..........................................................................................................................................................................................................
stalling tactics
age has definitely got the better of me, along with a weekend of galeforce winds preventing any attempts at surreptitious acceleration to avoid having my card marked. i cannot claim ever to have been particularly alacritous when it came to the bruichladdich village sign sprint; in fact only yesterday i pointed out that i have been consistently third, week in, week out, making sure not to mention that there has frequently been only three of us in the sunday peloton.
gone are the days when i would have the leg-speed to maintain station with my compatriots, then catch them unawares and hammer it all the way to the finish line before they could muster the acceleration to catch me. the tactic was always to leave it as late as possible, avoiding the possible outcome of being caught before the hypothetical finish line appeared. of course, the difference between an agglomeration of distinctly part-time pelotonese and professionals in team colours, is undoubtedly that of career prospects and the money that makes the wheels go round.
many years ago, i was charged with training the future generation in cycling skills through what was once known as the cycling proficiency scheme. following an afternoon of concentrated practice, wending their way in and out of obstacles in the playground, practising kerb starts and instigating a few handy tips on keeping their bicycles in tip-top condition, i'd offer a few minutes of recreational pleasure by involving them in a slow bicycle race. granted, one or two only heard the word 'race' and walloped off towards the far side of the football pitch, leaving their classmates well behind.
i'm none too sure whether tactics can be employed in a slow bicycle race, given that the over-riding feature is to ride slowly enough to win but without falling over in the process. but there's no real doubt that tactics are very much a part of the professional milieu. often there is little point in being the fastest rider in a race, if you can be outdone strategically by a slower rider. to a certain extent, that's precisely what happened in saturday's milan-sanremo. for all the punditry that prophesied victory for wout van aert, or tadej pogacar, mohoric got the jump on them all, by nipping off on the poggio descent and pushing an enormous gear to the finish line to win the race.
there's nothing new in using this strategy; if you're aware that your finishing sprint is considerably less than equal to your opponents, nipping off early is a tried and tested formula. it doesn't always work, but it's often better than sitting tight till the finish. the factor that gives this a better than evens chance of working, is knowledge of the expected behaviour of those you've left behind, an altogether different strategy that seems, to me at least, counter-productive.
when mohoric accelerated on the poggio, the favoured riders (in this case, mathieu van der poel, wout van aert and tadej pogacar) have an innate tendency to look at each other to take on the struggle of catching the breakaway rider. more often than not, that guarantees them losing the race. it may well be that putting in the effort to catch the breakaway and dragging along one's fellow combatants, might result in having insufficient reserves to sprint for the win. but surely it's obvious enough that each and every rider involved in the chase, will expend similar amounts of energy, still offering some chance of victory?
the more time spent looking at each other and implying 'after you', the further into the distance that breakaway individual will ride. would it not be better to give it your all, because to do otherwise will most certainly not end in victory. this sort of pelotonic behaviour makes something of a mockery of the professional classes, who are seemingly happy to lose the chance of winning, as long as their co-favourites do likewise. i have great admiration for today's top professional riders, but it frustrates me greatly that we are prevented from watching the spectacle of the sport's top riders battling to catch a breakaway and challenge for victory due to negative tactics.
but then, i suppose why they're called 'tactics'.
monday 21 march 2022
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................the simple pleasures
sheep are, on the whole, predictably the most unpredictable of animals. irrespective of whichever side of the road they have chosen to occupy, on approach of a bicycle (or several), they will opt to change tack and cross to the other side, despite there being no particular reason so to do. and on passing a field of the blighters, despite being separated from the road by a ditch and a sturdy fence or drystone wall, they will run hither and thither as i cycle past. and as if to prove that a lack of intelligence is hereditary, despite my obviously having ignored the first few sheep, those farther along the field will have paid no heed to this, and still run away.
