Fat lad at the back

I just watched a recording of Dragons Den featuring the cycling company – ‘Fat Lad at the Back’ – (FLAB)

I thought there presentation was quite good and was a bit surprised the grumpy old dragons didn’t get the potential of the label and market segment.

Screen Shot 2014-08-13 at 12.53.11

Fat lad at the back on BBC. Photo by BBC

If I was a dragon, I think I would have taken a punt, I think the cycle-wear has a lot of potential. It can carve a niche, amongst those MAMILs who will enjoy the irony of riding the label FLAB – not everyone’s cup of tea, but I suppose it makes a change from Rapha and Sky replica jerseys.

In a way being rejected by the Dragons, is probably one of the best bits of advertising they could get. I think people will like the label even more, now that the Dragons have said it won’t work. There’s nothing better than proving a few millionaires wrong.

tejvan-start-action

Perhaps if I play my cards right, after the hill climb season, I could get my first official brand endorsement deal with  ‘Fat lad at the back’. It would be the ultimate post-modernist irony – whatever that is.

Fat Lad at the Back (FLAB) is a Yorkshire based firm which offers cyclewear to riders with up to a 60inch waist.  Founders Richard and Lynn Bye appeared on TV August 2014. One motivation for Fat Lad at the Back was the difficulty in getting good clothes for cyclists are bigger than the typical ‘cyclist dimensions’.

(though I could add, I’ve never been able to get arm warmers thin enough to stay up! though I can’t see a specialist cycling company being created to meet that niche…)

About Fat Lad at the Back

“1 long weekend, 3 fat lads, 4 alpine hills.

This was the alcohol infused challenge we set ourselves.

Our own Etape du pain, conceived of some misguided idea that 3 middle aged men in lycra, collectively weighing in excess of 280kg’s, could cycle Alpe D’Huez, Col de la Croix de Fer, Télégraphe and Galibier in 3 days.

Who’ll be last up the hills? We joked and laughed about having a jersey printed for the previous days fat lad at the back, a Yorkshire version of the Lantern Rouge.”

Fat Lad at the Back website

Related

London – Surrey Classic 2014

I was impressed with the quality of the London Surrey Classic – This is exactly what you hope from a one day classic. Big splits in the fields and an increasingly small group contesting the finish. It makes it a game of cat and mouse, decided on the smallest of margins.

london-surrey-adam-bowie
Photo Adam Bowie. Flickr

Philip Gilbert was undoubtedly the strongest of the riders on the hills, but his last dig in Wimbledon was not quite enough to drop the remaining five. It was fascinating seeing the three of Swift, Blythe and Cannondale rider trying to reclaim the 50 m gap to Gilbert and Alaphillipe upfront. Such a small gap, so agonisingly hard to close.

london-surrey-adam-bowie
Photo Adam Bowie – (1)

 

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A summer of cycling

It has been a treat for cycling fans this summer. The Tour de France – the Commonwealth Games, not to mention the Tour of Poland.

bearded-one-marcel-kittel

As gripping at the Tour of Poland is on Eurosport, nothing will beat the experience of watching the Tour de France in the flesh through Yorkshire.   It was a great shame Froome and Contador crashed out, because it would have made a fascinating battle for the overall between them and Nibali. But, the individual stages had enough interest to make it an absorbing contest all the way to Paris.

The Commonwealth Games may not rank too highly on the European Procycling calendar, but it still gave some memorable action. The individual time trial was pretty exciting as time trials go. It was great to see English time triallist, Alex Dowsett come back from 5 seconds deficit to gain a narrow victory in the last few km. Good to see plenty of time checks – something you don’t always see in pro continental time trials. I particularly enjoyed watching this time trial as Dowsett quite often turns up to blast the local domestic time trial scene.

Both the mens and womens road race was epic, and I think everyone was glad to see Lizzie Armitstead and perennial team worker – Geraint Thomas take the plaudits and finish first. I would like to see Thomas as the designated team leader for Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders next year.

