Richie Byrne: Blood And Steel

The Last Blast

Richie Byrne savagely gave it his all in a full scale war with cancer. Then he passed away peacefully on September 29th, 2016. Ten days later, five hundred mountain bikers pedaled up an Irish mountain to raise their helmets and bid him farewell.  

That would have been enough to raise my curiosity in the posthumously published collection of Richie's writings. The powerful emotions his passing pulled out of my friends from the Irish mountain bike community made experiencing this text mandatory.

His ardent passion, unsparing humour, raw yet reflective humanity, and focused energy all shine through in his writing. 

Blood And Steel

The book consists of a collection of Richie's blogs spanning 2011 to 2016 and aims to continue his legacy of entertaining and inspiring both hardened and aspiring mountain bikers.  

I’m certain that if five hundred people reviewed this book every one of them would select different passages to highlight Richie's writing. I've ended up flagging half the pages of the book. If you've read Richie's blogs, and there's a quote that highlights his work for you, please post it in the comments below. 

For me, it's a sweet, brutal, cocky, honest, sometimes questionable, beautifully emotional, and bitterly affecting cancer story routed in a burning passion for family, friends, and mountain biking. 

You can't buy 'The Blogs Of The Godfather' and that's a shame. The book 'Blood And Steel' was printed to order €35 at a time. By my count, there are only some 250 copies in the world. But, if you know someone from Ireland who rides mountain bikes there's a great chance they know someone with a copy. 

I think the best way to experience Richie's writing is outside with a pint or a cup of coffee and a hard copy, which I suppose is a bit ironic since it is tacked together from blogs. Don O'Connor, of Slick Fish Design, did a beautiful job 

It's not always easy to process. Richie was at times poetic and at times brutally blunt. He was unsparing, including to himself, and simultaneously gives zero f*cks and all the f*cks. I'm positive he'd have been beyond stoked if you read this book and wouldn't give two shakes if you didn't. 

I can promise you won't agree with every sentiment or laugh at every joke, and you might even be perturbed from time to time, but I read every word cover-to-cover and appreciated the book profoundly. 

Riding Bikes

Mountain bikes were a central tenant of the Tao of Richie. Riding, racing, event organizing, coaching and also selling them at Giant Dublin. He donated endless hours introducing kids to mountain biking through the Little Giants program he fostered. 

A fun theme of the book is Richie's transition from a passionate advocate of XC Racing, due to its accessibility for all ages, to a consummate fan of Enduro which "reminded me why we all took it up in the first place."

Richie touches on far more themes than I could recount here, but I love how he captures the experience of a bunch of guys trying to get more women into cycling. As with anything Richie discusses, he is equal parts boastful and self-deprecating. 

Cancer

Boastful nature aside, it's beyond debate that Richie introduced more people in Ireland to mountain biking than anyone. He was sometimes on the trails seven days a week and by his own admission, he hated riding by himself. Byrne is quite forward about his selfish want for riding friends, his passion for winning, and deep appreciation for watching other riders improve. 

I can't do justice to the candid way that Richie addresses the ups and downs of his personal cancer battles. He blends it with humour, profanity, and of course, a hearty base of mountain biking narrative but the full flavour of his experience is present with every bite. Fair warning: If you’ve witnessed someone close fight cancer then there's a good chance you'll cry at some point reading Byrnes blogs. 

It's a testament to Richie's storytelling that I actually laughed at times during many of the darkest chapters. He never ceased to search for the humour in his experience and engage in a bit of life counselling while he has the reader's attention. Clichés become profound in the context of imminent death. 

Living

Blood and Steel is the autobiography of a good human with a competitive streak and a stubborn nature who tried passionately to get everyone on mountain bikes, candidly shared his hellacious cancer experience, and open-heartedly left us advice for a good life in an imperfect collection of humorous high energy musings. 

I've enjoyed the book so much I went through it multiple times to pick the best passages to highlight why I think you'd enjoy reading it. 

Richie was a huge supporter of Giant Bicycles and with their global retail presence, I'd love to see them do a printing of this collection to introduce more riders to the writings of a lost disciple of the global mountain bike community. Proceeds to support his passions of course. 

In the meantime, I know there's already more than a little competition among my friends to read this copy. Richie would have appreciated that.