'When all else fails, you will find inspiration in music'.

Dream Theater

I like listening to music. I like writing. I like writing about music, and have been wanting to get my thoughts down on this particular band for a while now. Plus, I was supposed to do another 'Tyre Tech' post and really couldn't think of what to write. Hence the title.

There are two types of people in this world: Dream Theater fans, and music fans who just haven’t heard Dream Theater yet. Being classified by many and labelled as ‘Progressive metal’ is, I believe, doing them a great disservice. If you must classify and sort them then they are without a doubt progressive, as anybody who appreciates the likes of King Crimson/Pink Floyd etc will immediately recognise when listening to 20min epics such as The Count of Tuscany, Octavarium or Illumination Theory (off their latest album); and likewise nobody with even a passing interest in rock music could listen to John Petrucci’s playing and fail to pick out the metal style/influences. It is my opinion however, that Dream Theater are a band that transcends categorisation. The sheer range, diversity, volume-however you choose to express it-of musicality, creativity, skill and deep understanding of music that they bring to the table with every release seems to redefine the genre of what could be loosely described as ‘progressive metal’.  They don’t worry about fitting into any specific mould, they don’t worry about (or indeed face) criticism from fans and the media when they do something different (like many well known ‘metal’ bands) and they most certainly do not follow any sort of trend. They are, and have been since inception, on their own rather unique trajectory; and whilst they undoubtedly take nods from other artists, contemporary and otherwise, they are one of those rare examples of a group of hugely talented professional musicians coming together and gelling perfectly. Why is it that ‘supergroups’ (as I’m pretty sure examining the component parts of DT would ordinarily result in their being classified as a ‘supergroup’) normally don’t last very long? I would say it’s because you can only really have one or two strongly driven creative forces in a group...ordinarily. Lennon and McCartney, Plant and Page, Lynott, Mustaine, Bellamy, Hetfield, Grohl-all strong creative minds that drove/drive their respective groups’ directions to success-yet Dream Theater’s work as a collective is always just that, collective. Most of the band members have pursued other projects (which gives you an idea of what they bring individually to the DT writing process), yet they somehow still manage to come together and successfully fuse all that creative genius time after time. And I don’t think there is a word better than ‘genius’ in this case.

I must admit however that I am only a relatively new fan, having only bought their last three albums as new releases-but how they manage to consistently create such masterpieces is beyond me. Not only do they craft songs with catchy riffs and passages each time, and not only do they manage to evoke a unique ‘feel’  to each album-but they also manage to write songs with real meaning, or as I heard a musician once say-real ‘heart’. And while it’s nothing new for artists to really reach out to and connect with fans with their work, it is rare in my personal experience for an artist(s) to bring something so finely polished and with such a strong unique direction with each release.  They simply never miss a beat. I am yet to come across a ‘filler track’, I am yet to think ‘oh come on, this was clearly written in half an hour the day before recording deadline’-and this is made all the more impressive when you consider they have just released their 12^th studio album, with a largely unchanged creative core. Their work follows broad templates, or perhaps I would do them better service by saying each album has their unique ‘sound’. With each album you can expect among other things orchestral flavourings, thunderously heavy 7-string riffage and...keyboard solos. Don’t let that put you off though, think more Pink Floyd than Emerson Lake and Palmer (apologies to ELP fans out there, but you can probably appreciate what I’m driving at.)

One of the noteworthy things for me is that I don’t have ‘favourite’ Dream Theater tracks. I also hardly ever skip one when it comes up on shuffle (only my iPod will know what praise that is). I arrive at the explanation that despite being a fluid creative force that changes, develops and adapts; they remain very strongly true to their form, their sound and their true nature. They are Dream Theater and everything that has come to mean (to me). If I pick one of their songs to listen to I do not do so necessarily because I want to listen to that song per se...more that I want to dive into the rich musical experience that is DT. I thought about using some sort of ‘rich hearty soup’ metaphor there, but was pretty sure it would sound a bit shit, and would also be a bit out of place talking about music. (FYI).