but what i find most disturbing about sheep is the fact that the name is both singular and plural. i can avoid a sheep, yet chase a flock of sheep. though it has always been thus, continued knowledge of the fact has done nothing to lessen its impact. i would therefore propose to write to the oxford english dictionary, appealing that, at their next scheduled meeting, they consider referring to a single animal as a 'shep', and retaining 'sheep' as the plural of the species. i have yet to decide what i want to do with the word deer, which is also both singular and plural.
though the above musings may be thought somewhat irrelevant in the shires, where sheep are a less prevalent sight on the average bicycle ride, living and riding on a predominantly agricultural island, brings matters of farming into an altogether more forceful perspective. the same could be said for whisky; though i have never tasted any of islay's single malts, and have no intention of doing so in the future, for a teetotaller, i know way too much about distilling and the pecadilloes of the whisky industry. it is just the way of things round these here parts.
and the impingement of the farming milieu continues to grow between now and harvest time later this year. for there is a defined connection between islay's farming community and that of its whisky. both bruichladdich and kilchoman distilleries will soon have a large number of fields seeded with barley to form part of the single malt recipe in 2023. already the land has been ploughed and by late august, early september there will be, as sting once said, fields of gold ready to feel the threshing of the combine harvester.
this early season ploughing was brought directly into focus yesterday afternoon, following my double-egg roll and froth supping session at debbie's. it has long been my habit to perambulate the estates around loch gorm on the island's west coast, turning left onto the foreland road just past the coalyard a few kilometres from bruichladdich village. but just before i reached that point, i was preceded by a large red tractor with a substantial, bouncing ploughshare, heading, i thought, to the fields surrounding kilchoman distillery.
for roughly (in both senses of that word) eight kilometres, i followed behind, dropping back on the climbs, but gaining on both the descents and the flat. many of these enormous tractors travel at near formula one speeds, but given the uneven-ness of the road and the apparent instability of the attached ploughshare, the driver maintained a steady pace, a good few kph below my usual. however, given the size and width of the vehicle, all oncoming traffic was forced to pull over into the passing places, meaning not only was i getting a free ride, with the luxury of enjoying the land and seascapes, but i had no need to keep an eye on traffic whatsoever.
my worst fears were that the driver would have pulled over to let me past, for then i would have been forced to increase my speed in order to demonstrate my physical prowess and not struggle to stay ahead. thankfully, he continued on his merry way at a steady speed, and despite galeforce winds, but wall-to-wall sunshine, i enjoyed being islay's answer to jack thurston, for a while at least.
when the tractor reached the field bordering the road to coull farm, the driver pulled over and stopped, alighting to open the farm gate, at which point i did likewise, motioning that i'd like to have a word with him. probably figuring i was about to berate him for having hogged the road for eight kilometres, he burst out laughing when i thanked him for providing a thoroughly relaxed ride, of which i had enjoyed every minute.
like i said, 'the simple pleasures'.
sunday 20 march 2022
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................the right stuff
cycle racing borders on the hermetically sealed, along with many other sports activities. how many of us watched last week's paris-nice race, all the while trying to have it fit into a perspective that included the knowledge that not too many kilometres distant, russia was in the process of annihilating disparate parts of an independent ukraine? there seemed to me at least, a somewhat disturbing disconnect between a peloton of brightly coloured cyclists attempting to be first to the finish line while the soviet destruction continued unabated and militarily unchecked.
of course, wars and military incursions across the world have scarcely seen interruption even since the end of the second world war in 1945, so why should the current instance be any different? i do not propose to attempt to answer that last, almost rhetorical question, for i am considerably less than sufficiently well-informed to provide a cogent answer. but from a personal point of view, it seemed somewhat odd to be revelling in the spectacle of today's milan - sanremo, even with its last minute entry of mathieu van der poel, while such carnage and destruction was playing out in alarmingly close proximity.
and i know that i'm not entirely alone with my confusion or feelings of helplessness, as the same sentiments have been admitted by many, wondering just what we might do to help, other than donating goods, materials, supplies and money. yet a partial answer to the conundrum has been espoused by the inimitable, lachlan morton of ef education first. never one to fit conveniently into the prescribed description of a professional bike rider, morton has successfully undertaken many an enduro ride, and most famously completed the 2021 tour de france route unaided, including all the transfers between stages, raising a considerable amount of money for world bicycle relief in the process.