The Vuelta Espane is on the horizon and it will be a fascinating duel between a fresh Froome and an inform Quintana. Froome starts as favourite, but Quintana is a superb climber.  There are other candidates as well, though the ageing Chris Horner will struggle to replicate his position of last year. Nevertheless, he’s done a lot for all those balding vet cyclists, who aren’t quite ready to hang up the wheels.

My Training

20-percent-sign-langbar

With time trials on the back burner until next year, it’s all about hill climbs for the next couple of months. I’m taking a few weeks of unstructured hill climb training before starting more regimented intervals. It involves basically going up fast hills, in particular steep 20% hills, like Pea Royd Lane.

On Monday I got a sore back after a previous four hour training ride in the Chilterns. It’s a reminder that climbing steep hills uses quite different muscles to a time trial tuck. Once the season gets underway, core strength training usually goes out of the window. But, I might have to do a bit of upper body work to get more power and stability when doing short power efforts.

At this time of the year, I make the first comparison of power and time of going up various hills – times I’ve been recording for the past few years. It’s always hard to make comparisons year to year, but you do start looking for any early sign of improvement / decline / stagnation. My power meter seems to be giving readings  20-30 watts lower than last year – at least I hope it’s the power meter and not me. The Garmin always fails when I try to recalibrate. Anyway, at the end of the day, it’s the time going up hills that matter not the power figure on the computer.

yorkshire-gree-climb

Unsurprisingly, I feel pretty strong on the fifth or sixth interval of the day, but the all important first interval could be a little faster. I guess if you train for 100 mile time trials, that’s the kind of effect you will get. Now, it’s time to refocus on explosive power rather than maintaining efforts for several hours. I do kind of enjoy hill climb intervals. At least it’s nice to be doing them in summer with warm weather for a change.

Next week, I may go up to Yorkshire, have a look at Pea Royd Lane, and maybe ride up a few more Yorkshire hills, before heading off to New York where the interval training will begin in earnest.

In Oxfordshire, I’ve found a hill which is a reasonable comparison to Pea Royd Lane – Chinnor Hill from Chinnor to Bledlow Ridge.

Starting just after mini roundabout over the railway bridge, the hill is

  • 0.8 miles
  • Gradient 9%
  • max: 16%
  • Height gain: 393ft / 120m

Not as steep as Pea Royd Lane, but a reasonable approximation

 

 

Best recovery drinks

Recovery drinks are useful for after a long ride or race. If it is a fairly easy training ride, I probably won’t bother – just rely on water and normal food. But, when you’ve really exerted yourself, a recovery drink can be helpful for rehydrating and taking on energy and protein. Many studies have suggested that just after exercise is the best time to take on nutrition. It is at this time, when the body is empty, that the body is most receptive to nutrition. Recovery drinks can play a role in maximising recovery. It might sound obvious to take on water and nutrition after big effort, but if you’re a bit disorganised you can struggle to find the right food and drink. Recovery drinks can make it easier.

There are quite a few different recovery drinks to choose from. They will all have some combination of carbohydrate / protein. The most common recovery drinks are based on carb (maltodextrin/ fructose) and whey protein. There are also soy recovery drinks. The most important thing is not so much choosing the ‘right’ brand, but just making sure you take something in the right quantity.

recovery-drinks-mix
Some of the recovery drinks in the house.

High 5 Recovery

The High 5 Recovery sachets are pretty handy. Often I take a recovery drink after a race. Having a few sachets in your bag, makes it easy to make a drink without carrying a large carton or recovery powder.

It is very easy to mix. Just put some powder in, give a little stir, and it’s ready to go. It tastes very pleasant and is easy on the palate. Often I find recovery drinks hard work, but this is very easy to drink. The taste is fairly neutral and not-sweet, just easy to take down. The nutrition is the most common combination of carb (maltodextrin and fructose) and whey isolate protein. They say whey protein is better protein than beef, so it makes a good recovery drink. Some sports drinks can be acidic. But, High 5 recovery mixed with milk is neutral, which makes it welcoming post hard ride. It is similar to High 5 4:1, but has a higher protein content. It has roughly a 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein. It is probably my preferred recovery drink.

