A Dog in a Hat: An American Bike Racer's Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium

By Parkin Joe

A Dog in a Hat is the remarkable story of Joe Parkin. In 1987, Parkin left the comforts of home to become a bike racer in Belgium, the hardest place in the world to be a bike racer. As one of the first American pros in Europe, Parkin was what the Belgians call “a dog with a hat on” — something familiar, yet decidedly out of place.

Parkin's memoir reads like a novel. In plainspoken and fast-paced prose, Parkin describes the true life of the professional bike racer, putting the reader into the whirlwind of this hardest of athletic educations. A Dog in a Hat begins with Parkin's terrifying first visit to his team doctor, where he is strapped to a table and monitored by humming electrodes as men in white lab coats coldly divine his future as a pro.

Parkin's story is honest. A Dog in a Hat celebrates the glory of bike racing, but Parkin thrillingly tells the hard reality of the life—the drugs, the payoffs, the betrayals by teammates, the battles with team owners for contracts and money, the endless promises that keep you going, and the rider's sheer physical agony of racing day after day.

Despite the pain, despite the suffering, A Dog in a Hat is a beautiful book. It is one American’s story of his love affair with professional cycling, set in the hardest place in the world to be a bike racer. It is a story untold until now, and one that Parkin’s readers will never forget.

• Language: English
• Publisher: VeloPress
• Release date: Aug 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781937716028

Reviews for A Dog in a Hat

[smichaelwilson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

More often than not, sports memoirs usually fall into two major categories; tell-all scandal sheets designed to sell copies through controversy, and lengthy life stories heavily padded with dull and unneeded information.Joe Parkin’s biking memoir does not fall into either of these camps. In A Dog in a Hat, Parkin chronicles the years he spent training and racing in Belgium during the late eighties with brevity and candor, giving the reader plenty of breathing room to enjoy the behind the scenes look at professional bike racing.Perkin’s memoir is about more than just racing. It is a look at the adventures and journeys of an ambitious young man immersing himself in unfamiliar cultures and customs, not only in the intense world of professional team bike racing, but also the foreign land and people that for a short while became his adopted home and family.Never bitter or overly dramatic, A Dog in a Hat is a professional athlete’s fond recollection of a period in his life filled with the experiences and decisions – both good and bad – that not only define the development of an athletic career, but of one man’s life journey. Even if you are not into professional bike racing, A Dog in a Hat is a sports memoir that will amuse, inspire, and entertain.

[indreamsawake · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A rare glimpse into the world of professional cycling in Belgium, this is a story that could only have been told by Joe Parkin, an American cycling in Europe not for the glory but for the love of it. If you're interested at all in cycling beyond what is seen in the Tour de France then I would recommend this book. It definitely garnered a new found respect for these athletes, who in my opinion, push themselves beyond what any other sport requires.

However, it's a shame that this book wasn't better edited, because then it might reach a wider audience. Of course Joe Parkin is a cyclist, not a writer, but this is where a good editor steps in. The book lacked cohesiveness and at times seemed very random- anecdotes thrown in that didn't really have anything to do with anything, while some other things were glossed over. I wish there had been more emphasis placed on the cultural difference between the way Belgians regard cycling and Americans disregard it. It really won't appeal to anyone other than cyclists.

[reverends_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

More often than not, sports memoirs usually fall into two major categories; tell-all scandal sheets designed to sell copies through controversy, and lengthy life stories heavily padded with dull and unneeded information.Joe Parkin’s biking memoir does not fall into either of these camps. In A Dog in a Hat, Parkin chronicles the years he spent training and racing in Belgium during the late eighties with brevity and candor, giving the reader plenty of breathing room to enjoy the behind the scenes look at professional bike racing.Perkin’s memoir is about more than just racing. It is a look at the adventures and journeys of an ambitious young man immersing himself in unfamiliar cultures and customs, not only in the intense world of professional team bike racing, but also the foreign land and people that for a short while became his adopted home and family.Never bitter or overly dramatic, A Dog in a Hat is a professional athlete’s fond recollection of a period in his life filled with the experiences and decisions – both good and bad – that not only define the development of an athletic career, but of one man’s life journey. Even if you are not into professional bike racing, A Dog in a Hat is a sports memoir that will amuse, inspire, and entertain.