his ukrainian team-mate, mark padun has family in the devastated country, conversations with whom persuaded lachie to try and do something positive. according to lachie, "i'm not an expert in any of this, but this was the one way i could think of to try and create a small bit of help and relief." the longest single ride he's ever undertaken, morton will ride a total of over 1000 kilometres, starting in munich, through the czech republic and into poland before heading for the border crossing between korczowa and krakovets. contributions totalling $100,000 have already been made by ef education first, cannondale and rapha, and morton hopes to raise a further $50,000 from the ride. all monies will be donated to the ukraine crisis relief fund.
"i'm just trying to do the one thing i know how to do and engage the bike-riding community to help."
donations can be made via the link below.
i should also like to point out that pupils at islay high school have been walking, running and cycling the equivalent distance from islay to ukraine, raising money in the process and to which the velo club sunday peloton have been invited to add our weekend kilometres to complete the theoretical distance before the easter holidays. we too will be donating.
saturday 19 march 2022
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................are we match fit?
for many, this saturday is lining up to be the 'real' beginning of the 2022 season at milan-sanremo, with everything prior to the italian start-line being notionally regarded as training. there is a possibility that the last contention has a degree of truth about it. witness paris-nice, for instance, where wout van aert took the yellow leader's jersey following the mid-race time-trial, yet easily relinquished it the following day, citing not only his focused interest on paris-roubaix and the de ronde van vlaanderen come april time, but his intention to assist team leader roglic in the mountains.
as it turned out, that apparent sense of altruism probably saved the slovenian's race, following his being distanced by yates on the final climb, being pulled back from the brink by van aert's sterling performance in the face of adversity. i've no doubt that primoz' young lad enjoyed his several days of cuddly credit lyonnais lions, while his dad basked in the glory of a yellow jersey this early in the season. word on the street is that roglic, like his nemesis, tadej pogacar, intends to stand atop the podium in paris, and, as in every year, all roads lead to the french capital. in other words, training. (you don't think tadej was in italy for the sake of an early season tan, do you?)
with victory for roglic at paris-nice and for pogacar at tirreno-adriatico, both can demonstrate their tilt at the title during those three weeks in july, without actually having to pit against each other in major, winnable races, and set punters' tongues wagging too far in advance. as if to underline the contention that training is the name of the early season game, roglic subsequently took part in the grand prix de denain, allegedly to recce the cobbles that will feature in this year's tour de france.
however, to return to the season's longest one-day race from milan to sanremo, i note that former winner of the race and goretex ambassador, fabian cancellara, has tipped van aert for the victory ahead of the winner of tirreno-adriatico, forecasting that the belgian has more arrows in his quiver than the two-time tour winner. though several pundits have prophesied that pogacar will attack well before things come to a head in a final sprint for the line, cancellara appears to think that it's a tactic with which wout can easily cope, and that he has the better sprint.
and with the focus firmly upon the weekend, we have also been made aware that alaphilippe, colbrelli and degenkolb, amongst others, have been sidelined from competing due to illness.
however, despite the credibility possessed by fabian cancellara, giving a certain credence to his prognostications of a van aert victory, others are keen to assert their own running for the win. according to a report on velonews.com, norwegian rider, alexander kristoff, riding for intermarché -wanty-gobert-materiaux has admitted to being a less strong rider than he used to be, "...but i still have some legs." velonews journalist, andrew hood, therefore asks whether he might conceivably be the ultimate outsider for a win on via roma? and the same author quotes australian team bike exchange rider, michael matthews as claiming milan-sanremo to be his dream race in which to achieve victory.
