Olympic Gangster: The Legend of José Beyaert - Cycling Champion, Fortune Hunter and Outlaw

by Matt Rendell
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Olympic Gangster: The Legend of José Beyaert - Cycling Champion, Fortune Hunter and Outlaw, Matt Rendell

The remarkable biography of a 1948 Olympic cycling champion who became a swashbuckling fortune-hunter in Columbia

Available Formats

  • Paperback
    $19.95 RRP
    ISBN: 9781845965938
    Published: 15/06/2011
    Imprint: Mainstream Publishing
    Extent: 352 pages
  • Trade Paperback
    $32.95 RRP
    ISBN: 9781845963989
    Published: 15/07/2009
    Imprint: Mainstream Publishing
    Extent: 352 pages
  • EBook
    CHECK RETAILER PRICE
    ISBN: 9781845969370
    Published: 01/04/2011
    Imprint: Mainstream Digital
    Extent: 352 pages
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Restlessly vital and possessed of great physical strength, José Beyaert lived many lives. During the Second World War, he boxed and trafficked arms for the Resistance on his bicycle. After it, he became an international cyclist. In 1948, a mile from the end of the Olympic road race around Windsor Park, he broke away alone to take the gold medal and started an adventure that would last the rest of his life.A Tour de France rider in the sport's golden age, José was invited to open a new velodrome in Colombia, South America. He travelled, intending to stay a month. Instead, driven by his thirst for adventure, he stayed for 50 years, becoming by turns athlete, coach, businessman, emerald-trader, logger, smuggler, perhaps even hired killer.Matt Rendell, who knew José Beyaert, tells the fascinating story of an almost-forgotten sporting hero who, incapable of living to other people's rules, lived his many lives on his own terms.

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"Separating myth from reality . . . and bringing it together with the sure-handedness we've come to expect is award-winning author Matt Rendell" - The Bookseller

"A riveting tale that would be unbelievable were it not for [Rendell's] impeccable research" - Independent on Sunday

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