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Friday 5 December 2008

PUT ME ON MY BIKE: IN SEARCH OF TOM SIMPSON

The yellow peril of the jersey

Yet even without the mention of drugs it would be difficult to imagine a more realistic description of what it is like to take part in a bicycle race. The author has much to say about the advantages of staying in the pack, preserving one's energy for the final sprint, and his hero's fluctuating feelings during the four-hour marathon. At one moment he describes the labour of cycling as like 'carrying a pile of pouffes up to your girlfriend's new apartment' but minutes later is moaning, 'It's so incredibly pitiful that I ever want to do this but now I'm stuck in it.' Later, he even yearns for a puncture which would knock him out of the race in a dignified manner. Eventually, there comes a muscle-wrenching climax with each new kick on the pedals described with almost filmic deliberation. The author also reflects on 'the wondrous powers in a man that only come to light thanks to rivalry' and claims, 'At any given moment, every human being has at his disposal a brief, intense death struggle that doesn't hurt and which lasts 12 seconds.'

This is the real stuff and one wonders what Geoffrey Wheatcroft, now writing a complete history of the Tour de France, will make of it all when he throws his trilby into the ring next year.

Andrew Barrow's double biography of Quentin Crisp and Philip O'Connor will be published by Macmillan in November.

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