The High 5 4:1, you could use as a recovery drink. I sometimes use as last bottle on a long ride, to help start the recovery.

 

Milk

Skimmed milk is an excellent recovery drink – and also cheap!

Milk contains a blend of casein and whey, which have amino acids in a pattern similar to muscle protein. Milk is quite a dilute recovery drink, in that 100ml provides just 1.7g of protein and 4.5 of carbohydrate. But, the advantage is that (skimmed milk)  makes it easy on the stomach making it less likely to cause stomach bloating or stress. (benefits of milk at Bike Radar) Milk also has many micro-nutrients that are helpful.

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Standard vs Compact Chainset

Readers question: Which is better standard or compact cranks?

compact-50-34

  • A compact chainset is typically  50/34 gearing.
  • A standard chainset typically has  52/39 or 53/39

A compact chainset enables smaller gears making it easier to go up steep hills. For many beginners to road cycling, a compact chainset is likely to be more useful

PCD Distance of compact vs Standard

  • Standard groupsets have a PCD of 130mm (135mm for Campag) PCD Is the distance from centre of groupset to the centre of each chain wheel pin.
  • Compact gears have a smaller PCD 110mm – this enables smaller chain rings to be put on.

Advantages of Compact Gears

  • An inner chain ring of 34 or 36, will enable you to climb at a slower pace.
  • A Standard gear 39*25 @ a cadence of 80rpm means you will be going at 10 mph (16 Kmph).
  • With compact gear of 34*25 @80 rpm, you can go slower 8.7 mph.
  • With a compact, it means on climbs you can maintain a higher cadence and avoid pushing the gears like a weightlifter. This is important in long rides where you want to prevent your muscles being overtaxed.
  • Compact gears were developed by MTB producers seeking to reduce weight (Having a compact chainset avoids the need for 3 rings), though the weight gain is relatively minor (perhaps 100 grams).
  • You rarely regret having too many gears. You will regret struggling up a 25% hill when you’re legs are tired and you have to maintain an impossible cadence of 50rpm and are weaving all over the road to try and make it to the top.
  • It depends on the hills. Even professional cyclists may have compact chainsets fitted for particularly steep hills, like Mount Zoncolan in the Giro Di’Italia. (up to 20% gradient)

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Cycling in the heat and avoiding dehydration

Cycling in the heat can be challenging, especially if you are not used to it. When cycling in the heat you have to be careful to remain hydrated, plus taking on enough water and salts. In the UK, we rarely get the opportunity to ride in really hot conditions, which is probably why we struggle a bit more than continentals who are more used to it. Even when it goes above 25 degrees is can feel hard work. But, if we go to Europe or US, it can be even more challenging with temperatures of 35 degrees plus.

The good news is that cycling is one of the better sports to do in the heat. At least you get a cooling effect from the wind – something you don’t get so much when running.

Heat in the Tour de France

On the BBC, there’s a good article by Geraint Thomas on riding in the Tour de France with temperatures nudging 35 degrees +

Thomas writes that:

“I had been drinking around three bottles of fluid every hour – 1.5 litres – to keep myself hydrated and to ride at that threshold. (BBC link)

bottle-carrier

For a six hour stages, that’s 18 bottles or 9 litres. That’s tough for whoever is on water bottle carrying duty that day.

Even with all that water, Thomas says his head felt as if it was going to explode. It’s one thing to ride in the heat, it’s another thing to ride at threshold in the heat. Thomas says he got used to the heat a bit, riding in the Tour down Under. But, even a professional with the best possible backup and experience, still finds it really tough; that’s an element of riding in the heat – it is always going to be a bit harder.

