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half time

following ten years of attempting the annual festive 500, in 2020, i figured it was time that i excused myself from being a festive social pariah, and reduced the distance involved across the eight days of the challenge. i could, perhaps, have gone cold turkey, and simply withdrawn from any regular form of cycling altogether over christmas, but i still enjoyed the cycling, just not the compulsory nature of the 500.

five hundred kilometres over the course of eight days, arithmetically works out at 62.5km each day, though as i have pointed out on several occasions, islay's general weather patterns in late december frequently entailed at least one day lost to meteorological conditions, thus increasing the daily kilometreage to just over 70km per day. with brief reference to yesterday's monologue, no matter how fast i'd like to think i am, the reality is often substantially different. so, to accomplish such daily distances necessitated arising at around 8am, consuming a healthy breakfast and head out on the day's parcours even before the sun has arisen above the horizon (always assuming the sun appears at all). even if i unwillingly accept that my average speed hovers around 20kph, and allowing at least 30 minutes for lunch at debbie's, we're probably looking at around four hours each day, just to achieve the singular (selfish) task of reaching those 70 kilometres. factor in a remedial shower and mrs washingmachinepost had effectively become a cycling widow at the very time of year that society tells us is for family.

unfortunately - and you can deny it if you want to, but i'd think about it for a moment before you do - our habitual obsession with cycling and the endless desire to satisfy it frequently wins over 'doing the right thing'. so, even though i felt somewhat out on a limb within the intangible velocipedinal society i thought myself to be a part, i convinced myself that attempting a festive 250 might be an acceptable option. in my particular case, i have the great good fortune that the distance from the croft to debbie's in bruichladdich coincides very closely with the daily distance that would have me reach 250km in eight days. so i could ride the same parcours day in, day out, consume a double-egg roll and a soya latte for lunch, and ride home, not only fulfilling two needs (cycling and lunch), but gained a few more brownie points than the 500 ever did.

as of an hour or so after lunch today, i've completed those 250km without a single complaint from mrs washingmachinepost, though following that with the traditional new year's day ride might undermine all that i feel i might have gained acrosss the previous eight days.

those who have the tenacity to ride all 500 kilometres (some who seem to have completely missed the point, undertake to do so at a single sitting) have my congratulations, but not my envy. this year's festive holiday has been absolutely glorious weather-wise; freezing cold, but mostly clear blue skies. when the weather's like that, islay is the best place in the world to be, whether you're cycling or not. due to my advancing years, i can envisage a time when even the 250km will be reduced, but thankfully, i don't see a time when it'll stop altogether.

and for that, i am eternally grateful.

wednesday 31 december 2025

reality bites

for all that cycling apparel purveyors and cycle manufacturers are intent on persuading us (not always with great subtlety) how close are we to fraternising with the professional classes, it takes only a cursory glance at the numbers on our garmins to realise just how far from the truth is that proposed notion. during the 'cross events in dendermonde on sunday, the average speed was disturbingly close to 30kph, on a tight course, filled with obstacles that scarcely appear on the average country or urban road, on a parcours that was frozen solid other than a few centimetres of thawed mud on the corners. though i can hardly be thought of as the poster boy for velocipedinal speed, my sunday ride on a reputedly less troublesome parcours was greater than ten kilometres an hour slower.

as a rider of advanced years, i do not class myself as on parity with those of lesser age, but, on average, even they are never likely to see that tread on mathieu's or wout's rear tyres.

if i might take rapha as one example, note that their principal range is entitled the pro team, excluding many from its sales statistics, due to apparently having been tailored for those with less than 10% body fat. similarly, those online cycle ranges, where the prices rapidly increase depending on the nomenclature applied to the illustrations.

to take specialized, as an example, if the downtube features the lettering 's-works', there will be little change to be had from £12,000, with all thus named, featuring professional-level groupsets, convincing the purchaser of a sporting prowess commensurate with the likes of roglic or evenepoel. move downwards a few rungs and s-works is replaced by specialized, but with the word pro appended online to assure those without the bank balance to acquire an s-works, that their choice in no way diminishes their abilities or aspirations. those at the foot of the ladder have a choice of comp or sport. of course, once again, money is at the root of the problem; a well remunerated friend of mine purchased a top of the range bicycle from specialized, despite abilities that would scarcely have enabled him to lead the velo club sunday peloton.