They are not a band to listen to if you are after background music and they are most certainly not a band for your fan of contemporary processed ‘clone’ music; but if are willing to just sit down, listen and let your ears soak it all up then you will be rewarded with something quite special. They are not a band to listen to with preconceptions of what ‘progressive metal’ should sound like, and are, I find, best listened to with a ‘clean mental slate’ if you will; and will definitely not appeal to fans of ‘quickfix’ music. You have to surrender yourself to the music, feel your way through it, engage with it, understand it and take what it has to offer. If you can, then I trust and hope that you will enjoy as many wonderful music experiences listening to them as I have.

Thanks for reading. And congratulations if you made it this far.

Tyre Tech #2: What Actually Makes A Tyre?

Tyres are made of rubber. Easy right? Not exactly. Hopefully this post will help you understand just exactly what product info like ‘3/180 TPI Casing’ or marketing spiel like ‘High Quality High TPI Construction’ means.

Put simply the carcass of a tyre (the main body of the tyre), nylon sheets of varying TPI (threads per inch) are impregnated with rubber and then layered up as desired (that’s the whole ‘ply’ thing) and then finished off usually with some sort of puncture protection and a tread surface. The desired application influences the number of plies, the TPI of nylon used in those plies, the level of puncture protection used and the design and construction of tread surface. That’s the Ladybird Book Edition anyway.

TPI Talk:  Some manufacturers use TPI as a marketing tool, but don’t be fooled-there is a lot more that influences how well a tyre performs than its TPI. For example, a higher TPI is often seen as a selling point, but a higher thread count just means thinner strands of nylon that are more easily broken-i.e: the potential of having a tyre that is more prone to punctures. However, the flip side is that generally a tyre with a higher TPI will have a more supple carcass which will usually give a tyre that ‘feels’ better on the road and rolls better. A high TPI tyre with a poor rubber compound could easily be outperformed in the lab and real world by a tyre with lower TPI but a better rubber compound.

Perhaps my crappily drawn Paint diagram may help you visualise...!

Ply Talk: Nylon threads run in one direction, so manufacturers layer nylon sheets over one another in plies, giving a lattice like construction to, for example, end up with a tyre that is supple, rolls well but is also reasonably puncture resistant. Increasing the number of plies reduces the number of gaps in the Nylon, so increasing the durability of the carcass and the puncture resistance. As in basically making it harder for stuff to just poke through. Mountain bike tyres for example will sometimes have more plies of nylon with a lower TPI in order to get a tyre with the best of both worlds. The TPI of the nylon used in the plies and the number of plies is where the real clever work comes into play-and my limited knowledge extends no further than the basics that low TPI=’strong’ and high TPI= ‘quick’. In a nutshell. Ladybird Book again ;)

Rubber Talk: Before the nylon is layered to make the carcass however, it must be impregnated with a rubber compound. This is relatively simple for me to explain, as the science is too complicated-so I can’t! Typically though with current rubber compounds, the engineers can choose to either have something that is fast and lightweight, or durable and heavy. I say typically, as that is not always the case as I will talk about in my next post...The compound for the tread surface will typically be tuned for slightly different characteristics than that used for the plies that form the carcass/sidewalls etc; which again is pretty obvious, but I hadn’t actually realised how much thought and specificity actually went into individual tyre design and construction until I saw a bit behind the scenes.

Every tyre is designed for a different role, be it speed, durability or even just affordability. Do not be fooled into thinking that just because Tyre A has a higher TPI than Tyre B for example, that A will outperform B in the wet or last longer. Also don’t automatically think that cheap tyres will be more puncture prone than more expensive tyres; more technical know-how is required to make two tyres that have similar levels of puncture protection but for one to be faster/lighter. Typically, you pay more for a tyre that outperforms cheaper contemporaries in one of the three areas: speed, durability or puncture protection. Again...typically. But you’ll have to wait until my next post to see what I mean by typically ;)

Tyre Tech #1: Basics

Tyre Tech-Basics

There are a lot of technical terms used in advertising at the moment and I daresay quite a few ill-founded opinions floating round; and being of the opinion  that understanding what a product should be will ultimately result in people making the right purchase choice.