Tips for riding in the heat

green-1-hairpin

  • The need for water can increase dramatically. Once the temperature goes above a certain level, you can need much more than usual. It’s not necessarily a linear progression The danger is that you just take the usual amount, plus a bit more. Thomas writes that he was getting three bottles an hour. Just to emphasise – that is really a lot. But, the amount you need is quite an individual thing. To put it bluntly some people sweat more than others.
  • Consider increasing your water carrying capacity. In winter, you can get away with one or two bottle cages, but if you need to be drinking 2 bottles an hour, it can become a real pain, having to keep stopping. For a pro, like Thomas it’s much easier when you have a team car and people to pass you water. For a lone, unsupported rider, it’s a bit more of a pain to keep stopping. If you’re going to be riding a lot in the heat, consider 1000ml bottles (I use this 1L SIS water bottle – good on down tube, but gets in way on the seat tube) or an additional rear mounted bottle cage, so you don’t have to stop so much.
  • Electrolytes. When you’re drinking extra quantities of water, you need to take water with electrolytes in. If you just take plain water, you can deplete your salt levels and this can create real problems. A litre of sweat can contain up to about 800 mg of sodium (depending on person) – that’s 50% of recommended intake of sodium (link). I like to take some small packets of electrolytes in back pocket, to put in bottles when I fill up.
  • Reduce concentration of energy drinks. When it’s really hot, your stomach will not appreciate highly concentrated energy drinks. As you will be drinking more you can afford to reduce the concentration of energy powder and you will still get enough carbohydrate.
  • Getting the right quantity of water and electrolytes is not so easy. It’s hard to give precise quantities because everyone will be different depending on their weight, effort levels, propensity to sweat e.t.c. One  very rough rule of thumb is to check quantity / colour of urine. You will notice on very hot days, you need to work harder drinking extra water to keep urine normal colour.
  • It is also useful to weigh yourself before and after a ride, you can easily lose a couple of kilos during a ride. However, don’t feel you have to keep the same weight after the ride, it is inevitable your weight goes down a little after a ride (even when it’s freezing), but if it is more than normal, it is a sign of excess water loss.
  • One thing about riding in the heat is that it requires a certain discipline and focus to keep drinking and taking on energy. If you’re not careful, you can just suffer and not take on enough. Often it is only when you stop, that you realise how thirsty you are.
  • Just because it’s hot in the valley, doesn’t mean it is hot everywhere. If you’re climbing mountains or even big hills it can still be a lot cooler high up. A good rain jacket can help protect should the weather change.
  • With riding in the heat, there is an element of acclimatisation. If you go from a cold British winter to 35 degrees in Australia, it’s quite a shock to the system. The longer you spend riding in the heat, the better you will get. The body can change the way it sweats and it becomes more tolerable over time. Therefore, if possible give yourself time to adjust to the heat.
  • There is a psychological element to riding in the heat. I’ve heard many British people say quite strongly “I hate the heat” – “I’m useless in the heat”. I do think this makes it even more difficult. Certainly some people will find it harder in the heat, but try and avoid being too pessimistic. Even if you’ve had a bad experience riding in the heat, there is probably quite a lot you can do to make it better next time – acclimatisation, drinking more, and gaining more confidence to riding in the heat. Don’t write off you ability to ride in the heat. See it as a challenge – something to get used to, like you train to get faster, you need to train to get used to the heat.
  • It is possible to drink too much. It can cause a condition known as hyponatremia – when you take so much water, cells become depleted in sodium. The phenomena has been observed most in slow marathon runners, who took a long time, and drank too much at every water station. There is an element of common sense. You don’t have to down litres of water before starting – this will just make you want to stop.
  • Caffeine. There seems to be conflicting research, some studies suggest caffeine can act as a diuretic and increase chance of dehydration. Others negate this. But, I avoid anyway.

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Questions on cycling uphill

girl-walking-honister pass

A bit of a hobby is seeing the Google keywords that people search to come to your blog. These are some of the interesting keywords and questions that people type in Google to end up at cyclinguphill.com. Unsurprisingly many things connected with cycling up a hill seems to get linked to this blog.