but bicycle and apparel companies have bills to pay too.

and that's where sports psychology makes an unfortunate body swerve, particularly when the holidays arrive. up until yesterday, i had ridden my 'cross bike every day since christmas eve, eve, intent on continuing the trend through until at least new year's day. but on awaking on monday morning, it occurred to me to ask why? after six days of daily pedalling activity, admittedly over less than strenuous distances, and in unseasonally calm, sunny weather, was it not better to actually take a holiday, read my daily newspaper, have lunch with mrs washingmachinepost, watch the cyclocross from loenhout and perhaps even practise a paradiddle or two?

i'd be the first to agree that, in the contexts outlined above, the word 'pro' is more an attitude of mind than a signature at the foot of a contract. but i think it's quite possible that such an attitude is one specifically cultivated by members of the industry intent on having us clad in the emperor's new clothes and aboard the emperor's new bike.

the choice, aas they say, is yours.

tuesday 30 december 2025

loose change

it has been my habit for several years, to have my newsagent acquire a copy of america's downbeat jazz magazine, a periodical that exhibits very little by way of regularity in its arrival from the distributor. though there are several features within each issue that are rendered of little relevance, due entirely to the substantial chunk of atlantic ocean that exists between its origin and my place of domicile. however, one purpose which it does serve particularly well, is enlightening me to the existence of recordings which would otherwise remain outside my sphere of influence. one of those revealed in the latest issue, arriving just prior to christmas, is the complete collection of live recordings made by john coltrane at the village vanguard in 1961.

though i have listened to the digital streaming version so far, i have not yet ruled out purchasing the seven vinyl lp boxed set (complete with 20 page booklet). even on my very basic record player, vinyl reveals aspects and details of original recordings that digital seems to keep under wraps. if evidence is required to back up my contention, listen to miles davis' kind of blue on your iphone, then on vinyl. jimmy cobb's ride cymbal never sounded so good.

mention of kind of blue, recorded in 1958 and released in 1959, ensures mention of john coltrane who, in the space of three years, moved dramatically into exploratory mode; listening to the village vanguard recordings, you'd be hard pressed to recognise him as the same musician. and that can be a bit of a potential problem. kind of blue is the best selling jazz album of all time, often the only example of the genre in any given record collection. and though i wouldn't necessarily go so far as to describe it as 'easy listening', the village vanguard recordings, on the other hand, are, to use a contemporary phrase, hard core, to put it mildly.

i have been listening daily over breakfast, and it dawns on me that it's very unlikely that these particular coltrane recordings would have gained him a recording contract today. in fact, there's a distinct possibility that his excessive use of disharmonics would likely have made it very hard for the band to acquire any gigs at all; certainly not to the level of approbation achieved in the 1950s and 60s. there is, of course, a perfectly good reason why that might be the case.

money.

john coltrane released around 25 recordings as a band leader, mostly over the course of a decade, while art blakey released nigh on 75 albums by the jazz messengers. miles davis is responsible for between 80 anad 100 recordings. compare that with 13 albums from the beatles, around 30 by the rolling stones and only ten by michael jackson. modern times have brought lengthier periods to record an album (though jazz musicians still frequently record an entire album in one day - minimal cost) several artists or bands have taken weeks to record a single album; a very expensive process. but record companies nowadays are inclined only to invest if they figure they can realise a decent return on investment, and john coltrane, were he to have arrived on the scene only now, would probably not be amongst them.

but it's also a sign of the times in other walks of life, including that of cycling. graeme obree once told me that he even thought of training as 'cheating', that cyclists ought to compete on the basis of their natural talent, rather than abilities enhanced by attending training camps and acquiescing to the advances made by nutritional science. graeme made the remark tongue-in-cheek, but you can sort of see his point. in the 1950s and 60s, though cyclists indulged in regular training, it was clearly encapsulated by fausto coppi when he advised 'ride your bike, ride your bike and ride your bike'. it's hard to think that tadej, jonas and remco would be satisfied solely to follow the directions of il campionissimo.

but in the days of coppi, bartali, anquetil and most notably, merckx, it was more common for these riders to take chances when they presented themselves, to go on the attack when it seemed a good idea, even if that idea arose, as in the 1969 tour de france, 140 kilometres from the finish line.

