And, of course, he was the guy who escaped British Cycling’s clutches and chose to go his own way, rejected the offer of hopping on the elliptical treadmill and bringing home the bangles and the baubles on the track, chose to forge his own path on the road. When reading such books about the life of a bike racer covering the key points and the stories of race successes, though for me the greater interest is within storyline of the detailed day to day of what went on within a team, the camaraderie with other riders, the management and organisation, the positive aspects of how well the team prepares in it’s approach to an an important race. Dan is unashamed when it comes to exposing these dark feelings, his weaknesses and how he tried to deal with them, his attitude exemplifying Mark Twain's quote: "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear". A break of three or so went early, the pack rode steady waiting for the last lap or two to wind things up.

Things go from bad to worse, while outwardly their bid to make him a GC contender didn’t work, Martin reveals he was close to breaking his contract and ending his career. Known, thanks to his racing style and attitude, for being one of road cycling’s last romantics, Dan has always shied away from revealing too much about himself and his story. This book reflects Dan’s generous and outspoken spirit, his resilience to pain, crashes, bad luck and, finally, his acceptance of destiny. Biography: Born in 1986 in Birmingham to an Irish mother and an English father, Dan Martin is the nephew of Irish cycling legend Stephen Roche. What Martin is telling us in Chased by Pandas and what Martin told Kimmage five years earlier, they’re substantially the same, in both he’s telling us he hasn’t really used painkillers save for the odd paracetamol every now and again.

He saw Martin as having been part of a group of riders who opened a doorway for a better form of cycling, he saw Martin as having helped inspire other riders, including Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet. Given that both Martin and Carrey have strayed further into the sport’s dark places in interviews and articles, it seems even lighter still. So, no, thanks, I’ll refuse to read Dan’s autobiography and use the spared time in a more constructive way. As for dealing with pain, “I would take a paracetamol to help mask the fatigue and dull ache that three weeks of brutal racing inflicts on your body, but I then found out it was more of a placebo. There are of course more constructive ways use one’s time than to read road cyclists’ autobiographies, but I dare say – even before I’ve read the book myself – that STS would be positively surprised if he bought (or loaned) the book and wasted a couple of hours of his time by reading it!

Martin seems to be on a higher level, there are later examples of him having premonitions of victory, sending messages to his family to say “I’m going to win today”.On one level, Dan Martin’s chamois memoir (chamoir) Chased by Pandas – ghosted by Carrey – is that article stretched out to book length.

The thing that I remember most about Martin is him being totally wiped out by Porte and showing no resentment for the fact. Overlaying that is a glimpse of the frankly mystical events that have foretold a victory or just the direction his career should take. It’s hard to tell if this was just a communication blunder that got out of hand, each side not listening to the other… or worse, management frustrated with him. The opening chapter is about the fear of crashing and reprises Martin’s wipe-out on the final bend of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, he’d given his rivals the slip and was just about to overhaul Giampaulo Caruso only to slide out in sight of the finish line.It's refreshing to read a modern-day rider's memoire that's not all about watts, calories, and such other science stuff that now drives rider performance. Dan is unashamed when it comes to exposing these dark feelings, his weaknesses and how he tried to deal with them, his attitude exemplifying Mark Twain's quote: 'Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear'.