Let’s start by going back to basics. Tyres are important. They are your point of contact with the road and they arguably govern your speed far more than any other part of the bike. A good set of well-mounted and pressured tubulars for example could probably make a 40 year old ‘vintage’ bike ride better than a modern stock carbon jobby with poor quality clinchers incorrectly inflated. I am sure that everyone, given the choice, would take riding faster for the same effort-and good tyre choice can do just that. Going faster isn’t just a matter of choosing tyres that roll faster for a given input (ie: have lower rolling resistance), grip also plays a crucial part. It’s no good having the best rolling tyres in the world if you have to slow down to walking pace every time the road is anything but straight. Anecdotally, when I asked an ex-pro what pressures he used in the wet for example, he said he would go as low as 75-80 PSI in the rain, as he found being able to corner as normal thanks to the increased grip the lower pressures gave, gave him more of an advantage than the increased rolling resistance took away.  That’s perhaps slightly extreme as an example; but take mountain biking-going fast off-road is as much about having tyres that grip well as anything else, so some of that principle is obviously transferable to the road. Think about the cobbled classics, tyre choice for these races is crucial, and it’s probably not exaggerating to say the wrong choices could mean the difference winning and losing (perhaps not between Cancellara winning and Contador winning admittedly). All this is all pretty logical and probably nothing new, but I personally find it helps to get my head around basic needs/demands when trying to understand things. The skill in tyre design and manufacturing is finding the right compromise between speed, grip, and durability depending upon the desired application.

Rubber compound, tread patterns and tyre construction all play their role in making a tyre what it is; and ultimately on how quickly you go, whether you stay upright in the wet, and how sore your bum is after 5 hours in the saddle.  In my next post I’ll talk a bit about what actually goes into making a tyre-which is actually a lot more interesting than you may think!

Sometimes I feel like Noah...

...when I'm sat there waiting to race and thinking 'I don't need a bike, what I could do with right now is an ark.'. Ok, it's only happened three times if I'm being honest, but it was (I thought) a nifty way of segwaying into talking about today's race, beginning with the conditions. I won't attempt to over-exaggerate said conditions to make your aware of just how tough/ard as nails/not a pansy/northern I am, I'll just say they were on the 'inclement' side of 'diabolical'. The only reason I mention these aforementioned conditions is to justify writing about today. I have seen far, far too many bloggers subjecting their readers to a punishing blow-by-gear change account of races that are, in the objective grand scheme of things, nothing important. I include myself in that sweeping statement your Honours-guilty as charged. I like writing about these things, but am well aware that if people thought 'oh no, another race report' and stopped reading then they might miss out on my witticisms and highly informative photo captions. I see it as my public duty in a way to lure my loyal (ahem) readership into my pretentiously woven web of wordsmithery through tactics, the more devious the better, such as those that have kept you reading this far without actually learning anything useful or interesting. 

So, without further adieu, here are some facts to make this seem like a proper thoughtful blog post.

Border City Wheelers Hill Climb up Hartside, Melmerby:

• One of the highest roads in the country topping out at around 1900ft.
• 4.9miles climbing approx 1300ft at an average gradient of 5.1%.
• Previous performances: 3rd last year in 18:40something VAM around 1200/1300 (google it).
• This performance: 4th in 18:26 VAM around 1300.
• Some rough number crunching suggests power of 350-370W for today, which would be a PB by a loooong way so yay for not racing with a power meter :(
• Strava (yeah 3 KOMs, no biggie. Just pointing that out. Who cares about results when you have KOMs!) I'm serious. Not really. But I do like getting KOMs. 

All in all not a bad morning's work. I was only 6s off James Dobbin, which is a pretty big deal. He's a former National Hill Climb champ and has a few course records I'd like to nab in the future (when I stop eating cake) so ignoring the fact that he probably had a bad day I'm pretty pleased! Talking of bad days, I'm lucky enough to very rarely experience them; but within the first minute today I was convinced the patron saint of Massive Peaks in Form was having a lie in. Thick, heavy, slow legs had me struggling to make much headway at all up the first third or so of the climb (an impression confirmed by comparing GPS data from last year) but luckily eased for the finale resulting in me overhauling myself (so to speak) by a decent margin by the finish.