nowadays (though pogacar has demonstrated a predilection not to follow the rules on occasion), with so much money involved in the sport, riders on substantial salaries, paid for by sponsors who will undoubtedly have to justify their financial largesse to shareholders, the peloton is more subject to strategies concocted on the team bus and the directeurs sportifs in the following car. success can hardly be left to the gut feelings of the riders.

so while it's possible that we no longer get the riders we reputedly deserve (bear in mind that mark cavendish' vo2 tests were less than impressive), the same is undoubtedly true regarding contemporary music. classical, opera and to a lesser extent, jazz, often receive grants from various arts bodies, designed to encourage music that might otherwise never be heard. one can only imagine the cost of maintaining a symphony orchestra of upwards of 80 musicians. pop and rock music, however, exists purely on its potential financial return to the record company. and despite the grants system, some strains of jazz just never manage to surface at all.

to put it bluntly, no-one takes chances anymore. that's why i'm listening to as much john coltrane (and drummer elvin jones) as i can muster over breakfast. how many cyclists are we missing out on?

monday 29 december 2025

household problems - domestic incompetence in diagrams. dave walker. amazon paperback 64pp illus. £7.99

a friend of mine is an agent for several prominent scottish jazz musicians, a gentleman who regularly sends me new jazz albums to review, several weeks ahead of their release dates, allowing me the luxury of listening in advance of the recordings going on sale, with the benefit that i can often publish my reviews in the local newspaper close to their being available to all. those with even a passing familiarity with the island will immediately have recognised that, very far from being the hub of the musical universe, and even farther from the centre of the jazz universe, there is probably a very limited market for such music in the hebrides.

and they'd be absolutely correct.

however, that passing familiarity might just stretch as far as being aware that the island has hosted a very successful and popular annual jazz festival since 1999, a fact that has provided me with the most tentative of reasons to include many of these reviews on the basis that a large proportion of the musicians have appeared, or are likely to appear in the future, at said jazz festival. so far, nobody has directly commented on the preponderance of these reviews, and i live in (forlorn) hope that even one or two naysayers might have gone out on a limb and actually listened to one or two of the featured albums. spreading the word, so to speak.

and today's monologue in the form of a book review is, to a certain extent, attempting to extend the process to these black and yellow pixels.

i have, on a couple of occasions, reviewed previous works by the inestimable, dave walker, a man i have never met in person, but with whom i have corresponded on many occasions. dave has authored and illustrated two specifically cycling themed books: from a to b - a cartoon guide to getting around by bike and the cycling cartoonist - an illustrated guide to life on two wheels both published by bloomsbury. the title under consideration, however, has pretty much no connection to cycling whatsoever, apart from the inclusion of a bikeshed drawing that very closely resembles that in my back garden.

though i have been known to draw one or two cartoons of my own in past years, and once made a concerted (but ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to have at least one cartoon published in punch magazine, my personal output was a far cry from that of mr walker, both in terms of quantity and, more importantly, quality. i cannot begin to comprehend the uphill struggles with which the aspring cartoonist has to contend, even one as prolific and talented as dave. however, as others who may have subscribed to his regular e-mail newsletters (the paid diagram club - there is also a free version), will surely agree, even in a world of talented individuals, if dave walker did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. i can appreciate that his welcome newsletters are compiled and illustrated to provide momentary relief from the daily grind, but, and i mean no embarrassment to mr walker, he is far more talented and in many more ways than i believe he realises.

i'd be fibbing if i said i could remember how much is the annual subscription for 52 weekly appearances of the diagram club, but whatever it is, it's more than worth it. and, as is often the case with true talent, dave is a very humble and often self-deprecating individual, which makes him even more essential.

though i'd presume that many who already subscribe, originally did so on the basis of his cycling cartoonery, or possibly his regular contributions to the church times, more recently he began a series entitled household problems, one or two examples of which can be seen enhancing these words. and, as with all the very best, it's the reality of those problems that makes them funny when pointed out. most of us appear to have blinkers on when faced with such situations, not realising that almost everyone suffers from similar instances, but more importantly, it obviously requires someone with dave's perspicacity to point them out. happily, many of those problems acutely illustrated in his newsletters, are now available in book form (though, true to form, dave's concluding remarks state, "Whether this is a book, a zine, or a cry for help.") it's self-published through amazon and deserves a place in every home in the uk, and probably several other international locations.

as read on the back cover, "Ideal for anyone who lives in a household, or anyone with problems."