those of you who may wonder what has brought on this apparently sudden interest in the strategies to be played out in italy this coming saturday, may be comforted to learn that this is not an attempt to become the inner ring, cycling tips, or cyclingnews.. in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. it will take quite a long time for even the winner to cover the race's 293 kilometres, every last centimetre of which can be watched on eurosport/gcn, with broadcast coverage beginning at 08:30 in the morning, and ending eight hours later at 16:30.
wouldn't it just make so much more sense to sit comfortably in an armchair, watch the entire race, ignore 'five things to look out for at milan-sanremo' and discover the winner when the first rider crosses the line? fabian might be right, matthews may realise his dream, or kristoff could indeed be the springer of surprises. we'll never know until somebody wins. to my mind, that's a great deal more satisfying than scouring the web looking for predictions that meet with our individual approval.
just wait and see. and remember, nobody actually knows.
friday 18 march 2022
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................squaring up to the future
my specialized crux cyclocross bicycle is kitted out with sram's rival groupset, the rear derailleur of which never functioned quite as precisely as i think it ought to have done from day one. i put this down to what looked like a slight bend in the replaceable gear hanger. sheer laziness had me live with this inaccuracy for many a long year, partly because the idiosyncracy really only affected the top three sprockets, and even then, i had put some of that down to pilot error with the double-tap changing system.
however, as a result of the hebridean climate in which the bicycle had to operate, when changing wheels not so very long ago, an inability to turn the rear cable adjuster engendered a tad more inaccuracy in an already less than pin-sharp world of gear-changing. a matter of weeks following this realisation, the bearings inhabiting both jockey wheels decided to depart this world in a cacophony of crunching, the sound of which had me reconsider a 22km perambulation of loch gorm in favour of getting home while i still could.
a new gear hanger and a new rear mech subsequently brought a perpetual ear-to-ear grin on the following rides. and latterly, in aid of aging limbs, the addition of a cassette featuring a 36 tooth sprocket has now given the rider a new lease of life (a guy can dream can't he?)
but, at the risk of exposing my mechanical ineptitudes to a very small portion of velocipedinal society, there's a grey plastic doohicky situated between the left crank arm and the bottom bracket shell, the purpose of which, i believe, is to alleviate any lateral play from the bottom bracket. at least, that's what i think it has achieved during my occasional ministrations with an allen key. this particular bicycle arrived replete with a press-fit bottom bracket; basically two large cartridge-bearings squeezed into the nether regions of the frameset.
though i find the bike delightful in pretty much every aspect of its being, every now and again, i experience brief moments of despondency on considering the replacement of those bearings at sometime in probably the near future. this air of despondency arises from a complete absence of the necessary tools to remove and fit bottom bracket bearings of this type. the bicycle arrived in the hebrides almost six years past, during which time, those bearings have given stellar performance without any indication that they might be nearing an end of life scenario. to me, that means the time will probably arrive sooner rather than later.
however, though there are ostensibly more bottom bracket standards than at which you could shake a carbon fibre stick, it seems the days of many have either passed, or it's looking increasingly likely that will happen in the near future. around two years following delivery of the crux, specialized shifted back to the external cups that had preceded them in the bottom bracket timeline. and according to reviews of cannondale's recently released synapse, despite being one of the first progenitors of a variation in bb standards, they too have reverted to the external cups.
from a mechanic's point of view, i tend to figure external cups will make life a smidgeon easier than the alternatives, perhaps taking the sting from the tail imposed by wall to wall internal cabling. though campagnolo affix the bearings to the inner faces of both crank arms, slotting into empty cups, essentially all versions of this style of bottom bracket provide substantial leverage for the available tools when needing to fit or remove the cups.
however, am i wrong to hope for a great deal more? if all manner of variations in such a relatively simple part of the average bicycle are being consigned to history, dare i hope that the next step will be a wholesale return to the square taper bottom bracket? even if it only starts with the sealed cartridge version on the way to re-introducing the cup and cone original, where any perceived lateral play could be easily cured with a new set of bearings and a healthy dollop of grease. following this initial eureka moment, it will then be realised that stuffing cables inside the frame has, in fact, no appreciable effect on aerodynamic drag after all.