These are some of the random keyword searches that people put into Google. However, many of these queries can be answered with three golden rules of cycling uphill.

horse-shoe-pass
Horseshoe Pass in Wales – a good hill to practise on with max gradient of 10%

 For example, take the Google search – ‘can’t cycle up hills’#3

3 Rules

  1. You will have to cycle up hills slowly.
  2. Get a lower gear for your bike. This makes it easier to cycle slowly.
  3. To get better at cycling uphill, you need to do more of it. Eventually after years of practise, you will be able to cycle up hills, slightly less slowly.

If all else fails, moves to Netherlands, but cycling uphill is not as intimidating as it might first look.

For the very keen:

Check out these techniques of cycling uphill.

If you’re really keen:

check out these hill climb intervals.

– Some suggest the ideal hill climb interval is a gap of about a year in between each big effort. Others of a more masochistic sort, like to see how many times they can go up and down a hill in a day. You pays your money and you take your choice.

The hills never end

It may seem daunting at first, but once you’ve done some training to get stronger and more adept at going uphill, you will soon be seeking out the hardest and steepest hills to see what time you can do – e.g. 100 climbs.

come-onmister

Google Searches related to Cycling Uphill

‘riding uphill find it hard’

This is good. Riding uphill is supposed to be hard – whether a beginner or pro, cycling uphill is never easy – otherwise where would be the fun? As Greg LeMond once said about cycling uphill. (much repeated advise) – ‘It never gets easier, you just get faster.’

ralph-wilson-hill-climb
Ralph Wilson in National Hill climb, looking in great shape.

 

‘biked uphill almost passed out gear

‘Almost passed out’ is something hill climbers might like to boast about. If you cycled so hard you nearly passed out, this is a sign that you could make an excellent cyclist. If you don’t actually enjoy that feeling of nearly passing out or if you have a 100 miles further to cycle after going up hill. The best advice is to go slower (see: rule #1)

This is the real secret to riding uphill – go slower.  Lowering your expectations is always a good way to get through life.

Another thing to consider is getting a compact chain set or even triple granny chainring (rule #2 – get a lower gear). There are some people who will tell you a granny chainring is for well ‘Grannies’ but when you’re struggling up Kirkstone pass in 39*25 – zigzagging all over the road trying to prevent yourself falling off into a ditch – you soon learn macho gears are no comfort. Get a lower gear, and enjoy the ride.

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Tour shorts

The Tour de France was supposed to be Contador vs Froome. After watching the Dauphine, it looked might it could be an epic battle between the two. But, now it’s looking like the Vicenzo Nibali and Astana show. There have been so many twists and turns already, but now, maybe no one is able to attack Nibali and Astana all the way to Paris.

On the plus side, it’s looking like it will be a cracking Vuelta –  a three way battle between three of the world’s best cyclists – Froome, Contador and Quintana. Perhaps even Wiggo will get his long awaited chance to ride as super-domestic.

If the Tour is going to be predictable from now on, at least that is good news for those who need to go out and train on the bicycle. I have a 12 hour time trial in 11 days, and I could do with some training more than just watching the telly. As the event looms, I’m torn between resting and doing nothing and going out to panic train to get a few 7 hour rides in. Common sense will probably prevail and it will be a compromise with a few 2-3 hour rides to keep ticking over.

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Cobbles, classics and Froome is down and out

I took a day off training to watch the fifth stage of the Tour de France, which featured the cobbles of Paris Roubaix. One thing about the classics is they always make fascinating viewing – even if as a rider I’m glad I don’t ride them. One thing you could absolute guarantee about the day – it wasn’t going to be a sprint finish with Marcel Kittel taking another stage.

The strange thing about watching the stage is that you just had one of those feelings it wasn’t going to be Froome’s day. He just didn’t look comfortable on the bike and with riders going down like a ten pin bowling park, you just had that gut feeling Froome was not going to make it.

It was an exciting stage (though with a macabre subtext, there is part of you feeling slightly guilty for ‘enjoying’ watching a spectacle which is essentially made by the danger and so many crashes.An interesting stage, but a shame for the long-term of the tour when defending champion goes out. I was looking forward to a Contador / Froome duel in the mountains. But, that’s cycling and no-one is indispensable.

