Cyclosportive, Chris Sidwells (2011)

Useful instruction for sportive newbies

AC Black 9781408140222 23cm x 19cm 176pp £19.99

Given the explosion of sportives in recent years it is surprising that it has taken so long for a manual on riding them to appear. AC Black has now stepped into to fill be breach with a high-quality offering from a veteran of cycle writing.

Of course, a great many cyclists who have ridden sportives have done so with little or no thought to preparation, nor to the specialist equipment that they might need. But then, anyone whose pedalling careers predates around 2005, will recognise sportives to be no more than expensive audax’s and therefore placed their trust in native wit and pre-existing form to get them around. (Some even dismiss sportives as the ‘glamping’ of the cycling world).

For the tens of thousands of riders for whom a sportive represents their first serious outing on a bike, however, there is much to learn and understand – and few better knees at which to take instruction than Sidwells. There is lots of boiler-plate stuff in this book like choosing a bike and other equipment, nutrition and bike care.

The most valuable section, however, is that on training – and the real strength of this is the way that Sidwells links sports science to practical programs to improve your strength and speed. There is even an illustrated section in which the author himself is photographed demonstrating his technique with a pilates ball. It might look like a caption competition, but the advice sound.

Perhaps the only thing missing is an injunction that it is possible to ride such events with little more training than one might put in for a charity ride. Grim-faces, carbon fibre frames and expensive Rapha habits might predominate on the sportive that I ride each year – but I am not the only one who carries and saddlebag and stops for lunch.

PS Sep 11