illustrations copyright dave walker | davewalker.com

sunday 28 december 2025

civilisation

the past four days have been an absolute bonanza for cyclocross aficionados, with a uci world cup race from antwerp on saturday, a second world cup event from koksijde on sunday, then, as part of the dozen races taking place over the festive period, the riders moved to hofstade for a round of the x2o badkamers trofee ahead of yesterday's super prestige race around the heusden-zolder motor race circuit. and though the sport is very popular in belgium and holland, on the return of dutchman mathieu van der poel and belgium's wout van aert, spectator numbers increase dramatically. one weekend past, attendance was around 12,000, but ballooned to 17,500 when van aert and van der poel took to the start line on saturday.

so far, mvdp has proved imperious, having ridden four races this season and won all of them in style. but, of course, the duel that everyone wants to see is wva versus mvdp, one which took place on monday at koksijde. start-line grading ensured that van aert started the event one row behind van der poel, so it's not quite the straight fight that we might have hoped for, but, given the skills and power of both, it's probably not too much of a surprise to learn that they finished first and second in van der poel's favour by a sizeable margin at koksijde.

though i'm sure that both have their eyes trained solely on ultimate victory, i mentioned to one of my riding companions on sunday, that while the dutchman appears never to think of anything but first across the line, van aert seems to enjoy the racing with a touch more relish. however, yesterday's super-prestige race in zolder tested that supposition a tad more than which my punditry could cope.

with mathieu van der poel giving the race a miss, all eyes were on an expectant win from van aert, a contention visually supported by the reaction of the spectators around the entire parcours. van aert began on the second row (grid placings are apparently based on rankings; with van aert racing a very limited 'cross calendar, his ranking is insufficiently high enough to place him on the front row.) it took a lap or two for the belgian to catch dutch champion tibor del grosso and kevin kuhn, after which del grosso and van aert eventually pulled out a substantial lead over the following group. but, despite several big accelerations from van aert, he was unable to distance the young dutchman, forcing a sprint for the finish line which we probably all presumed that van aert would ace without too much effort.

i doubt anyone was more surprised that del grosso won by half a wheel than van aert himself.

there was a time when van aert and van der poel raced nothing but cyclocross week in, week out, before they were stolen by road racing, both now more or less fulfilling the position of guest stars at an eric clapton concert. as mentioned above, their appearances keep the fans happy and undeniably increase ticket receipts for each event in which they're entered, win or lose. however, there's no denying that, last season and this, mvdp has demonstrated his superiority over van aert. there could be any number of reasons as to why this is the case; van aert is already 31 years old, five months before van der poel reaches the same age (next month, as it happens). as we all know to our cost, everyone reacts to the ageing process differently. it could be that van aert's recent injuries have had a greater effect than he'd like, or it could be that their training programmes vary dramatically in advance of the forthcoming road season.

though van der poel has a far better track record in the classics, his palmares in the grand tours can't hold a candle to that of the belgian.

and while i'd like to convince you that i am completely neutral in such matters, happy to celebrate a victory by either rider (or another altogether) on the basis that whomsoever crossed the line first was probably the better rider on the day, it's not quite that straightforward. i have not met either individual (nor am i likely to), but i do favour van aert, purely on the basis that he seems the more congenial of the two. so when del grosso, almost ten years younger than either of the above two, unexpectedly beat van aert, i won't deny it was something of a disappointment.

but unlike certain other sports i could mention, i did not immediately throw a tantrum and behave as if the world had come to an abrupt end. i did not feel any need to search for unsuspecting visitors from the netherlands and visit my pent-up wrath upon their personages. though the cameras did not remain at the course for long enough to ascertain, nor did i witness any apparent violence on behalf of wout van aert fans.

and that's what sport is supposed to be about.

wednesday 24 december 2025

observations

before i head into today's monologue, i fear i must offer up one of the uk's more inexplicable situations, one that is not directly concerned with the world of the bicycle, but does concern a gentleman who has at least one foot in our part of the world. ceo of the company responsible not only for sponsoring ineos grenadiers, but for producing the off-road car that bears the name, is, i'm led to believe, a resident of monaco, midst any number of overpaid formula one drivers and not an inconsiderate number of world tour cyclists. jim radcliffe, however, has a bank account arguably better supplied than several of his neighbours, with bloomberg's billionaire index indicating a nest egg of £11 billion.

