The Fall

‘The Fall’ tells the story of five guys who meet by chance over the course of a few years. All five have a single goal: racing, or a career as a professional cyclist to be precise. On the towpath along the river Scheldt, from Ghent to Oudenaarde, they train together: Iljo Keisse, Wouter Weylandt, Dimitri De Fauw, Bert De Backer and Kurt Hovelijnck. Young, virile and popular, they do indeed manage to become professional cyclists. But life is harder than the dream. What once brought them together, racing, just as ruthlessly tears them apart again.

Although ‘The Fall’ deals with coma, death, suicide and drug abuse in the sometimes harsh world of cycling, it is not a dark book; it offers a painstaking reconstruction of the sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, but always realistic story of five young cyclists. A magnificent tale, told with Shakespearean flair, about cycling, but even more so about friendship and growing up. Narrative non-fiction at its best, about man’s struggle with life and destiny.