thewashingmachinepost




..........................................................................................................................................................................................................

rapha handbook 02; longer rides - jo burt. rapha editions/bluetrain publishing. 144pp illus. £12

longer rides - jo burt

"I've listened to that little voice inside and I've paid attention when it's told me I can have a sticky bun. Especially when it's told me I can have it if I just make it over this one last hill."

but a few years after moving to the hallowed isle, i opted to subscribe to america's 'bicycling' magazine, principally because the uk was not particularly well-served in the cycling publication arena at the time. in common with many monthly and weekly publications and not necessarily constrained to the velocipedinal realm, each portion of the year had a tendency to bring a repetition of features: autumn and winter covered lighting, mudguards/fenders and how to keep warm, spring concentrated on early season training and, in the case of the americans, early summer brought thoughts of completing the almost inevitable century ride.

the favourite heading seemed mostly to concern 'riding your first century', and though i read every word, at the back of my mind was always the question "how hard can it be?"

longer rides - jo burt

therefore, one sunday morning i awoke and decided that i would, indeed, ride my very first century. i stuffed a few mouthfuls of food in my back pockets, including a solitary banana and checked to see that i had money for refueling along the way. unfortunately, woefully unprepared, less than half-way i stopped at a small bridge to stretch my ailing and complaining back, in the process, turning that banana into pulp. and stopping at what is now 'debbie's in bruichladdich, i discovered that the money in my pocket was, in fact, a supermarket till receipt.

longer rides - jo burt

having only sufficient loose change to purchase a small packet of raisins and a mini-mars bar, i dutifully completed my first century ride with scarcely any return from eight hours. mrs washingmachinepost had to assist me up the steps at the back door, as i appeared to have lost the use of both legs.

what i could have done with, prior to setting off into uncharted territory, would have been a copy of this second in the series of handbooks from rapha. published in conjunction with guy andrews' blue train publishing renowned author and illustrator jo burt has presented a highly informative and equally entertaining treatise on cycling just a bit farther than the gate at the end of the garden path. in the process, he has the knack of putting what could conceivably become a bragging rights distance competition into some perspective.

"It's important to remember that even if your longest ride is three times shorter than someone else's, it's their longest ride as well, so the feelings of tiredness, pride and elation at finishing it are equally shared. As is the need for a slap up meal."

longer rides - jo burt

for what may not be entirely obvious, there's a tad more to riding a long(er) road than has normally been the case and, try though i have, to think of any nook or cranny that might have been overlooked, i really can't find any: concern over tackling the great unknown "For your first attempt at a century you need to think of it as just like one of your normal bike rides, but a bit longer [...] (but) it needs to be approached with humility."; pragmatism: "(I've) eaten peanut butter straight from the jar at the end of a tough ride, sometimes even with a spoon." and the lack of specific training advice: This is a subject covered extensively elsewhere [...] you can even pay someone large sums of money to tell you what to do."

longer rides - jo burt

all of the above is divided up into bite sized chunks throughout the book's 144 pages, meaning there's no need to read cover to cover, if you simply need to cherry pick from the information presented. however, make no mistake, all those years of providing the script for a mountain biking sheep means that mr burt is no slouch when it comes to scribing compulsive and agreeable narrative. yet, let's make no bones about it, the book's not-so-secret-weapon, is the author's skill with a pen and colouring pencils. quite frankly, the illustrations and the cover (partially hidden under an orange cover wrap) are more than worth the price of admission alone. whether depicting an array of necessary bicycle repair tools, a hapless cyclist thumbing a lift, a peloton of scurrying cyclists spread over four pages, or a jar of peanut butter, really, what's not to like?

rapha and bluetrain publishing are to be roundly congratulated for having had the glorious perspicacity to offer these marvellous pocket guides for cyclists new to the fold. unlike several books of similar intent i have read in the past, there is not a trace of arrogance, of talking down to the reader, but rather an insistence that 'we've all been there.' jo burt has accompanied his own words with well-chosen quotes from those he describes as ..."just normal people fitting in cycling with families and jobs and real lives, just like the rest of us [...] words of wisdom from those that have ridden A Long Way..."

if you, or someone you know fancies exploring to the horizon and beyond on their bicycle, this really is all they need for christmas (irrespective of what mariah carey tells you). and though i've ridden bicycles for more years than i can truly remember, there was plenty in here to keep me occupied and entertained. and jo's wonderful pictures. an entire long-distance library in one book.

"Ride, eat, ride, eat, rest, ride, eat, ride, ride, eat, ride, ride, ride, rest, repeat."

longer rides - jo burt

tuesday 11 december 2018

twmp ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................