Pedaling to the Edge

Two cyclists, teammates in the Tour de France, are milling about near the starting line of the day’s stage. They fidget as they count down the minutes to the starter’s horn, to the backbreaking uphill slogs and breathless downhill sprints that will make up the next 100-mile ride. One tells a joke:

“Two men are in a bar watching the Tour. . . . It’s raining, and the riders are going up a mountain. . . . Really filthy weather. . . . ‘Why do they do that?’ says the first man. He does not understand. He shakes his head. ‘The winner gets half a million euros,’ says the second man. . . . ‘I know that,’ says the first man, ‘but why do the others do it?’”

Joe Mungo Reed’s remarkable debut novel We Begin Our Ascent is a rare story about these others. Our protagonist, Sol, is a domestique, a cyclist whose goal is not to win the Tour, but to maximize his team leader’s chances of winning—pacing him early, shielding him from the wind, frustrating other riders’ attempts to pass him. A lifetime of unceasing toil has brought him this far, to a spot in cycling’s most prestigious event, but Sol lacks the mental and physical gear that distinguishes the true greats—he will never become an endorsement magnet, a media darling, a star. He suspects that, professionally, he has more or less peaked.