Speaking of TT bikes, (lazy irrelevant segway) I used mine today. Last year I did it on my road bike but with an 50/82mm wheel combo and on finishing thought 'damn, should have been on the TT bike.' Today I used the TT bike with the same wheel combo and on reaching the first bend thought 'damn, should have been on the road bike.' Ho hum. Thanks to today's tailwind however (bit stronger than last year I think), once I reached the shallower gradients towards the top I was (relatively) flying along which managed to compensate for my earlier wallowings. 

An interesting example of the gamble that is equipment choice. I went slower on the steeper bits (heavier bike) but faster on the shallower bits (aero position) resulting in an overall faster time than last year. But...the question is, as all the people that beat me where on road bikes today, would I have gone significantly quicker on the steeper bits and still pretty quick towards the top and been overall quicker? 

Answers on a postcard. 

I've got to wait a year now to find out. Balls.

Have a gander at a pic or two on my Instagram if you fancy.

In the meantime, here is a picture of me getting soggy feet in another hill climb earlier this week: 

I'm not in pain, I'd just ridden through some wet cow shit on a sparkly clean bike and was rather upset. It's not rain, they're tears.

I'm a man of many talents, I hold a mean umbrella.

A strange shape loomed out of the mist making progress into the wind reminiscent of Jens when he explodes.

Rather him than me! Dad obviously thought I was going faster as I'm still out of shot. Ahem.

Extensive wind tunnel testing has shown that riding with one arm raised and one knee sticking out is, in fact, very aero.

Got a tenner for my troubles an'all! Though you'll have to trust me on that thanks to Mr.Wet Jacket ruining my presentation photo-op. Oh and the cakes were excellent.

Not that they'll read this (well, it's possible but unlikely)-but a big thanks to Border City Wheelers for organising such a good event and for timekeepers/pushers off for braving the conditions!

British National Time Trial Championships.

Five days on and I'm still unsure as to exactly how to put my experience at the National TT Champs into words. It was mega. Epic. Amazing. Daunting. Scary. Painful. Frustrating. Draining. Attempting to explain why it was all that is a little tricky; I've done National Championships before, I've done many Time Trials before, I've raced in front of crowds before, I've raced against top level athletes before, I've gone to the limit of my abilities before, I've been slightly overawed by people I've seen walking around the car park pre-race before...but never have I had everything at once. Never have I done something so important before. I've done the National Hill Climb champs twice now, but this was different-this was the British National Time Trial Championships. I wasn't just racing against flyweight specialists that only come out of the woodwork in October, I was up against Professionals, Olympians (kinda), British Cycling U23 Academy riders. This was way, way bigger than anything I'd done before. I won't bother giving you details of the race itself, just the result.

The race:

• 35.2km/21m in 51:32 at an average speed of 41kmph/25.5mph. First lap (of two) in 25:22. 
• 18th out of 22. 6:45 down on winner Sam Harrison. 1st/2nd out of the 'privateers' if you will. 

It may seem odd for me to look at my position relative to others I can establish are 'privateers', but it is important to know where I truly stand. I ride for a team, but it is a shop team supported by one man: Bill Nickson. He gives us as much help as he can getting us cheap bikes through having the Raleigh name on our kit and giving discounts on componentry etc; but he can only do so much. We don't do Premier Calendar events, we don't have a team car, we're just a bunch of mates racing. Safe to say though, that without Bill's help/guidance over the past few years I would not be writing this. Which brings me back to my point, I know what a difference a small amount of support makes so can only imagine what having the support of a fully fledged team/organisation would be like-and that has left me with two impressions:

• To *only* lose 6.75 minutes over a 45-50 minute TT to riders of the calibre of Harrison and McLay and Perrett, and to only lose 2 and a bit minutes to some other domestic professionals makes me really quite happy.
• Only losing 2 and a bit minutes to domestic full time professionals leaves me wondering just what I could have done had I had time to do as much training/had the support they have had.

