Book Report: Team 7-Eleven: The Inside Story of America's Greatest Cycling Team

As usual if you will read it and write a report on it, you can get it for free. [A couple of you have outstanding book reports out there. Don't make me call your mothers]

In 1980, there were exactly four professional bike racers in America. Six years later, America's 7-Eleven cycling team would wear the coveted yellow jersey of the Tour de France. Soon after, the team would win Italy's greatest race-the Giro d'Italia.

Team 7-Eleven is the extraordinary story of how two Olympic speed skaters, Jim Ochowicz and Eric Heiden, assembled a local band of amateur cyclists and turned them into one of the greatest cycling powerhouses the sport has known.

Written with the enthusiastic cooperation of the team members, Team 7-Eleven reveals the unlikely story of the team's founding, its growing pains, its strange introduction to European cycling, and its lasting legacy as the pioneer that launched American cycling into the modern era.

Now 30 years after the team's remarkable creation, the story of Team 7-Eleven is available in bookstores, bike shops, and online. For more information and to download a free preview, please visit www.velopress.com/711.

Team 7-Eleven: How an Unsung Band of American Cyclists Took on the World-and Won
Geoff Drake with Jim Ochowicz, forewords by Eric Heiden and Eddy Merckx
Hardcover with jacket, 85 color photographs
6" x 9", 352 pp., $27.95, 978-1-934030-53-0

Geoff Drake is the former editor of Bicycling Magazine and VeloNews, and has covered cycling events worldwide including the Tour de France and Olympic Games. He also writes regularly for national motorcycle magazines and is the author of Smooth Riding, a motorcycling book. He is an avid cyclist, a Category II road racer, and an Ironman triathlete. He lives in Aptos, California.

Jim Ochowicz is a two-time Olympic cyclist and former speedskater who cofounded the 7-Eleven cycling team in 1981. He managed 7-Eleven through 1991 and its successor, the Motorola Cycling Team, through 1996. He served six years as president of the board of directors of USA Cycling, and is currently the manager of the BMC Racing Team. He was inducted into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1997.

VeloPress publishes books for cyclists, triathletes, and runners on training, nutrition, and the histories and personalities of endurance sports. VeloPress is a division of Competitor Group, which publishes Velo, Triathlete, Inside Triathlon, and Competitor magazines and produces the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon series, TriRock triathlon series, and the Muddy Buddy adventure race series.

First one to reply in the comments of the blog (not Facebook, sorry) gets it.

Comments

[jdub]

my S.O. would LOVE to have this book. he still rides in his vintage 7-11 jersey sometimes.

[jdub]

(oh, and he will review it from a fan/daily commuter/11-year veteran courier/ex-roadie/current cyclocrosser's perspective. can't say how fast he will do it, though.)

[Jonathan Krall]

That looks like fun! I'd love to read it. And even write a report.

[Jonathan Krall]

In case it helps, I'll add that it'll be from the perspective of a bicycling geek who watches a lot of bicycle racing and who thinks its interesting that Andy Hampsten's recent Bicycling magazine account of his Giro win doesn't mention Bob Roll at all.

[Michael H.]

I saw an online promo for the book recently. Looks interesting. I might buy a copy later on.

[Gerald Widen]

As an avid cyclist, although a slow one and someone who loves history in general I would like the opportunity to read and post a review of this book. I recently finished "We Were Young and Carefree" by Laurent Fignon who was a contemporary.. Presently 63, I climbed on the bike in my 30's in in part because the success of the 7-11 team, including Greg Lamond's battle with the Badger.