The tales of superstar champions, as wonderful and inspiring as they may be, tend to have an unrealistic, superhuman air to them. It's the stories about the guys who struggle and suffer for every inch they gain and scrap of result they achieve that really inspire me. Joe Parkin, author of the new A Dog in A Hat, weaves just such a yarn. He's an American who chose bike racing in Belgium over a college education at a time when, the Motorola team and Lemond notwithstanding, Yankees were still a rarity in the European peloton.

The book's a perfect inspirational read for a fall or winter day. Having trouble getting out into inclement weather to train? Listen to Parkin's four to six-hour training exploits, punctuated by a steady diet of blisteringly-fast races, largely under the cold Belgian drizzle, and maybe you'll be encouraged to put on an extra layer and just suck it up, fantasies of European glory dancing under your cycling cap.

Parkin cut his teeth alternating between battling in and just surviving through a slew of legendary Belgian "kermis" races that are almost a daily occurrence complete with drunk, gamble-happy fans; insane speeds; and brutally long days in the saddle, one after the next.

I didn't understand the significance of the course length until I dropped out of one and watched the rest of it from a cafe... The time it takes the pros to cover (the 10km circuit) is almost exactly the time it takes to order, receive, and drink a beer.

But his true dream was to climb like an angel and contend for the overall in longer stage races. Although this vision largely escaped reality, he stuck with it for the love of the sport and learned how to race in the cycling world's most difficult arena.

Any rider who has ridden in the service of a bigger-name pro has the ability to soft-pedal while riding past another, thereby protecting him form any number of different types of wind while making it to the front of a race. Cocquyt was no exception, and the slight pause was all it took for me to check in on the Cucquyt express. We made it to the very front of the Liege-Bastonge-Liege peloton...

Parkin's tales take us through the trenches as he plays the role of teammate and sacrifices himself to help the team seize glory in events like the Tour de Suisse. The stories aren't always glorious -- he exposes the "underbelly" of European cycling, complete with secretive deals, doping, and just plain bizarre team tactics -- but they're a rare glimpse into the real world of a journeyman cyclist who gets paid to ride a bike with occasional glimpses of glory as his primary reward.

The journey takes us up mountains beside Greg Lemond, to the cyclocross world championships where an underprepared Parkin finds himself holding top-15 for a spell, and, shortly thereafter, straight to Mexico for a stage race against Tour de France competitors.

It's a wild, gritty, page-turning ride: Grab the book, rub some embrocation into your quads and calves, and settle into your couch for a great read as you plot your own future bike-exploits.

A Dog in A Hat is a new release published by VeloPress.