It's good to have those two dominant thoughts remaining after the event as this is exactly what I need as motivation. I took on the best U23 riders in the country (ok, the best U23 riders who entered!) and I didn't come last (which was my initial fear!), I didn't get caught out on the course by anyone; I did the best ride I was capable of on the day and got a representative result. I didn't finish 10 minutes ahead of everyone else and get showered in Pro contract offers, I finished near the bottom of the results pretty much where I predicted I would. I haven't had the support the full timers have, I haven't been able to do the training they did-but I did the best I could and am content with that!

Strava file

Official result

Some pics:

Warming up and trying not to be psyched out.

Bike check/start.

Bike check/start.

Mr Porter had done his homework, had a few things to say about me!

Decent crowds at the start. Big adrenaline rush helped me over the starting 'hill'!

Sponsor spot ;)

Coming up to finish lap 1. I somehow quite like me being out of focus here. Means you can't see the dribble.

How I was able to sprint for the line I don't know. #fackered

I was in a much worse state than I look here I can assure you!

That's Racing.

'That's racing' is exactly what I said to myself as I rolled over the line in what turned out to be 21st place yesterday at the Brenig Road Race. It wasn't much comfort though, having been part of a breakaway that formed within the first 10 minutes of racing and only got brought back about 55 miles later.

The race, for Cat 2/3/4 riders, was described by some as 'savage' and by others as a 'brutality',  with around 9 miles of largely unrelenting climbing from the gun and a lumpy run in to some finishing circuits located about 10 miles from the bottom of the climb. With a team mate following an attack off the front of the bunch within the first 5 minutes, I followed a subsequent effort a little later on one of the steeper sections of the climb and we eventually joined up with the leading trio. The eventual winner (Lee Baldwin) clipped off the front of the bunch to join us, forming a leading group of 5 that was later joined by a further 3 riders about 15miles later, bringing the total number of North West riders in the break to 6. Considering we race and do chaingangs together all the time-this was a promising development! The 6 of us worked well, but unfortunately  we also had a few dead weights. It's fair to say we all missed a couple of turns to eat and whatever, but when riders sit on in and do possibly 1/10th the turns everyone else does…well it gets a little irritating. I can understand needing a rest after bridging a 40-60second gap up to a cohesive, organised group of 4, but surely after that rest you should be able to do some work? To be at the head of a strongly field of  2/3/4 riders, I would assume that you are not inexperienced and used up your only 'shot' in bridging; I would also assume that a prolific winner on the road/hill climb and time trial scene fresh from multiple training camps abroad would be capable of doing more than the odd turn. But that's racing I suppose!

The Original 4. I'm the one in blue with red shoes on...oh....

It was actually really windy and raining at this point. 

Fair to say the bunch wasn't hanging around!

After nearly 2.5 hours away we were brought back, but it was not for lack of trying. For almost all that time the gap had hovered around 50seconds, and it took a concerted chase from the group behind to finally reel us in. Luckily, Lee Baldwin took the win regardless with fellow breakaway-ee Mike Rawson getting top 5 as well. Nice to see them getting some decent money/points for their efforts!

Break Ver 2.0, bug fixes required.

I was taking it seriously, honest. I just don't like how everyone is like 'this is my super serious face, grrrrr' in race pics.

Kit, Bike and Shoe Symmetry.

Yesterday was without a doubt the best race I have ever done (ok, excluding the RR I won for obvious reasons), actually racing from Point A to Point B over some incredibly challenging roads was a unique experience-and doing 88% of that out in front made it all the more special! However, I did not get the result I felt I should. I felt stronger as the race progressed and truly believed that a.) the break could stay away and that b.) I would get a podium or the win. That's not post race 'shouldawouldacoulda', that's just hard analysis of how I felt and judgments of how the others were riding. It is difficult though, to be successful in road races you must commit 100% mentally and physically. That in itself is not a problem, but I struggle to do that time and time again with no apparent reward for said investment. That is why I have done far more time trialling this year as, barring bad luck/mechanicals etc, you get a representative result in a TT. The only thing standing between you and the result you deserve is yourself and if you give everything then 99% of the time it is representative. You can give 150% in a road race and get rolled on the line by some chopper who sat in all day. But that's racing. To the casual observer (and the BC points system) I rolled in unseen and in obscurity; but then if you don't try how can you know what could have been? 

