Take any moment in any race. Take a snapshot at random; perhaps of a group splintering on a wet descent in the Vosges, a lone attacker passing through a Flemish village and angling their bike as they sweep past a couple of spectators. Or take the moment a rider glances to their left to admire the view of a chateau as they race by. Freeze the frame and then dive into it, harvesting every pixel for meaning, extracting all you can about the human, social, historical and political context in which that an isolated moment is sited. Go beyond the obvious, ever deeper, and ever wider, until from that singular kernel, you have created a world; half imagined, half real, but complete.
For the best part of a year, during the worst of the limitations that the Covid pandemic placed on our ability to meet and move, this is what I did. I don't believe in providence, but I do believe in salvation; and this was mine. Here's how it happened.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Summer 2023-Ausgabe von Cycling Plus UK.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der Summer 2023-Ausgabe von Cycling Plus UK.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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GANARY A COALMINE
The James Brown tune 'It's a Man's Man's Man's World' comes on the radio, filling the coach, and does nothing for my pre-event nerves as I sit surrounded by serious-looking, wiry, tanned men in Lycra. It's 6.30am, pitch black outside and I'm feeling very out of my depth as a relative newcomer to the world of clipless pedals and hurting for fun. Last night's stress dream involved being very unprepared to get married and being handed my great-grandmother-in-law-to-be's hideous silver dress with lace trim to wear minutes before the ceremony was due to start. I'll let you psychoanalyse that one.
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The toxic effects of pollution have been known about for years. 'Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!' sang 1960s satirist Tom Lehrer.Over recent decades, though, pollution has dropped down our list of things to worry about, thanks to ominously capitalised concerns such as Climate Change, AI, Global Conflict, Species Collapse, etc. That doesn't, unfortunately, mean the problem has expired. Air quality often exceeds safe limits, with far-reaching and crippling effects on our health.
