On the Road Bike (37 page)

Authors: Ned Boulting

BOOK: On the Road Bike

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Even when Team Sky appeared to trumpet their preposterous ambitions across the water at a laughingly sceptical Continent, things fell predictably, Britishly, flat. Wiggins flopped in 2010 and crashed in 2011. And that had been that.
Plus Ã§a change
, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Until, that is, the summer of 2012 came along, when Britain grabbed France by the throat, turned it upside down and emptied its pockets.

LiÃ¨ge. The eve of the Tour.

The doors open, and into the glare walk Mark Cavendish, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and the six other members of Team Sky. The sight that greets them exceeds their expectations. All of them are experienced media campaigners, all of them have been the subject of press conferences, but the scale of interest here, the number of camera crews, reporters and photographers, is unlike anything they've seen before. Suddenly, and in the case of Bradley Wiggins specifically, they realise the reality of the burden they will have to bear round France for the next three weeks. They are the favourites to win the Tour de France. Wiggins is the favourite. This is the scrutiny their effort will invite, day after day.

âJesus Christ.' Wiggins's appears to be temporarily wrong-footed, but is still, refreshingly, unable to refrain from swearing in public. That much, too, is expected of him.

Nothing much emerges from the press conference. There is a tiredness in the responses to simplistic questions that is entirely understandable. How else can you answer, âDo you feel confident that you can win the Tour de France?' other than with the obvious, cautionary, âI feel confident in my own ability, but we'll have to see how the race unfolds.'

Wiggins understands he is being bland, but can do nothing about it. We are in the neutralised zone, the roll-out to the race itself. There is no evidence one way or another yet. Only hope and nerves.

Outside, once the ludicrous formalities of the pre-race press conference are finally put to one side, there is a brief semi-regal walkabout from Bradley Wiggins. He slouches across the car park, saving energy with every lazy stride, towards where a cluster of important people has gathered by the team bus.

On his way over there, he is stopped by a member of the public, with whom he poses for a picture. That done, he politely declines to shake the outstretched hand, for fear of picking up last-minute infections. By the time he reaches the cluster of VIPs, he has mysteriously abandoned such principles of hygiene, and warmly shakes the hands of Fausto Pinarello, who owns the eponymous bike brand. So it seems that not all bacteria are equal.

As we drive away from their hotel, and back to ours over the Dutch border in Maastricht, I ask Chris Boardman what he makes of Wiggins's frame of mind, which is not always easy to read, but which can have a huge impact on his performance.

âI'd have said he's just very happy,' is Chris's assessment of the man he mentored through the early years of his career. âWhy wouldn't he be? He's ridden the year to perfection, and he knows he can win the Tour de France. That's not a bad place to be.'

âI guess so.' I try to get inside that observation, to imagine how that must feel. I give up, and watch the windscreen wipers flicking the Belgian rain from in front of us. I note that this was where Wiggins was born.

Belgium. Not Britain.

Somewhere else.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many people gave up a great deal of time to help me tell this story, not least the ladies and gentlemen who feature heavily within. So thank you Chris Boardman, Mick Bennett, Garry Beckett, Avril Millar, Ian and Sally Anne Meek, Tony Hewson, Ron Keeble, Graham Webb, John Herety, Maurice Burton, David Millar, Simon Mottram, Gary Kemp, Brian Smith, Germain Burton, Ken Livingstone, Nadav Kander, Bob Elms, Tommy Godwin, Joe Clovis and Jim Robertson. Also to Dan Gordon, Brian Robinson, Phil Griffiths, Barry Hoban, Barbara Ford, Kay Jones, Matt Stephens and Kristian House for providing me with considerable help in my research.

Thanks to the welcoming people at British Cycling who sent me an invitation to their gala dinner back in 2010 and set me off on this path.

To all my fellow Real Pelotoneers, in whose company I completed the 115 miles of the Tour Ride, and whose better knowledge and companionship kept me going, thank you. In particular, thanks to my good friends Joad Raymond, Luke McLaughlin, John Beech, Matt Rendell, Adam Tranter, Chris Alfred, Jim Clayton and âSkipper' Steve Trice. Simon Taylor, who attacked me on my local hill, sneaks in here, too, along with his hand-painted steel frame Graham Weigh bike. I also owe a debt to Ian Cleverly of the beautiful
Rouleur
magazine, to Gavin Brown from
Metro
and to Lionel Birnie from the
Cycling Anthology
for keeping my writing arm in practice. To those riders, and ex-riders, alongside whom I have learned about the domestic cycling scene, I am very grateful. They have had great patience. So, thanks Maggie Backstedt, Paul Manning, Yanto Barker, Ben Swift, Andy Tennant, Ed Clancy, Lizzie Armitstead, Dean and Russell Downing, Julian Wynne, Alex Dowser, Dan Lloyd, Roger Hammond, Tony Gibb, James McCallum, Tom Southam, Rob Hayles and Graham Jones. Hats off to those who make sure that the Tour of Britain and the Tour Series get on the telly, in particular to Mark Sharman and Niall Sloane at ITV, as well as Sharon Fuller, Rohan Browning, Glenn Street and Mat Pennell (amongst many others) at Century TV. The staff at the Caird Library in Greenwich let me use their space, despite the fact that I was blatantly not interested in maritime history. Simon Bromley was kind enough to let me use the picture he took of me struggling up the Bec Hill Climb.

I should acknowledge Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins, who provided me, and you, and all of us with the absurdly improbable sight of a British Yellow Jersey leading out a British world champion on the Champs-ElysÃ©es. They've played a not insignificant part in all this. As has everyone at Yellow Jersey Press, in particular Justine Taylor, Kris Potter, Fiona Murphy, Frances Jessop, Myra Jones and the excellent editor Matt Phillips, who has now become a dad to young Maggie, and, although he does not yet know it, is hurtling towards his own mid-life crisis. Thanks too to Mark Stanton if he can bring himself to read past the title to get this far.

Thanks to my magnificent and largely indifferent children, Suzi and Edie. And thanks to Kath, who has shown only limited and occasional interest in this book. Which is no bad thing, because she probably won't like what I've written about her. Those three people are, once again, my full stop.

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Epub ISBN: 9781448161096

Version 1.0

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Published by Yellow Jersey Press 2013

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Ned Boulting has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs

and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by

Yellow Jersey Press

Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road,

London SW1V 2SA

www.vintage-books.co.uk