Strava/Garmin stalk me  to get an idea of what a day it was. Or just take my word it was hard ;)

Thanks for reading! If you got this far...

Personal Bests and Worsts.

It was one of those weekends. I raced the Ribble Valley CRC Open 25mile Time Trial on Saturday and the Kent Valley Circuit of Wild Boar Fell on Sunday. I PB'd in one and PW'd in the other.

It was the first double weekend of the year for me (and actually thinking about it, the first time I've ever done two 'proper' races back to back), timed rather nicely just before coming back to University. I'd only done one '25' previously (last July on what was I believe the third outing of the then newly constructed ProjectAero) and got round in 58:07. I was pretty pleased with that at the time, the course had loads of roundabouts and stuff, I paced it conservatively and I had the nose of the saddle attempting to enter me the whole way round. The riding position was a 'work in progress', let's leave it at that.

So I was looking forward to having a proper go at another one, especially coming off the back of 2nd in the 28m Circuit of Pendle and 14th in the 50m Circuit of the Dales. I nailed the 28miler, and spent the first 20miles of the COTD yo-yo-ing between 'oh crap, too quick...going to blow' to 'oh crap, too slow...never going to finish at this rate'. All experience! Saturday's event round Cockerham on the Fylde in Lancashire was a 'SpoCo', as in part of a 'Sporting Course' series of events that are designed to offer 'interesting' and 'challenging' events for those that are not content just battering up and down motor-sorry, dual carriageways. It was 2 laps of a rolling, twisty exposed circuit with a couple of 'lumps' (if I say 'hills' or anything more I'd get properly laughed at by my mates down here in Wales...but to us North Westerners they would be classed as hills ;)) And it was windy. No other way of putting it. One exposed stretch (bearing in mind this is near the coast, where exposed=Exposed) had me riding along at a comfortable, if jaunty, 45 degree bank according to my Photographer/Mechanic/DS a.k.a Dad. 

That basically meant a roughly four sided circuit went something along the lines of: horrendous crosswind, horrendous headwind, reeeeeeaaaaaaly fast tailwind, confusing muddlewind. I got the pacing bob on, surfed my red line rather perfectly and finished in 57 minutes and 46 seconds (I think, results still aren't up) as can be viewed here: http://app.strava.com/activities/48616974. Job done, I was pretty chuffed until I saw a few people clocking 55s and 56s. That is really really fast. I mean, that's fast on a 'normal' course, but a Sporting Course?! I think I got 5th or 6th, which is nothing special but probably means prize money :D

Coming off the back of a PB I was confident (ish) of doing well on Sunday: 28.something Yorkshire miles roughly climbing up to Garsdale Head from Sedbergh, dropping down Mallerstang, then climbing back up and descending once again to Sedbergh for the final third or so. I hadn't factored in the weather though. Oh boy. It started raining as I was finishing my warm up and didn't really improve from then on! Looking at the wind speed data from Shap (not that far away), at 11am there was a steady wind speed of 34mph and gusts of 53mph. I can believe that. I'd chosen my shallow section Alu front wheel but opted to keep the disc in. One of those decisions was a good one...picture a 70kg rider (67 when I'm off the cake) riding with a disc wheel on a course reaching over 1000ft at the most exposed bits. I'm a 2nd Cat road rider primarily and like to think I'm more towards the Fabian end of the Bike Handling Spectrum than the Pissed-Man-On-Wobbly-Way-Home-From-Pub end (in my head at least), but you would have been forgiven for thinking it was my first time on a bike.

'What's that guy with the funny hat doing up here on a day like this? Why does he keep swearing loudly and weaving from one side of the road to the other? Why's he tilting his head right back? Oh look, he's swearing even louder now...'

That was the other slight problem. I have a visor on my helmet. Much, much, much rain on the outside and inside plus steam from sweary shouting didn't do much for visibility. Luckily at times the crosswind was so strong it actually wiped the rain droplets off both sides, which was nice! I can't really say much more about Sunday. It was truly and utterly horrendous (and trust me, I winter in Wales so know bad weather). I genuinely feared for my safety on numerous occasions, it really is the worst feeling thinking you have control of a bike doing 40+mph downhill only to hear and then feel a massive gust of wind and realising it will do with you what it wishes...

