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riding with the rocketmen - one man's journey on the shoulders of cycling giants. james witts. bloomsbury sport paperback. 278pp £14.99

there is a conceit harboured by many a weekend velocipedinist, that in their version of the movie 'sliding doors', one scenario would have them, at the very least, as a tour de france domestique. those with a higher opinion of themselves would no doubt be team leaders. over the years, i have read and reviewed many books purporting to offer the very training schedules adhered to by the professional classes; i cannot subscribe to possessing an ego that would contend that page by page adherence would elevate my status to the hallowed ranks, but that is often the inherent promise contained within the front and back covers.

i don't doubt that there is a case for ascribing cycling superiority to a certain level of natural talent, suitably honed at the behest of a comprehensive training programme, but i'm just as sure that there are many amongst the professional peloton who have made their way there with large dollops of ambition, dedication and a work ethic that would make the average protestant look as if he/she was phoning it in. graeme obree once told me that he figured even the act of training amounted to cheating; that all competitors ought best compete on natural talent alone. it is the latter option that is initially of concern to author, james witts.

a long-time cycling journalist, with just the sort of top level connections that no doubt eased the writing of 'riding with the rocketmen', mr witts opted to enter the annual étape du tour in 2022, featuring a parcours that encompassed some of the hardest mountain climbs france has to offer.

"Ahead would be 167km of cycling [...] including three of the most famous, and infamous, climbs in Tour de France history: Col du Galibier, Croix de Fer and Alpe d'Huez."

this annual opportunity to test your mettle against the performances of the professionals, attracts over 16,000 participants, many of whom were probably already eyeing up marco pantani's record ascent of that last climb. the author suffered from no such disillusionment, realising even in january 2022, that he might conceivably have bitten off more than his legs could chew (so to speak). however, to apportion mr witts' place in the cycling firmament, he had access to more than simply the local library's minimal selection of cycle-training books.

"...sports writing has afforded me the fortunate position of holding a direct line to the world's best riders and, arguably more important for my own travails, the world's best cycling coaches, exercise physiologists and sports nutritionists."

the pages that follow detail the next six months of the author's career, occasionally interrupted by the tail end of a virus that all but shut down the world, visiting with tadej's team-mates and performance consultants, john moore's university, coach, phil mosley, specialized's performance plan bike-fitters, manchester institute of health and performance, alongside as many otheres as can be fitted into a busy six-month schedule for both author and professional teams.

in the quest for literary and étape success, mr witts subjects himself to sportives, nutritional privations, exhaustive ramp tests and anything else he felt might sharpen the top end. "It was time to assess where I was and, once the tears of disappointment had dried, I would need a plan."

as a means to an end, you may think this something of an over-reaction for an attempt on the étape du tour by an admittedly overweight family man in his mid-forties. in 2007, as i was about to undertake my first londres-paris, following months of what i laughingly referred to as 'training', a young fellow aside me on the start-line admitted that he'd done no training whatsoever, riding a borrowed bike that was essentially too small for him. from those 16,000 who annually enter the étape, there must be a healthy proportion who seriously over-estimate their own abilities.

that's why there's a broom wagon.

so why risk over-egging the pudding, even if you do have the connections that would allow you to make several omelettes? well, in point of fact, this is a very clever book, with a strategy and modus operandi that far exceeds the notion of riding a sportive, even if that exists as one of the hardest sportives in the cycling world. if evidence is required, let me inform you that the author's actual riding of the étape occupies only a mere 23 pages of the 278 on offer. but what james witts has accomplished here is far greater than the sum of the book's parts, offering us a 2022 snapshot of cycling's state-of-the-art. the twelve chapters display the level to which aerodynamics, nutrition, training, bike-fitting, psychology and clothing technology had reached less than one year past.

and whether intended or not, it also offers some form of perspective from which to view what might legitimately be regarded as cycling's excesses. "...the Aero Power package, which includes six hours of assessment and wind-tunnel time, costing £1275." for the pros, the cost of admission is considerably higher, even if the tab is being picked up by the team sponsor. "Simon Yates won his first-ever Grand Tour time trial wearing a bespoke Vorteq suit that cost around £3,500."

tactfully, the author makes no prejudicial comment on any of the foregoing, leaving the reader to ponder, not necessarily his use of the facilities to improve his own chances in the étape, but the very fact that cycle sport finds it necessary to spend considerable amounts of money examining every last one of dave brailsford's marginal gains in the search for victory and sponsor satisfaction. we've always been aware that there's a considerable gap between our lowly selves and the professional classes. now we know not only why, but are left to consider whether cycle sport would be any less exciting and enjoyable without it.

the author's self-deprecating humour, ability to translate complex concepts into readable prose and commendably relaxed narrative, makes for a thoroughly enjoyable read. the subject matter might well have provided mr witts with the perfect platform to parade his lengthy list of cycling contacts, or his apparent progress gained from following the sage advice provided by many of those contacts. that these were subsumed almost to the point of casual asides is very much to his credit.

one of the finest, cleverist and ostensibly important cycle sport books of recent times.

wednesday 7 june 2023