Southgate (north London) to Epsom in Surrey is about 25 miles. Or, if you prefer, Dagenham in the east to Richmond in the west is the same distance. In new money that’s 40km. From time to time over the last 35 years I’ve attempted to ride a bicycle this distance (but not either of those routes) in less than sixty minutes. Until last night, sixty-two minutes in 1979, and sixty-three minutes in 2007, was the closest I’d got. Last night though, on the A31 in Hampshire, I deployed every aerodynamic device in my ownership, and I literally pressed (and pressed and pressed again) into service every relevant sinew and muscle I could find. So my dossard was glued not pinned, I stretched neoprene covers over my shoes, a one-piece skinsuit over my body and popped a strangely pointed hat atop my head. Then, I pedalled. My legs cried, my arms ached and mixtures of snot and saliva found their way over my chin; while my glasses acquired a film of sweat on their outside and condensation within. The result? Ah, the result. Fifty-nine minutes and fifty-five seconds. For many riders these days this is an unremarkable feat. For most of my friends this fact is of no consequence. For me, it’s a rather different matter. You have a nice day now, thanks for reading.
Let’s get one thing straight, Mr. Roche
A tow too far, even for me
Despite the continued doping in professional cycle sport (latest culprit, Russia’s top road sprinter Denis Galimzyanov in March 2012), what does Stephen Roche seem concerned about? Crashed riders using shelter from team cars to rejoin the peloton is what. It’s ‘intolerable’ he says, “at crashes, riders fall, and spend five minutes on the ground straightening up their shirt and tie and making sure everything is okay before getting back on the bike again, waiting because they know there’s a car to tow them back on. Its not ethically right, it’s a form of cheating and it confuses the public.”
Stephen, let’s get one thing straight (and it’s not anybody’s shirt and tie): I don’t agree at all. If it’s irritating for me, a mere amateur, to puncture in a race and have to abandon because there’s no way for me to rejoin the peloton (even assuming, which is rare, that there’s a following car with one of my wheels in the back) it must be a disaster for a professional rider, who has probably travelled for a couple of days just to reach the race, and on whom expectations weigh heavily, to have to abandon for some silly reason like a minor crash or puncture. Cycle sport is unforgiving enough as it is, but for a racer to have to climb into the team car for no real sporting reason is just unnecessary. Penalty enough I think that the rider, and often his team-mates, have to pound along for five miles or more and burn precious glycogen in the process, just to regain the peloton. If it is cheating, and I can see that in a black and white view of the world it could look that way, it is cheating of the slightest sort, and not the type of thing that confuses this particular member of the public, thank you very much.
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