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the road book 2022 5th edition. edited by ned boulting. 861pp illus. £50

the road book 2022

i'm not much of a tv connoisseur; when office colleagues discuss at length their weekend viewing on netflix, sky, apple tv or any number of alterntive streaming services, i know not of what they speak. my regular tv viewing consists primarily of big bang theory reruns, punctuated only by episodes of last of the summer wine. and in an attempt to appear au fait with the festive season, i will admit to having watched the occasional christmas movie.

however, when those same colleagues describe broadcast episodes fraught with danger, terror, horror and any number of social documentaries and film-noire series, i am more than content with my own viewing. anything by disney or hanna-barbera gets my vote. it is a scenario that bears tangential connection with my attitude to facts and figures, a far harder exclusion with which to deal.

in the process of compiling these daily monologues, it is frequently necessary to undertake research that ranges from the simple to the extenuating, much of which involves frequent reference to statistics, enumerators and denominators. as a simplistic example, compare the tour de france victories between tadej pogacar (two), geraint thomas (one) and lord voldemort (depending on to whom you speak, either seven or none). add in such factors as the average gradient across alpe d'huez (8%) or the length of last year's longest giro d'italia stage (203 kilometres) and i doubt i need continue, having succinctly made my point.

for some, however, facts and figures are as bread and butter, always curious to learn more and, perchance, drop them into any conversation that appears as if it might stray from the original topic. a member of the band in which i currently find myself, is mildly obsessed with the accuracy of reproducing contemporary pop and folk material, while the rest of us are happier creating an approximate verisimilitude. as long as the chorus is close enough for jazz, we're happy to proceed.

as one of the office colleagues mentioned above is prone to saying "it's just as well we're all different."

therefore, on receipt of a review copy of this year's edition of the ned boulting edited road book, you can perhaps comprehend my apprehension. facts and figures, even when comprehensively annotated in a format as enticing as this, are very far from my bread and butter. i take great delight in watching as many road and cyclocross races as does the next man or woman, but i truly have little desire to wade through over eight hundred pages of race results, particularly concerning several events of which i have never heard.

that, on a superficial level, might seem like a spoiler alert, but on the contrary, i would give my wholehearted recommendation that you part with your fifty pounds and take possession of this colossal volume.

the road book 2022

at the end of a long road which passes laphroaig, lagavulin and ardbeg distilleries and ends about a mile past claggain bay on islay's southern coast, is ardtalla farmhouse, the first or final abode on ardtalla estate, owned by the mactaggart family. the lightswitches on the walls testify to it have featured electricity at one time, but currently, its unique selling point is a complete lack of electrons. heating is provided by a gravity feed oil tank, and lighting is by portable gas lamp. the interior decor, at least on the last occasion i visited, was hardly contemporary habitat, but in the open plan dining area adjacent to the kitchen, the surrounding shelves house dozens of leather bound volumes of hansard. though i have no evidence to suggest those holidaying at the farmhouse are in the habit of reading the latter, their existence adds a certain gravitas to the premises.

granted, it will take many years of cycle racing to accumulate as many individual copies of the road book, but a bookshelf laden with all editions to date, will surely say a great deal about the possessing velocipedinist. for the road book is, in essence, a reference book, in the same way as is collins english dictionary, or hardbound copies of encyclopaedia britannica. the road book is not a volume that expressly commends itself to bedtime reading, and its heft effectively precludes popping it in the daily lunch pail for noon-day perusal.

that said, within this fundamentally business-like publication, are several polished diamonds and one blazing jewel.

following on from the pavé decorated endpapers, are words from a few of 2022's race victors: lorena wiebes, matej mohoric and magnus cort, to name but three, followed by editor, ned boulting's, introduction to this year's edition.

"2022 was about two things: France and July."

those are amongst the polished diamonds, but you will perhaps give credence to my exhortations that you avail yourselves of the words of the inimitable herbie sykes. the author of the recently re-printed (rapha editions) 'eagle of the canavese' is seen all to rarely (in my humble opinion) in print these days, to the extent that his brief biography of the winner of a stage at the giro della valle d'aosta, tekeste woldu (nope, me neither) is as manna from above.

"He was earmarked for a priesthood in the Coptic Orthodox Church, but the seminary didn't agree with him and nor, seemingly, he with it."

to aver that herbie's writing is worth the £50 price of admission alone, might be viewed as a tad extreme, but it's certainly worth a substantial proportion.

and if you're still struggling with justifiable reasons to acquire one of the 1500 limited copies of the 2022 road book, imagine for a moment just how much possession of a copy would say about your dedication to the cause, to say nothing of the endless opportunity to quote suitably obscure facts during this weekend's mince pie ride. if you consider yourself to be a roadie of even minor consequence, you absolutely have to own this book. and if you've never read anything by herbie sykes - now's your chance.

the road book 2022

the road book 2022

wednesday 14 december 2022

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