Photo Brendan2010 - Tour of Flanders 2013

A few weeks ago, Nibali looked on poor form, struggling to keep up with Froome and Contador – who would have imagined the out of form climber, dropping Cancellara and Sagan on wet cobbles? It was an impressive display and leaves mixed emotions about the desirability of cobbles in the tour. It was definitely an awesome ride by the guys at the front of the race.

The sad thing for Froome is that once the riders got to the cobbles it actually seemed safer, with the peleton smashed to small groups, the frequency of crashes diminished. It was just a crazy 15 minutes before the cobbles where riders were going down like no tomorrow. But, it seems hard enough to ride on cobbles when fully fit, with dodgy wrists he may have not made it anyway. The irony is that it was probably the crash from yesterday on a flat wide road in glorious sunshine which was the biggest factor in causing him to retire.

The Tour in Britain was a fantastic success, but British riders are having their worse tour for many years. Hopefully Geraint Thomas got all his bad luck earlier in the season – he’s a strong rider as he showed yesterday, helping Porte catch up some time. The Tour in Britain was a great success despite Cavendish falling – that was a nice thing about Le Tour in Yorkshire – it was great – independent of home success. But, we could sorely do with a British stage victory – if only to give us something to talk about other than – why didn’t we pick Bradley Wiggins?

Thankfully, it’s a boring flat stage today, so no excuses for not going out training. The national 100 is suddenly looming on the horizon – temporarily lost in the fog of Tour de France excitement.

Related

Inside Team Sky – David Walsh – Review

Book CoverInside Team Sky is written by Sunday Times sports writer, David Walsh. It covers a year spent with the team, during Froome’s first 2013 Tour de France victory. David Walsh is the author of ‘Seven Deadly Sins‘ which is a summary of his exposure of doping by L. Armstrong and US Postal. The book gives an inside look at how Team Sky prepare for races and an insight into some of the characters in the team. But, the strong overtone of the whole book is whether Team Sky are riding clean.

David Walsh is considered one of the most persistent investigators into the doping of Lance Armstrong. For many years, Walsh dug around finding evidence to support his initial gut feeling that Armstrong was doped. If you read the USADA report on US postal, published in 2012, a lot of that information (apart from rider testimonies) had been uncovered years earlier by David Walsh and published in L.A. Confidential.

It’s easy to jump on the Armstrong /doping bandwagon these days. But, back in cycling’s dark ages of the early 2000s, it was a brave man who went against Team Armstrong and his army of lawyers. I never liked Armstrong and always believed his connection to Ferrari was evidence he was doping. But, when I look back at articles I wrote, I noticed how careful I was to say anything outright. I was very conscious of being sued. (I did once got threatened to be sued by a ‘friend’ of Boris Johnson for a biography I once wrote, but that’s a long story I’m not going to repeat here.) Anyway, to investigate Armstrong was no easy task.

The 2012 USADA report was so damning, so overwhelming – it blew the lid once and for all on the doping legacy of cycling. Although painful, it felt like one of the best things to happen to procycling – it was an important moment when even the UCI kicked Armstrong out of the sport.

But, the problem with exposing the depth of doping in the peleton and the extent to which people could lie to get away with – left a  strong feeling of bitterness, cynicism and mistrust amongst cycling fans.

There are 100 reasons to not take drugs. But, I think the worst thing about the decades of drug taking is how it affects the rest of the world, making people more cynical, bitter and meaning clean athletes have to deal with this mistrust and suspicion – that is by far the worst legacy of the doping decades, and ironically those who doped don’t have to face the music, but usually ended up with quite lucrative book deals.

Anyway, Inside Team Sky

I enjoyed the book because it is an interesting insight into the workings and people who make up Team Sky. Dave Brailsford is quite a character, so is Froome, but it was also interesting to read about the less well know characters – the doctors, soigneurs. There was one Italian guy (I’ll check his name) who used to be a pro cyclist in the late 1990s – he gave up because he couldn’t compete, but he wasn’t going to dope to keep his dream of being a procyclist alive. He’s overjoyed to work at Team Sky and throws his heart and soul into the team. It’s good that the quiet guys of the sport get their moment of recognition.