then we can get back to riding our bicycles in peace.
thursday 17 march 2022
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................persona non-grata
from a particular perspective, the motor car is the devil incarnate. though not responsible for the whole of britain's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions (purportedly 27% of all uk emissions), it does form the bulk of the problem. historically this can be seen as the result of government policy to allow for individual, personal transport, as opposed to investment in public transport systems such as buses and trains, as practised by many european countries. if you doubt the veracity of that contention, you need only sit on a citylink coach heading west from glasgow city centre; the number of motor cars containing solely the driver is legion.
though a wholly tautological statement, a coach full of sixty-odd passengers, all bound for the same destination, can only be more economical and less environmentally invasive than sixty-something motor cars doing likewise. so the obvious solutions (its a two-parter) are to remove as many of those motor cars from britain's roads as possible, while altering the mindset of those who claim that, while they see how this could be effective for others, they couldn't possibly manage without their four-door, single occupancy motor vehicle.
there's no doubt that there are a large number of individuals for whom car dependency cannot be pragmatically substituted, but it's a salient fact that over half of all uk car trips are under 8km, and six percent are less than 1.5km (still an alarming 360,000 car journeys each day). clearly there are a large number of daily car trips that could easily be substituted by walking or cycling, thus significantly reducing britain's greenhouse gas emissions. but short of mass hypnosis, or psychological aberrancy, i don't see any real change heading our way anytime soon. granted, the rapid increase in fuel prices of late might give cause for some to rethink their means of daily transport, but as mentioned only a matter of days ago, many have said that petrol prices would have to hit near £40 before a wholesale change could be expected.
in order to promote this mind altering strategy, it seems certain that push may very soon have to come to shove. my faith in either westminster or holyrood in curating such a transfer of power, so to speak, is minimal to say the least, but it appears that the hebridean's much vaunted fellow brethren in belgium are more pro-active in such matters. residents of brussel's capital region are now on the receiving end of a government offer to ditch the car in favour of up to €900 (£760) to acquire more environmentally sensitive modes of transport. "the objective of this bonus is to encourage motorists in brussels to give up their car in favour of means of travel that are more respectful of the environment: public transport, cycling, walking and car-sharing."
granted you may feel that your £200,000 ferrari f8 is worth a smidgeon more than £760, but i daresay there will be a sanctioned russian oligarch in london more than eager to take it off your hands. and it's not only the belgians who are looking in this direction; france too has already piloted a 'scrappage scheme', offering owners of old, polluting cars a grant of up to €2,500 for the purchase of electric bicycles in place of their scrapped cars.
yet, while my faith in britain's transport maestros scarcely registers on an ad hoc scale, hastily created only a matter of hours ago, mainland europe does not operate alone.
a year-long e-cycle pilot scheme in cornwall is the planned beginning of a national e-cycle support scheme. this particular strategy is financed to the tune of £400,000 and operates 90 electric bicycles across three distinct 'loan elements': a public roadshow, opportunities to try for businesses and an access to employment facet. those three elements are expected eventually to form the basis for a national scheme. its specific intention is to help cornwall residents to move away from their cars, by providing cost-effective transport for low-income households, helping them access local employment opportunities.
so far, there's no word on when a similar national scheme will emerge from the depths of the ministry of transport, but it's hard to deny that these are moves heading in the right direction. it just always concerns me that everything is centred around e-bikes, with little or no thought for its predecessor, the even more environmentally sensitive analogue bike.
wednesday 16 march 2022
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................how come we're different?
the subsidy offered by the government for purchasers of electric cars has pretty much halved since early 2021, with the current offer of £1,500 towards an electric car (or low emissions vehicle) costing less than £32,000. the original rationale behind the subsidy was to help kickstart the nascent electric vehicle industry, despite the latter being perfectly capable of standing on its own two feet. the subsidy subsequently morphed into a means of encouraging better environmental behaviour in the light of climate change.
