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the medal factory. british cycling and the cost of gold. kenny pryde. pursuit books hardback. 308pp illus. £16.99

the medal factory - kenny pryde

with this year's racing season already underway, 2020 looks like it might just see the resurgence of colombian rider, nairo quintana. formerly with spain's movistar, quintana has continued on the same bike marque, but swapped jerseys for that of arkea samsic. in this past weekend's mont ventoux stage of the tour de la provence, the diminutive south american provided a masterclass in ascending to take the stage victor's spoils. a brief recap was provided on global cycling network's youtube channel, demonstrating the colombian's panache on the climb to the iconic weather station atop the giant of provence.

the latter video moment, however, was remarkably short-lived. far from allowing the viewer to appreciate this early season display of joie de vivre from a purely velocipedinal point of view, the cycling imagery was quickly replaced with a graphic explaining that quintana's team-mate had ridden for 6.44 at a power output of 414 watts, then continued to finish over 23 minutes down on the colombian at a power output of 365 watts. one can only presume that nairo's numbers were a tad more substantial. once again, just like yesterday's discussion of the numbers that describe colours, the soul was somewhat sucked out of a moment of joy.

if a scapegoat for this state of wattage affairs were required, we probably need look no further than british cycling's, peter keen, a key figure in the history of britain's eventual cycling success on the international stage, and identified as such in this superb new book - the medal factory - from author kenny pryde. keen reputedly first came to the attention of the former british cycling federation in 1986 while he was working on the software development for the revolutionary kingcycle.

"The Kingcycle was essentially a glorified turbo trainer that could be used to measure a rider's power output in watts, their heart rate, as well as enabling a VO2 maximum figure..."

keen's subsequent meeting with an 18 year-old chris boardman in 1987 seems truly to have been a meeting of minds, and where boardman was introduced to the four training zones that subsequently became the subject of much discussion in the peloton and cycling press. according to boardman "He might well have been the first person in the world to quantify training like that...". from keen's point of view, here was "a young talent (boardman) who was committed to the same principles as himself..." in conjunction with national coach, doug dailey, it was effectively this triumvirate that brought home boardman's 1992 gold pursuit medal from barcelona.

in 1997, peter keen was appointed as the replacement for an ailing doug dailey as national cycling coach, arguably the turning point in the international fortunes of british cycling. the pre-existence of manchester's state-of-the-art velodrome, on which work was completed in 1994, provided not only the impetus and facility from which to grow, but a tangible, £9.5 million edifice from which to base the national cycling body's operations.

keen then set about writing the 'cycling world class performance plan', presented by way of application for lottery funding, "...pinpointing events in which Britain could win medals at Olympic Games and World Championships.". according to the author, the twenty-five page, 7,000 word treatise is still a remarkable document, even when viewed with the benefit of twenty years of hindsight. the submitted application was favourably viewed in whitehall, subsequently decreeing that the now re-named british cycling would receive its first tranche of funding by the end of 1997.

from those little peter keen engineered acorns, it would be safe to say that britain's current standing on the international cycling podium originated. an entire trophy cupboard worth of medals surely proves testament to that? kenny pryde, it seems, disagrees: "However, all things considered, it would be both unfair and inaccurate to posit 1997 as the absolute year zero of British cycling, given that much of the preparatory work that Keen and his cohort would benefit from was already in place."

however, it was during keen's tenure, that the next wave was installed, and dave brailsford, formerly a 'consultant equipment supplier' began his rise to prominence. brailsford was first brought to peter keen's attention by road team manager, john herety, and became the 'front of house' representative, while keen continued to refine and develop his performance plan. it was also during this period that the infamous shane sutton was recruited to the fold, along with heiko salzwedel as performance manager.

move forward a number of years, and in the approach to the athens olympic games in 2004, peter keen fulfilled the ruminations concerning his future at british cycling, and moved on, initially fronting a gsk funded sports science project, before becoming head of uk sport. thus, towards the end of 2003, dave brailsford was (apparently reluctantly) installed as head of performance and the intriguing narrative of 'the medal factory' was set to continue.

brailsford had the management nous to continue with keen's world performance programme, albeit on his own terms, arguably peaking at london's olympic games in 2012, bringing knighthoods to both himself and bradley wiggins, the latter having taken the yellow jersey in the same year's tour de france as leader at team sky. pryde details every turn of brailsford's creation of the victorious team sky in 2009, controversially recruiting wiggins from jonathan vaughters' team mid-contract, in order to satisfy his claim that he'd win the tour with a clean british rider within a five-year period. this, it was openly stated at the time, "was going to ruffle feathers", not least from vaughters himself.

"Legally, I can't say much about it. It wasn't any fun, let's put it like that."

kenny pryde has written one of the finest cycling books it has ever been my privilege to read. his forensic and balanced investigations into virtually every nook and cranny of british cycling's quest for medals, while gently implying a money-no-object philosophy, is little short of exhaustive. reading the finely crafted narrative, however, is anything but exhausting; in fact, quite the contrary; the more you read, the more you want, nay, need, to read. and despite the multiple threads that required to be drawn together from many different sources, to provide the audience with access to probably the most important period of uk cycling, the end result belies what must have been a very trying labour of love for the author.

he deals intelligently with the jess varnish situation, uncovers the twists and turns related to shane sutton's lengthy period of infamy, the notorious wiggins' 'jiffy bag' incident, and the questions raised over chris froome's 'therapeutic use exemption'. pryde's narration of events bears comparison with matt rendell's 2006 publication, 'death of marco pantani', predominantly on the strength of his investigative tenacity, and unquestionably lays claim to pride of place on your bookshelf.

sports book of the year, no question.

an interview with the author will appear tomorrow.

kenny pryde's 'the medal factory' is published by pursuit books on thursday 20 february. thanks to the generosity of the publisher, i have one copy of the book to give away to the first sender of the correct answer to the following question: which rider won gold for gb in the 1992 barcelona olympics?
along with your answer, please supply a full postal address, (i have to send the book somewhere) and mail your answers to brian@twmp.net by friday 28 february.

wednesday 19 february 2020

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