Doping

David Walsh is clearly on a mission to sniff around for any evidence of doping. If you didn’t know the history of the sport, you would think it overly intrusive.  Yet, it is necessary because of the state of the sport. When Walsh investigated Armstrong, evidence fell into his lap like leaves falling from a tree. In Team Sky he comes to the conclusion the Team is built around the premise of being clean and not doping.

Doping is boring

One thing is that you can get tired of books on doping, even investigative books. But, this has enough humour, interest and inside information to make it an interesting cycling book. I always judge a cycling book on whether it has something new to offer, and not regurgitate something old. There is an interesting glimpse into the workings of Team Sky

Not cynical enough?

I instinctively support the underdog. I don’t like Murdoch papers, there’s nothing about Team Sky I would normally warm to. But, they do seem a very easy target for those who want to be suspicious about cycling. It is a little strange when you consider there are many riders / director sportives with a clear doping past. Yet, if you portray yourself as a clean team, it seems to attract a level of scrutiny rarely seen in any sport, at any time.

I like Walsh because he was willing to go out on a limb and say US Postal were doping. But, equally he is happy to go out on a limb and say Team Sky are clean. This happens to agree with my viewpoint. Some will say, you should sit on the fence and retain a shed load of cynicism. But, being overly cynical and suspicious is as damaging as ignoring the bullying and lies of Armstrong.

It does seem there are some people who would secretly be quite happy to see evidence that Sky are doping. Because this book doesn’t find any evidence which supports their prejudgement so they don’t like it.

TUEs and Ethics

Ironically I received Inside Team Sky on the day David Walsh wrote a piece in the Sunday Times criticising Chris Froome’s use of TUE (Therapeutic use exemption) before the Tour of Romandie. I didn’t read the piece in the Sunday Times, only a snippet in Cycling News, (which I treat with a degree of caution – always best to read an author directly not through someone else’s filter)  I don’t believe Chris Froome was taking a TUE for performance enhancement. But, it leaves you wondering, don’t Team Sky understand the history of abuse of TUE’s in the sport?

Froome and Paul Kimmage

On a side note. I was very happy to see Chris Froome getting interviewed by Paul Kimmage at the Sunday Independent – In the Eye of the Storm’. – relating to the TUE issue. Kimmage is a fierce anti-doping advocate. Perhaps sometimes too fierce, but it is good he spent several hours with Froome. It’s also good to hear direct from Chris Froome.

US Postal and Team Sky Comparison

Often we get the lazy comparison that Team Sky are like US postal because they want to win at all costs. I  don’t accept that, and I’m glad Walsh is willing to say that. Last night I watched – Stop at nothing, The Lance Armstrong Story – still available on BBC iPlayer.  It’s 90 minutes of grim retelling of the wasted Armstrong decade. It was a reminder of how bad things were. To me, Armstrong and Froome and like night and day. I can’t see any meaningful comparison with the systematic US Postal doping and Team Sky.

Overall

I recommend the book. I’ve read many of Walsh’s books on Armstrong, and it is a relief to read a book on cycling, which paints a different picture, and offers hope the sport is moving on.

Perhaps, my review is also coloured by the fact I  feel a strange kind of empathy for Froome (some have kindly said I make  Chris Froome look fat – which I think is kind of a complement in cycling circles, I’m not sure. ) I often put myself in the position of what is like to be a pro cyclist and ride clean, but face a barrage of questions that he has to deal with? To be honest, I’m often glad I took the amateur route.

When I review books, I often like them because I generally only want to read books I think I will like. For example in Waterstones, next to Inside Team Sky – I see George Hincapie’s Loyal Lieutenant. – I will never read that book because it will just make me mad. Essentially, do I want to read book on a guy who took drugs and cheated for several years, but still would like us to believe he is a good guy and brave cyclist? No thanks.

Book Cover Inside Team Sky at Amazon.co.UK

 

Book Cover Inside Team Sky at Amazon.com