i'd ask you to bear that in mind when i quote from a report in the guardian newspaper stating that ineos has received up to £70 million in uk state aid over the past few years. and that's before holyrood provided the company with another £50 million to bail out the former oil refinery at grangemouth. if my grasp of numbers is correct, £1 billion equates to £1,000 million, meaning that radcliffe's personal fortune consists of eleven thousand million pounds. given that the company under his ownership has received a mere £120 million, why has he accepted that amount of money from two, cash-strapped governments instead of spending his own money? according to estimates, depending on how that £11 billion is invested, mr radcliffe's annual interest is likely to at least be between £450 and £500 million, meaning that he could have provided the £120 million in a single year and still become richer into the bargain.

when looking at the sponsors of the peloton comprising our favoured sporting endeavour, it's almost inarguable that we could be guilty of shirking our international responsibilities. i do agree that sport and politics ought to be separated by as wide a gulf (pun intended) as possible, but in the light of several of those whose names and logos appear on the pros' jerseys, it's perhaps becoming harder and harder to ignore the implications, and the distinct possibility that several are using sport (not just cycling) to present a more favourable profile to the sporting public.

this year's tour of spain provided an excellent and, at the time, highly pertinent example, with several disruptions, most notably the final stage into madrid, caused by pro-palestinian supporters, highlighting that the hapless premier-tech team happened to bear the name israel as a prefix. however, aside from expressing concerns over ineos' environmental reputation, i'm sure tadej's team sponsor and the guys at bahrain victorious would prefer a less than in-depth examination of the human-rights record of either country. other less high-profile sponsors occupying real-estate on jerseys or shorts could also be perceived as less than squeaky clean, but at least, unlike formula one, no-one, as far as i'm aware, has accepted money from companies responsible for vaping products.

there are, of course, tendrils that spread a smidgeon further, potentially affecting the very fabric of our own particular matrix. though the united arab emirates have ploughed millions into supporting tadej's bid to become the contemporary eddy merckx, money from abu dhabi (the largest emirate within the uae) currently owns colnago, the once italian company responsible for the bicycles on which tadej reigns supreme. colnago has dramatically improved its sales since pogacar began his winning ways, but unless uae team emirates happen upon a viable successor before the slovenian retires in 2030 (or before), what happens to colnago's fortunes if sales begin to visibly decrease?

the sponsorship model employed by professional cycling has been oft criticised, not only due to the historical fickleness of certain sponsors, but the less enduring nature of any particular team if the sponsor withdraws after a finite period of time. while supporters of national football teams can continue, year after year, to cheer own their favoured eleven, it's maybe worth noting that the present day visma lease-a-bike started life as (ironically, colnago supported) wordperfect. you don't see too many modern-day roadside fans wearing casquettes featuring the word-processor logo of the long since diluted product (it was acquired by novell in 1994 and subsequently sold to corel in 1996. corel was renamed alludo in 2022).

which would rather seem to underline my point.

tuesday 23 december 2025

the above is a tantalisingly controversial statement/heading, which some might term as click bait, and in this context, i'm not sure that i'd disagree. two of my office colleagues would most certainly find fault with this bald statement, given, as they are, to clean anything that stands or sits still for more than a few seconds. i am constantly being berated for the crumbs that appear at my feet during each lunch break, crumbs which i insist are unavoidable. i may have to begin stating that excuse with a tad more robust deniability.

however, the existence of this particular slogan was intially quite confusing, appearing as it did, in a series of advertisements in friday's guardian newspaper. the confusion was brought about by the appearance of the arsenal football club coat of arms at top right of each image of young kids, all augmented with the slogan, 'it starts outside'. that part was undeniable, as each image showed these (female) children in situations that could never have taken place indoors.

further investigation, by following the web address dirtisgood.com to its logical conclusion, it transpires the children were much younger illustrations of 'arsenal women stars', apparently foisted on an unsuspecting public ahead of bbc's sports personality of the year, though strangely appearing in the guardian the day after the winner had been announced. in fact, the adverts had little or nothing to do with either football or arsenal, but served as a promotional tool for european conglomerate, unilever, presumably as a means of obliquely drawing attention to their large range of cleaning products, including persil from whence was derived the dirt is good slogan. this provided an intriguing rabbit hole identifying the different names by which the same product is known throughout the world.