There was a great sense of camaraderie though, there were about 5 or 6 of us bunched up for the last third or so of the course...I remember thinking 'Well at least now if I blow away somebody will notice.' But seriously, back at the HQ warming up with tea and cake I think we all shared an immense feeling of, well, survival. We pitted ourselves against the elements, and in a way we all won. Actually, Ian Stott won. But he's just a Monster. He finished soon after me, and we were comparing chamois pads for levels of brownness...or in other words discussing how 'fun' riding with discs had been. He agreed that he too had just 'cruised' most of it and tried to stay upright. Still put 8 minutes or whatever into me though the fiend. Strava stalk my ride and then look at him taking the KOMs: http://app.strava.com/activities/48767061

Everyone finished, nobody got hurt. I learned a lot. An AWFUL lot. Luckily the BUCS Student 10mile TT champs on Saturday is just going to be a case of 'here's a dual carriageway, ride fast'...phew.

Some Pics.

(I rode it last Wednesday in the Sun as well as on Sunday in the Apocalypse)

Not Epic. Composed.

Epic. Cursing the Weather Gods.

Not Epic. Lovely in fact.

Epic. Shit Scary in fact.

That is my 'What the hell did I just do' and 'How the hell did I survive' face.

Just to prove I didn't just go and get wet on my own. 

I've just realised the photos really don't do it justice. So you'll have to trust my account. People believe Apple are giving away thousands of iPhone 5s on Facebook FOR FREE because they are 'unsealed'; so this is looking rather credible by all accounts....

Lancegate.

I have styled this as a cycling orientated blog (when I actually post things...), and I have been trying to collate my thoughts on Lancegate and Doprah for some days now with a view to posting; it is such a complex case I am wary of adding more noise to it all by putting some half baked opinion out there-but will do my best to be cogent.

This is far more than just the 'usual' case of someone breaking the sporting code of ethics, and for that reason will require much more than just the 'usual' crocodile tears apology. It is not just some domestique feeling it was necessary to take drugs to try and secure his future career (think recent case of Steve Hounard, AG2R); nor is it a case of a 'nearly man' being led into temptation by the promise of success and all it's trappings (think Bjarne Riis). No. This transcends all, and as such requires a completely different course of action on the part of Lance if he wishes redemption. What I feel he doesn't realise is that before the USADA report that signalled the beginning of the end, many were already convinced he was not what he claimed. There were enough reputable, informed voices out there and even more reasoned opinion to be found-if you knew where to look; and as such this is hardly the 'Revelation' many are claiming.

If the stories from Tyler Hamilton's book and other accounts are to be believed, this man was a bully; ruthless and narcissistic and driven to do 'whatever it took' to satisfy his 'win at all costs' mentality. This led him to potentially risk his life by taking a cocktail of drugs that could make him go further, faster and stronger-which admittedly is nothing new in sport. We now know many other riders in the late '90s and early '00s were doing just that; however this man had been to the edge with cancer and survived. Who would risk all that again just to 'win at all costs'? I struggle to imagine just how driven you would have to be to take the ultimate risk just to win some bike races (I am of course simplifying this down for effect, but at the end of the day the Tour de France is after all just a bike race).

It wasn't just other sporting careers he probably prevented from flourishing through this false dominance, Lance and his gang demonised, sued and defamed almost anyone who dared raise a question about him. Cases of Betsy Andreu, Greg Lemond, Emma O'Reilly, David Walsh, Paul Kimmage, Floyd Landis, Tyler Hamilton...the list goes on. The funny thing is though, which camp is now going to be remembered and revered the most? 

I leave you with a clip from an interview with one of the aforementioned who suffered at the hands of this man she once counted as a friend for years just because she refused to stay quiet:

I don't think he's changed. It seems to me we just have the same old Lance. And until he stops dithering around with how sorry he is for cheating (and would you bet against him doing it all over again given the chance?)  and actually starts trying to make amends for hurt he has caused, nothing will have changed.