal honesty, Dowsett’s upcoming memoir, Bloody Minded describes how blood disorder haemophilia A – in which falls can be fatal – blighted his young sporting life, and his determination to succeed in cycling; a sport in which cuts, grazes and bruises are a given."
Dowsett said: “If someone had told my parents and me as a newly diagnosed haemophiliac 32 years ago how differently life would pan out to what was forecast, we’d have been blown away, but it possibly wouldn’t have then happened. I’m excited to be able to tell my story and honoured that Bloomsbury is helping me do so.”
Lowing added: “We are delighted to publish Alex Dowsett’s remarkable memoir this coming autumn. His pulsating book lifts the lid on what it is like to cycle for over a decade at the world’s top level. Alex’s story carries heightened jeopardy as his severe haemophilia A, means any crash could be potentially fatal.”
Marks commented: “I’d always been a huge admirer of Alex’s for many years. Stories that are far bigger than the sport they excel in are rare, but this truly is one.”
The publication of Bloody Minded follows Dowsett’s retirement from the sport at the end of the 2022 season, which brought to a close a 12-year-long stint at the highest level of professional cycling.