as it turns out, mrs washingmachinepost would appear already to be in thrall to the product's slogan, given that our kitchen cupboard is home to a large number of the little biodegradeable plastic bubbles with which i clean each weekend's cycling apparel. however, it was less the praise of dirt that enticed me into this rabbit hole in the first place (which is probably to be expected from a cyclocross aficionado), but the slogan 'it starts outside', contrasting as it does with that propounded by orange-hued zwift, keen to ignore its lack of affinity with the great outdoors, and more interested in pointing out that 'fun is fast', despite the obvious observation that, in fact, 'fun is stationary', depending on your definition of the word 'fun'.

though i have no truck with football/soccer whatsoever, i am decidedly in favour of its untrammeled mobility; though it's possible to 'play football on a playstation, x-box and the like, nobody is pretending that it is a viable substitute for kicking a ball around a large grass rectangle. with the festive 500 only a matter of days away, i'm well aware that there are thousands of cyclists, the length and breadth of the universe, for whom one of the difficulties in completing the challenge will decidedly not consist of the weather. a bit like the e-bike phenomenon, in this particular context, zwift is clear evidence that a growing proportion of the human race is inclined to take the path of least resistance. i'm not contesting the contention that zwift can improve a cyclist's stamina and cardiovascular performance, but it will surely prolong the need to familiarise oneself with rule #five and put rule #nine totally out of reach.

i'm sure you know which is the preferred option.

saturday 20 december 2025

the only way is up

mick tarrant and andy storey were/are, two of the finest chaps you could hope to meet. they encapsulate the very phrase uttered by my daughter as a teenager when first we went to london and visited several individuals involved in the cycle business. on the way home, she said, "cycling people are nice." no doubt the industry also features the less savoury, but fortunately, should they actually exist, i managed to avoid them all.

for decades, mick and andy owned and operated the world famous prendas ciclismo, purveyors of retro cycle jerseys and amiably priced velocipedinal accoutrements; a less pretentious pair of gents you'd struggle to meet. i would frequently run into the pair at various cycle exhibitions around london town, and they were always happy to send samples for review on thewashingmachinepost. they were also renowned for doing everything by the book. for instance, when pursuing the possibility of reproducing a cinzano cycle jersey, having learned that the brand was owned by a subsidiary of islay's bowmore distillery, they asked if i might enquire if the company would give permission for jersey reproduction? sadly, and for reasons i still fail to understand, cinzano said no, but true to their principles, prendas canned the project, despite there being other cinzano jerseys on the market from companies that had presumably failed to ask.

mick retired in september 2017 after 21 years at the helm, and though andy storey continued to fly solo for a further four years, in june 2021, he too opted to curtail his involvement in the cycling industry, citing the challenges of brexit as at least one major reason for deciding to pull the plug. the business was subsequently purchased by cycling brands, coincidentally also the owners of shutt velo rapide, a business that sold its own range of often colourful contemporary jerseys, bibs etc. true to the promise of maintaining prendas as it was originally conceived, the revitalised company has continued to sell a wide range of retro jerseys, including the iconic peugeot jerseys (black and white versions) for which the original prendas ciclismo was famous.

because of the uniqueness of the product range, prendas has mostly prospered, inadvertently highlighting in the process, the vacuity of many contemporary jersey designs. but along with several other cycling apparel companies, the business made a loss just shy of quarter of a million in 2024, underlining that the winds of change were bereft of their traditional silver lining. however, the recent announcement that cycling brands expected to post a profit in 2025, demonstrates that they may be amongst the few who have happily bucked the downward trend experienced by many of their peers. and following the closure of rapha's and endura's custom clothing services, the custom branch of shutt velo rapide seems to have continued unabated. according to managing director, colin lynch, "Shutt Custom is able to offer single-piece re-orders, a level of flexibility (that) has resonated with clubs and teams, and we are seeing record numbers choosing Shutt as their clothing partner." having purchased custom debbie's short-sleeve jerseys from shutt several years ago, the velo club can attest to the quality of the latter.

i am insufficiently well-informed about the economics of the cycle apparel industry to know if this is the beginning of a market-wide resurgence, or simply that the clothing offered by cycling brands and, in particular, prendas ciclismo, gives credence to the paucity of design originating from their competitors? it will be interesting to find out.

friday 19 december 2025

we make these. buy one.

