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the cycling podcast: a journey through the cycling year. moore, birnie & friebe. yellow jersey press paperback 256pp illus. £16

the cycling podcast - moore, birnie, friebe

ian fleming created his secret service agent, james bond, in 1953, subsequently featuring him in a total of twelve novels and in a couple of short-story collections. though fleming died in 1964, bond's livelihood has been extended by eight other authors, the most recent of which, 'trigger mortis', by anthony horowitz, was published in 2015. the more contemporary aficionado, however, is more likely to have experienced bond's character via several notable actors' portrayals in the cinema, rather than in the airport book store or the local library.

the first cinema outing for mr bond, played by sean connery in 1962 was as the principal character in dr. no. given that there have been subsequently another 23 james bond movies since the early sixties, you could be forgiven for thinking that surely celluloid would all but have killed off the demand for books about the british secret service agent's unlikely exploits. but just as trevor horn and geoff downes were well wide of the mark when contending that video killed the radio star, it seems that even our insatiable demand for movies and online movie rentals has not wholly supplanted the printed word.

technology, along with many others facets of modern life, often moves in mysterious ways.

and it seems, none more so than the decisions of messrs. moore, birnie and friebe, to commit the ethos of their cycling podcast series to book format. surely this parallels any attempts to encapsulate the star wars film franchise in a series of novels written after the fact? was the podcast not technology's way of obviating the need for bookshelves, when all that was now demanded was an ipod of even modest storage space? assuming this is a belief that many of us have held since the advent of talking heads ruminating on the fortunes of cycling became downloadable from the itunes store, it seems we may have been a tad wrong in our assumptions.

so what is the point of encapsulating a podcast in book format? well, for starters, 'a journey through the cycling year' is not simply a series of podcast transcriptions spread across 256 pages. nor does it emulate the visually austere nature of the average podcast, arriving well illustrated with photography by simon gill, including an attractive cover shot of alberto contador enjoying himself on a silver trek. having now told you what the book isn't, i hope to give you some indication of what it is.

do not be fooled, or put off by the opening chapter, which does attempt to replicate the podcast format, featuring each of the above mentioned contributors 'speaking' in turn about the state of last year's (cycling) nation. in truth, this is probably the book's weakest part, for 'tis but a recap of the 2017 season as seen by the authors. considering the book's publication just as the 2018 classics have begun to wake up, it does have an air of redundancy about it; much of this has already been discussed at length elsewhere.

"RM: Where are we Lionel?"
"LB: We're in London, in the British Film Institute Café, on a day when the sky has turned dark."
"RM: Hurican Ophelia. Is it a hurricane or a storm?"
"LB: Not sure. It started off as a hurricane, but it's fading..."

however, from page 25 onwards, things begin to look up, beginning with a chapter cheekily entitled "The Lionel of Flanders" in which mr birnie appraises his reading audience by way of an a to z of the 'lesser-known cobbled classics'. at this point, the book takes on a manner more reminiscent of the much-loved cycling anthology series, one fomented by the inestimable mr birnie himself. there are chapters in here that are worth the price of admission alone and which surely risk surpassing the very nature of the cycling podcast itself (though given their disparate natures, perhaps not.)

gems such as "A Love Letter to the Peacock of Sandrigo" by ciro scognamilio which begins "If I wasn't so good looking, you'd never have heard of Fabian Cancellara." there's really no way you're not going to read the rest of that chapter. but the outstanding gem of the entire book, sandwiched between richard moore's giro d'italia diary and the same author's tour de france diary, is a superb chapter from ashleigh moolman pasio on how her overwhelming desire to wear the giro rosa, has altered as her years in the women's professional peloton have rolled by.

"The pink jersey had represented a lot to me. [...] You couldn't just be one of the best to win it, you had to be the best of the best."

in an ideal world, there would not be women's cycling and men's cycling; there would just be cycling. life, however, just isn't like that and moolman pasio's passion, reasoning and ultimate acceptance of the sporting life as it really is, will have you read this chapter more than once.

daniel friebe, listed on the cover as one of the book's three authors, in point of fact gains only a single outing in print, concerning his own week one diary of the 2017 giro d'italia. the fact that there are others with a greater share of the printed word seems a bit odd to me, but that'll be why i'm not involved either in publishing or podcasting. if i have a single criticism, it's that there are just a few too many diary outings, potentially making the book more about the authors themselves than their subject matter, but overall, if the season can bear an essential category, i'd be quite happy to have this book included.

it's a well written, entertainingly easy read which the reader can dip in and out of at will; the contents at the front are simply a list and not a set of instructions.

the cycling podcast is published by yellow jersey press on thursday 1 march.

wednesday 28 february 2018