In Pursuit Of Glory, Bradley Wiggins (2008)

A pedestrian account of a stellar career

Orion 9780752898636 Quarto 278pp £18.00

During the cold war, it was said, intelligence agencies would comb memoires and well-informed novels for crumbs of information about how their rivals operated. There were no books that ‘blew the lid’ on MI5’s methods. But tiny crumb by tiny crumb, the KGB were able to build up a picture of operational techniques from books written by former agents and others with inside knowledge. The technique is known as ‘jigsaw intelligence gathering’.

Given the level of competition between nations trying to achieve pre-eminence in track cycling, it is easy to imagine Wiggins’ memoire being crawled over in a similar way.

There are some fascinating insights – the way in which Chris Boardman works as a coach, the tricks that David Brailsford uses to gain psychological advantages, and the work of Steve Peters, Team GB’s ‘brain mechanic’.

If you interest is of a more general nature, however, panning through the rest of this book in search of those flashes of insight is a little wearing.

There is something irresistibly likeable about Wiggins, perhaps because he is so upfront about his frailties. And it is understandable that athletes want to knock out cash-in-on-their fame books while they are still in the public eye. If they don’t, then assuredly some hack journalist will exploit their having left a gap in the market.

Alas, this rush to print does not make for great books, even, seemingly, when well-established journalists are brought in as ghosts.

In small part, Wiggins tale is one of hardship overcome. It was clearly miserable for him that his professional-cyclist father abandoned him when he was a toddler and showed no further interest in his son until he was a young adult. It is not quite the stuff of a misery memoire, however, particularly given the prodigious genetic gifts with which Wiggins senior bestowed his progeny.

Wiggins junior’s success has been astonishing – sufficiently so for there to be pleasure to be had from hearing it recounted. There is something rather slapdash about the way that this book has been put together, though. Around 1998, he announced several times in a single chapter – and twice in one paragraph that ‘I was defiantly on my way’. When it isn’t repetitive, it is irritatingly pedestrian – Brad is upgraded to first class by BA ‘way to go’, he cheers. A paragraph later ‘life was very good indeed’.

Wiggins rightly celebrates cycling having established itself on the national radar and that it is taken more seriously as a competitive undertaking than ever before. Sadly, one by product of this new interest in two-wheeled competition is that publishers want to rush out cash-in rider biogs in just the same way as they do with the teenage stars of more established national sports.

Incidentally, this book is available in several guises – generally with fresh chapters added to provide accounts of Brad’s latest triumphs.

PS May 10