Downhill, Downhill

DOWNHILL is about more than two old Tour de France rivals cycling through French wine country. It's about love, adventure, and intelligent yet flawed characters coming to grips with the often duplicitous world of luxury wine. Austin Musgraves is an ex-Tour de France rider who is reliving his former days of glory on a bicycle in the high alps of Savoie, France. He meets Guillaume Babineau, a former rival from the Tour, while riding "Stage 10" of the Tour route from thirteen years ago. Guillaume offers to show him "the life," and Austin follows Guillaume on an odyssey through the wine country of Burgundy. Austin drinks too much and cares too little as he charms his way into the arms of wealthy women in the most elite and prestigious corners of the world of wine. At a party, Austin has a chance encounter with Regina von Katzenelnbogen, an Austrian socialite and wine négociant, who is eager to introduce him to some of her well-heeled American business clientele. Regina and Austin get together as he hits it off with the other Americans, and Regina suggests that he take them on a biking tour through the Route des Grand Crus. Austin becomes an overnight success and is soon taking business travelers of all stripes bicycling through the most expensive vineyards in the world, while Regina is making a very tidy profit from selling them her wine. Then, Austin meets Reece, a former high-powered tech company executive from California who is "floating around the world in a golden parachute." Torn between the old world and the new world, he is left with a decision to make when Austin discovers that Regina's wine business might be nefarious. DOWNHILL is great for adults interested in cycling, wine, and dialogue-driven storytelling. It is equal parts fun page-turning adventure and biting existentialist satire of modern life. It is currently ranked #1 in new releases for cycling and for wine on Amazon Kindle.