hand to mouth

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racing through the dark by david millar

i have been watching david millar race in the professional peloton since he first came on the scene as a brash young man back in the bad old days of the epo fuelled late nineties. i always found millar an exciting rider to watch, be it in the time trial or as a breakaway specialist millar’s victories have invariably been won in style. although he has had what many would see as a very successful career to date it has not been without its lows, the most obvious and infamous being his conviction for doping which earned him a two year suspension from racing between 2004 and 2006.

in millar’s frank autobiography racing through the dark he tells the story of his rise through the ranks as a precocious young talent whose love of racing gradually ebbed away as he realised the playing field was far from level. even though he was winning races clean, most notably a stage 1 victory in the 2000 tour de france, the pressure to prepare in the right way and do his job in what would have been deemed a professional manner eventually took its toll and he started using epo for the first time in 2001 four years after starting out as a stagiaire with cofidis in 1997.

millar articulates very well his spiral into a self obsessed life where long periods of hard training, usually in isolation from family and close friends, were interspersed with off season hard drinking, increased use of sleeping pills and recovery or récup injections of vitamins and minerals during stage racing which eventually turned into the calculated use of his first course of epo and a culture where injecting became the norm.

it is well documented that millar’s world came crashing down in june 2004 when police arrested him whilst he was eating out at a restaurant near his home in biarritz. after an extensive search of his apartment police found empty epo phials and took him into custody for interrogation. what followed was a long drawn out investigation into millar’s drug usage. it was during this low point that millar admitted everything and both literally and figuratively speaking came clean. so began his long painful and very expensive recovery and eventual return to racing at the 2006 tour de france.

since his return to the professional peloton millar has experienced a renaissance in his career rediscovering his passion and joy for racing as well as becoming an outspoken advocate of the anti-doping movement. most importantly he has proven that it is possible to win clean and has notched up many impressive victories to date.

millar is somewhat of a divisive character amongst fans with many disliking him. personally i do not understand this view point. while many others choose a life of denial after being convicted of doping offences millar bravely admitted to his mistakes and turned his life around both personally and professionally which i have tremendous respect for. if all riders reacted in the way millar has, post doping conviction, we would arguably have seen a faster transfer into a culture of cleaner racing.

love him or hate him millar is undeniably an interesting character and certainly a cyclist i could easily spend many hours around the dinner table with listening to his tales and anecdotes over a couple of bottles of good wine. unfortunately like the majority of us i doubt i will get the opportunity to do this so reading his book has certainly qualified as an extremely entertaining second best, recommended reading.

racing through the dark by david millar is published by orion.

(check out an interview with david millar recorded in june by the bike show’s jack thurston where he talks about his life and his new book by clicking here.)

brooks cascadia trail shoe review

one of the last purchases i made before we moved away from London to bath was to buy myself a pair of trail running shoes.  i already knew that where i was moving to had trails crisscrossing the local hilly countryside and that a couple of these trails start just two minutes from my front door.  although i had not done much trail running previously i made the decision to make the most of my new surroundings so a sturdy and grippy pair of trail shoes were going to be an essential addition to my running kit.

without doing any prior research, yes a risk i know, off i went to my local running store and started trying on shoes.  it soon became apparent that brooks cascadia 4’s might be the right shoes for me.  although i am not particularly brand loyal i already had a pair of brooks road running shoes which had seen me through many hundreds of kilometres of training and some racing without any injuries.  also i am a neutral pronater which the cascadia suits due to the insoles being fairly flat with minimal arch support.  the deal sealer was that i think the shoes are pretty good looking, for a trail shoe at least.

since arriving in bath i have had five or six opportunities to give the cascadia’s and good test.  the trails in my area are undulating to say the least with some very steep gradients with terrain ranging from grass and mud tracks through to gravel and rubble.  add a good dose of rain and it soon becomes apparent that good grip is essential unless one wants to end up on ones arse.  the trail runs i have done have been in both dry and wet weather conditions and i can honestly say that i have not slipped once during those forays into the hills and that includes running down hill over rubble strewn trails.  they are very comfortable too with super cushioning, think thick carpet under foot...seriously.

Downsides, well i do not want to over emphasis them since they are not major but nevertheless do need pointing out.  Be careful walking or running in these shoes over wet pavement or cobble surfaces.  The rugged rigid soles of the shoe are designed to grip into uneven muddy surfaces in the same way a four wheel drives tyres grip off road, they are not so good on smooth wet surfaces and the potential for sliding in them compared to a regular road running shoe becomes greater.  Also the shoe pitches itself as being able to repel water. In my experience even running through fields of long wet grass has quickly resulted in damp feet, they are not water resistant.

overall i would say the cascadia is a built to last, robust shoe that does offer excellent comfort and grip but do stick to using them off road as that is where they will truly shine.  i am certainly very happy with them and for around £60 they are good value for money compared with other trail shoes on the market.

