Book Review: Domestique by Charly Wegelius

In a world of sports autobiographies about drug takers and winners, and sometimes both, Domestique by Charly Wegelius and Tom Southam is an unusual beast; a book about a professional cyclist who never won a race. Charly was born in Finland in 1978 to a British mother and Finnish father. His father was a Finnish show jumper who had competed in the Olympics and some of the competitive nature must have rubbed off on his son.

When his parents separated Charly moved to York with his mother and brother and spent his early years splitting his time between term time in England with his mother and holidays with his father in Finland. By 17 he was one of the best in the UK and moved to Europe to start his path to being a professional cyclist. Living most of his professional career in Italy, Charly was best known as the last domestique helping his team leader on the mountains of the Giro d’Italia. The book does not address the topic of drugs in any depth which, given that during training and races he shared a room with a prolific doper, seems like quite an omission. It does however discuss in some depth the role of the domestique and the general misery of making your living riding a bike in support of someone else’s success.

Charly talks at length about the occasional highs he enjoyed including his time as part of the squad at Liquigas but much of the book is about the disappointment and loneliness of living the life of a professional cyclist.

Throughout his career he was a polarising character, often disliked by the British press. No time more so than when, in return for 2,500 Euros he worked for the Italian team at the 2007 World Championships. Something that he clearly regrets whilst still not entirely coming to terms with why it was wrong.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys sports autobiographies, especially anyone who is interested in cycling.