A century before Lance Armstrong captured headlines around the world by
winning a record seventh consecutive Tour de France, another American
dominated the world of competitive cycling. His name was Bobby Walthour,
and in the early 1900s he was one of the world's most famous and highly
paid athletes. Life in the Slipstream chronicles Walthour's rise from
a lowly bicycle messenger in Georgia to a two-time national and
international cycling champion who was nearly as popular in Paris and
his adopted home of Berlin as he was in his hometown of Atlanta. His
career parallels the surging popularity of the bicycle in America, and
this biography depicts his life against the backdrop of the bicycle
craze that swept America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Readers will
experience the rough-and-tumble world of professional cycling at the
turn of the twentieth century, where deadly accidents and illicit drugs
were commonplace. During Walthour's long career, more than a dozen of
his rivals were killed or permanently injured. He himself suffered
multiple injuries--from fractured ribs and separated collarbones to
mangled fingers and concussions--and was twice declared dead as a result
of racing accidents. But Walthour's fortunes on the racing circuit
ultimately took a dramatic turn for the worse when his personal life
began to unravel because of drug abuse and an unhappy marriage that
culminated in his attempted murder--by his own wife. Life in the
Slipstream is an unforgettable account of the rise and fall of one of
the greatest athletes of the twentieth century.