danny macaskill - industrial revolutions

other jaw dropping videos by scotland's danny macaskill can be seen here, here and here.

mark johnson tour de france photography

i came across a stunning set of tour de france photographs recently all taken by californian resident mark johnson.  below is just a small sample of his work from this years tour.  take a look at his gallery of tour photos here, i was blown away when i first saw them.

also keep a look out for a book that mark is in the process of writing and shooting on the garmin-cervélo team.  it's a coffee table-type book, lots of photos of the team throughout the year and with a narrative about the business side of cycling. it will come out early 2012 from velopress.

for further information on mark and his writing and photography services visit his website at ironstring.com.

bristol & bath railway path

just a stones throw from where i live is the bristol & bath railway path. it was constructed on the track bed of the former midland railway which closed for passenger traffic at the end of the 1960s. between 1979 and 1986, the railway line was converted into the railway path which is a 13 mile off road route between the cities of bristol and bath dedicated to walkers, runners and cyclists.

i use it frequently for running but only once before have i cycled to it's end and back.  it makes for an ideal 48km easy ride.  there are no hills and there are no cars, all that needs to be negotiated are people and dogs plus i can do a there and back in well under two hours if i want which as a new dad comes in very handy when trying to fit work outs in around looking after our four week old daughter.

during this trip i had the pleasure of discovering the bath ales brewery which is around three quarters of the way along the path to bristol in a place called warmley.  i could not resist making a u-turn when i saw the sign for the brewery shop.  i only had a two pound coin with me which was enough to buy a bottle of their dark side stout, with twenty pence to spare.  it was very impromptu as i do not usually mix riding my wilier izoard with buying beer on route, i would use a different bike for that.  that said now i know the shop is there i will definitely be going back.  we are really into buying local at the moment especially because the area is rich with quality local produce.  the bottle of stout slotted perfectly into my bottle cage and i can report it's contents went down very well indeed as post ride refreshment.

bristol & bath railway path

bath ales

back pockets

except for the garmin which clips into a holder on top of my handlebar stem. oh and i would not usually choose banana flavour anything, do not get me wrong, i like real bananas but synthetic is yuk! i was left a torq banana gel by a friend which he strategically forgot and which i discovered sitting in my kitchen cupboard a few days later.  i do not like to see anything go to waste so i took it with me on my ride and ate it.  eerh horrible!

croce d’aune

via: building-blocks.tumblr.com

never too young

isabella and i watching highlights of today's eneco tour.

splinter bike

my mate dan boulton who knows a thing or two about good design put me on to this...

words taken from the splinter bike biography:

The SplinterBike project came about after a casual £1 bet turned serious. Inspiration came from many areas but the most significant was the influence of the carbon-fibre Lotus 108 time trial bicycle designed by fellow Norfolk designer Mike Burrows and made by the Norfolk based Lotus car manufacturer.

The challenge was to design and build a 100% wooden bicycle. “No bolts or screws, just wood and glues” were the rules of engagement. What developed was the SplinterBike, creating a new type of human powered vehicle... the Plicycle.

This required taking a sideways look to overcome the many challenges in producing a rideable wooden bike. Obvious problems like the chain have been tackled by connecting the power from the pedals to the rear wheel by the simple addition of a gear cog (pliCog). This however took many hours to design and prototype.

Just because the things around us are as they are, doesn’t mean they have to stay that way. Alternatives can be designed for everything we use day to day and take for granted. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel but it’s interesting to try.

The SplinterBike forced me to employ timbers previously unused in my workshop such as Lignum Vitae, a naturally self lubricating hardwood, which is included for bushings and bearings to minimise friction where one component turns in an opposing direction to another.

Many years of woodworking experience has enabled me to make a bet with a friend and end up developing something that will ultimately set a land speed record for wooden bicycles. It’s a testament to the versatility and strength of one of mankind’s oldest available materials... and of course, modern glue technology. The SplinterBike took around 1000 hours to design and construct in a rammed earth garden shed. Norfolk, England.

www.splinterbike.co.uk

a manual for speed

i was hoping i would see more of daniel wakefield pasley's crystal clear sharp photographs again after seeing some of his work a few months back.  i went back to his website a fair few times only to feel a slight disappointment not to see any new additions to his online portfolio.  it is therefore a pleasant surprise to see pasley's work reappear again on the slick new castelli sponsored a manual for speed website which pitches itself as a collection of photo essays, videos, narratives, interviews and anecdotes all of which illustrate the pursuit of speed.  below is a selection of just a few of my favourite images from the site.  keep em coming daniel!

www.manualforspeed.com

tour de france series

i have been scrolling down through these colourful illustrations by crayonfire and could not decide which ones i like the most so i decided to profile all twentyone of them from day one of this years tour all the way through to the final stage three weeks later in paris, brilliant!  oh and you can buy the prints too.