however, since the humble bicycle, the version completely devoid of batteries for motive power, is probably the least environmentally damaging means of transport available to humankind, i thought it odd, if disappointingly expected, that no such comparable subsidy was being made available to prospective purchasers of bicycles. to enquire further, i contacted my westminster mp, who, instead of ignoring my request, put wheels into action, by asking the then chancellor of the exchequer the very same question.
the chancellor responded stating that he'd devolved such financial decisions to the respective uk governments, meaning that holyrood now held sway over the purse-strings. tenacious to the last, my mp contacted scotland's fiscal masters to ask whether they had considered utilising this westminster largesse for the purpose of offering subsidies to bicycle consumers. holyrood, in a second turn of buck-passing, claimed that they had left the spending of the money to the administrations of each of scotland's local councils.
obviously now entrenched in following the quest to its logical end, my member of parliament contacted argyll and bute council to ask what had now become a repetitive question. they claimed to have allocated the monies towards the active travel budget, essentially meaning that the cash was now installing walkways, paths and other related strategies to instil obesity defying tactics in residents of the region.
while i had the greatest admiration for the mp concerned (he lost his seat at the last general election), to be honest, the ultimate reply received had little or nothing to do with my original question. it will be glaringly obvious to anyone who has read this far, that the chancellor seemed not to have devolved the money for the electric car subsidy to anyone other than his own department of transport. thus, the string of answers i received were but a diversionary tactic, still resulting in a government subsidy for reputedly more environmentally friendly motor vehicles, while resisting any thoughts of doing likewise for cyclists.
to the present, that remains the case.
however, i note that monday's guardian newspaper published a report that an evidence review by academics at westminster university, had called upon the government to consider offering a subsidy on the purchase of e-bikes, claiming that mass use of this type of bicycle could create more than £2 billion worth of health benefits while reducing annual emissions by millions of tonnes. the survey rightly pointed out that though the e-car grant still survived at the lowered level of £1,500, there was no comparable amount on offer to assist the purchase of either e-bikes or their analogue peers.
and it transpires that the potential emissions savings projected by the university academics are based entirely on current commuting practices in england and wales. the overall savings could, they said, be considerably greater.
as you would likely expect from a government in thrall to the motor car and beholden to the powerful motoring lobby, a department of transport spokesperson contended that purchase of e-bikes was already subsidised via the 'cycle to work' scheme. this is essentially correct. a £1,000 bicycle purchased over twelve months by an employee on an annual salary of £30,000 will result in cost savings of 32%. and those savings persist even on e-bikes costing £2,700 (statistically, the average price paid for a modern-day e-bike).
however, that depends on your employer being setup to implement the cycle to work scheme, something of which freelance folks such as myself, are unable to take advantage. nor, indeed, are those retired folks who might wish to leave the car at home and enjoy a more active lifestyle in their twilight years. and it's also dependent on something contained within the small print, specifically paragraph 5.3. to wit 'Following the transfer of Bike Equipment ownership under clause 5.2 above, Bike 2 Work will offer to sell the relevant Bike Equipment to the relevant Employee (or to such other person as the Employer may direct) at a price not exceeding the fair market value of the Bike Equipment at the time, as reasonably determined by Bike 2 Work.'
i'm no expert in legalese or small print, but i take that to mean that whatever is deemed to be the price of a one-year-old (as per the exercise above) £2,700 e-bike, that's how much you'll have to pay to retain ownership of the bike. and i'd assume the market value would be based on the cost as new and not necessarily the reduced price you paid through the scheme. of course, it may still be better than having to pay the full label price.
but on the basis that the e-car grant appears to be available to all and sundry, would it not be more equitable to simply offer the basis of the bike to work scheme to everyone wishing to purchase an analogue or electric bicycle? the government makes great mileage from its reputed environmental credentials and its desire to encourage a healthy, happy britain. actions have always been more convincing than words.
tuesday 15 march 2022
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