while the song says 'money makes the world go round', not entirely at odds with that contention is the possibility of substituting the word 'advertising' in place of 'money'. ultimately that substitution makes money for the advertiser and the agency that created the campaign; sadly, not you and i. however, even the original version was probably not inclusive of us either, so we're none the worse for knowing. digital media outlets such as youtube, facebook and instagram, dominate the world advertising market, reputedly to the tune of an annual £276 billion, very much to the detriment of traditional media.

it's one of the reasons why newspapers and magazines are in such a parlous financial situation. between 2000 and 2020, advertising spend in the latter dropped by an alarming 80%, underlining why my daily copy of the guardian newspaper costs £3.20. there is, however, the distinct possibility that advertising on social media is not reaching its expected audience. though at a far lower level than the sort of budgets handled by wpp, one of islay's hotels has long since refrained from advertising in the local press, preferring to do so free of charge on the community facebook page. however, for much of the year, their online advertising is aimed at the visiting public, rather than a local audience, yet, to access the community facebook page, an expectant subscriber needs to apply, outlining their connection to the island, if, indeed, one actually exists.

if we can accept that few visitors to islay will be aware of the facebook page's existence, by the time they learn of it and apply, they'll probably be on their way home on a calmac ferry. therefore that hotel, at admittedly no cost to management, is quite probably not reaching the market they think it is. however, even if those adverts are seen by visitors, they have the option of ignoring whatever is not of interest.

we might compare that with the sponsors' logos on world tour cyclists' jerseys; those too can be ignored because they do not impinge upon the images seen in print, online or the tellybox. that paradigm can be expanded by looking at their relevance. for instance, deceuninck make windows, but their services may not be available in a country near you. and, as a non-driver, an ineos grenadier is of no interest whatsoever. but then there's the adverts that interrupt, like those which appear on television - streaming and programmed.

in the dim, distant days of yore, watching obscure belgian cycle races online was fraught with pop-up adverts that appeared in the middle of the postage stamp broadcast, and which had to be endured for at least one minute before they could be dismissed and continue watching the hard-won event. clicking said advert invariably took the viewer to a replacement browser window, thus preventing the viewer from watching the cycling event for which they'd long searched. unless you have subscribed to youtube premium, not only will your potential viewing be preceded by non-dismissable advertisements, but subsequently interrupted by more. my query would be, who sits down to watch an art blakey and the jazz messengers concert (for example), then clicks through to any of the products advertised?

that being the case, is the intended result of the advertising spend not being seriously minimised? the cost of a youtube premium subscription in the uk is currently £12.99, removing all advertisements, allowing the ios app to be closed while continuing the audio stream, and offering the downloading of videos and audio from the included subscription to youtube music. yet a subscription to tnt sports complete with lengthy advertising breaks, is close to two and a half times the price of a youtube plan at £30.99 per month. it's an observation i have previously highlighted at length.

might i ask the question, who amongst tnt's target audience is the least bit interested in the advertisements that now interrupt live broadcasts, restricting the opportunity to watch every minute of each event? elite women's cyclocross events last approximately 50 minutes, while elite men's events top out at one hour. during the namur race on sunday, there was one ad break during the women's event, and two during the men's. previously we have had to suffer adverts only during on-demand broadcasts, with the opportunity to fast forward to the racing.

but in the twenty minutes or so between the end of the women's race and the start of the men's, the audience was treated to interviews, podium, brief highlights of the race and several shots of spectators wandering aimlessly from one place to another, inanely waving to the cameras when seeing themselves on the big screens. why not show the adverts then? bluntly put, youtube charges £12.99 per month to remove adverts, while tnt charges £30.99 to include them. this time last year i, and other subscribers to discovery plus, were paying £6.99 per month to watch the same races, ad-free.

my utterly pointless (because it will change nothing, where money matters more than customer satisfaction) e-mail to discovery's customer service, effectively a précis of the above, resulted in the explanation: "all discovery+ plans include ads, sponsorships, and promotions across channels, live events, and on-demand content. These ads help us provide the quality entertainment you enjoy at competitive prices." so how come they managed without ads for a fifth of the price last year? has the televising of cycle sport really become five times more expensive in the space of twelve months? competitive? compared to what?

and do the advertisers know that almost all of us dislike those adverts because they interrupt that which we've paid a lot of money to watch, and that, in general, we ignore whatever it is they're attempting to sell us? probably the very definition of a waste of money.

two sides of the same coin.

tuesday 16 december 2025