Being dropped

It will never happen to me. Yet it did. Humiliation, defeat, weakness. It wasn’t even a quick ride. Bump, gone, just like that. Dropped.

How not to climb a hill – a hard-fought education

The deconstruction of a hill climb gone wrong. Very, very wrong. The summit. Finally. My body quivers, arms and legs shaking, in shock, for they know not what their master has just put them through. Dumbstruck, they remain numb. Nothing works. My eyes see double, triple, the many horizons wobbling before me. Asphyxiated, I’ve climbed […]

The inexplicable good and bad days on the bike

You feel great. You feel like shit. Yin and yang, attacking and being dropped, good and bad days on the bike are unpredictable at best, maddening at worst. Despite the best efforts of psychologists, nutritionists, coaches, and strict training plans, there are those days when anything can happen, we can be at the top of […]

Cycling bonk – A meeting with the man with the hammer

It happens to us all. It shouldn’t, we know it shouldn’t, and yet still the moment strikes. I’m not talking about the moment you realise your favourite rider has been caught doping in the peloton, nor the confusion between its and it’s, nor that fear of your next KOM loss on Strava. No. I’m talking […]