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ask a pro. deep thoughts and unreliable advice from america's foremost cycling sage. phil gaimon. velopress hardback. 224pp illus. £16.99

one of islay's local businesses relies upon a voluntary board of directors on the parent organisation to operate the company. this, strange to relate, is not a particularly unusual situation, however, disagreeable it may appear. as with many an organisation of similar constitution, these board members are required to stand-down after a predetermined period on the board, at which time, new incumbents will step up to the plate and take over the reins left vacant.

the oddity of a situation such as this is that any particular board of directors will spend their two or three years in situ learning how best to run the business, along with all the little quirks and oddities that such will require. and having learned, they will then take this experience with them on departure, leaving their successors to start all over again.

in order that the latter process become less iniquitous than it might seem, each new director is provided with an induction pack, a selection of papers and the like that will offer them an insight into the history of the business, its principal purpose and the staff that run the facility on a daily basis. it might not be the perfect solution, but it is likely he best that can be achieved under the circumstances.

so how does that work should you harbour desires to join the professional peloton? for instance, where should you send your rèsumé to be considered for a race team? how much chamois cream should be used at one sitting (pardon the pun)? and what do you do if you don't like the products provided by your team sponsor?

these are but three questions that might give cause for endless debate in the sunday morning g.c. ristorante debbie's peloton, but since none of us are, or ever will be, professional cyclists, the answers must be considered pure conjecture. if only we had a handy pro rider to answer all those awkward and completely irrelevant questions that come to mind when we ought better to be concentrating on the traffic through which we ride.

though hailing from across the pond, the very fellow we seek is phil gaimon, late of the worldtour peloton and writer of a regular column in velonews, where he indulged inquisitive and arcane queries from the great unwashed on a frequent basis. ask a pro is the handy compendium that has resulted from such diligence in the face of questionable adversity.

thankfully, rather than adopt a stentorian tone or a gaze of seriousness cultivated to discourage the ephemeral from being phrased as a question, phil gaimon is owner of an admirably tolerant sense of humour. his book is curated into a series of logical sections consisting of neo pro, continental pro and ultimately world tour pro, followed a by a series of appendices such as how to win the race buffet, a guide to host housing and race warm-up routine. the final too hot for velonews is a bit of a humorous red herring.

it would be disingenuous of me to pretend that each and every question and answer shares the temerity of "What kind of power numbers do you put out at threshold?". serious questions such as "Ant-doping wants to know where you are and what you're doing at all times. What's the process, how much really has to be documented and how do you feel about it?" gaimon answers that particular question with the seriousness it deserves, but lightens the mood with a couple of smileable footnotes. and with queries such as "After a crash, why do pros get up and continue, even if they're going to drop out of the race? Why don't they just get into a car and quit right there?", phil offers both serious and less serious answers in his three part riposte.

in short, ask a pro is more or less the perfect book, one that is entertaining, humorous, serious, informative and not one that has need of being read cover to cover in sequence. it's possible that even a mild perusal of the book's contents may bring you to more than one or two questions you yourself have often thought of asking, the answers to which might be of greater priority than some, or all of the others. granted, it's always possible that had the book asked a different pro, the answers might differ wildly; one can think of a particular texan, for example.

however, it's more than likely that the would-be or neo-pro will still require to gain both knowledge and experience in the time-honoured fashion; on the bike in the peloton during races they've scarcely ever heard of. but for those of us endeared of a series of awkward questions during the sunday morning bike ride, this will do very nicely thank you.

velopress publications are distributed in the uk by cordee books.

monday 5 june 2017