My name is Elin - A pro cycling lover's reflections

De som inte vann

Category: Culture

I just realized that I have forgotten to recommend a really funny book for all Swedish reading pro cycling enthusiasts. Last week I got Gabriella Ekström's De som inte vann (which means "Those who did not win", and I am laughing all the time while reading it.

I haven't laughed this much over a book since Team On The Run: The Inside Story of the Linda McCartney Pro Cycling Team, by John Deering, and trust me, I don't only read cycling relative books. Most fiction books are not written to be recognizable.

And that's the difference between De som inte vann and all other books I've read this year.

De som inte vann touches all thoughts that I have had myself. Have you ever visited a hotel where a cycling team live? Have you seen the small notes outside the hotel door or inside the elevator or the lobby that tells in which room a rider is sleeping? When the book's main character's, Mathieu Talabardon, get the feeling that he is not expected to find the room without that note, I started to laugh so much that my stomach hurted. Yes, I have thought the same at moments.

For a couple of months now I have been thinking about writing about eating disorders. Since I have some food problems myself, apparently it is called selective eating disorder, I can recognize myself in different people's strange diets. One of the diets could be called candy diet and is not non-existent in the cycling peloton. I don't know if Gabriella Ekström is aware of it, but at least she mentions it when one of the book's riders get stomach ache after eating too much licorice.

I can also say that the writing is good, however not perfect. I still think it is a perfect book though, as it mentions all those topics that we have all been thinking of so many time. I'd love to know what you guys thought about it, so if you've read it, please tell me.