Stuart O'Grady is an inspirational but very human sports hero, and Battle Scars is an enthralling read for anyone interested in elite sport.
In 2007, when Stuart O’Grady abandoned Stage 8 of the Tour de France after crashing on a descent and fracturing eight ribs, a shoulder blade, collarbone, three vertebrae (not to mention puncturing his right lung), cycling seemed over for Stuey. But ‘Mr Indestructible’ – who had become the first Australian to win the Rock of Roubaix earlier that year – got back on his bike.
By 2013 Stuart O’Grady had competed in 17 Tours; secured Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals; been named Australian Cyclist of the Year, and Australian Male Road Cyclist of the Year; won the inaugural Tour Down Under; and earned an Order of Australia Medal in recognition of his contribution to the sport. But then came the worst time of his life, when he announced his retirement after such an impressive cycling career and revealed that he had used the performance enhancing drug EPO before the 1998 Tour de France – a Tour marred by widespread doping.
In this up-front and honest autobiography Stuey reveals all. This is his story: as candid and down-to-earth as the man himself.
In 2007, when Stuart O’Grady abandoned Stage 8 of the Tour de France after crashing on a descent and fracturing eight ribs, a shoulder blade, collarbone, three vertebrae (not to mention puncturing his right lung), cycling seemed over for Stuey. But ‘Mr Indestructible’ – who had become the first Australian to win the Rock of Roubaix earlier that year – got back on his bike.
By 2013 Stuart O’Grady had competed in 17 Tours; secured Olympic and Commonwealth Games medals; been named Australian Cyclist of the Year, and Australian Male Road Cyclist of the Year; won the inaugural Tour Down Under; and earned an Order of Australia Medal in recognition of his contribution to the sport. But then came the worst time of his life, when he announced his retirement after such an impressive cycling career and revealed that he had used the performance enhancing drug EPO before the 1998 Tour de France – a Tour marred by widespread doping.
In this up-front and honest autobiography Stuey reveals all. This is his story: as candid and down-to-earth as the man himself.
