Review of "The Program" Movie

SaddleDrunk were this week invited by, Chris Ward of workwhereyoulike.com, to a private screening of “The Program” a film based on the book “Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong” by David Walsh, Chief Sports writer at The Sunday Times.

The guests consisted of cycling aficionados, from the boys from www.girocycles.com , www.road.cc and www.milltag.cc amongst many others. So there was an assumption that they were all very familiar with the story that was about to unfold in front of them, albeit from the personal perspective of the author.

The film is directed by Stephen Frears, his notable works include My Beautiful Laundrette, Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity, The Queen and Philomena. The films focus was on the systematic use of performance enhancing drugs by Lance Armstrong to win the greatest cycling race of all, Le Tour. The race sequences are well shot using current pro-cyclists, such as Yanto Barker and David Millar was the cycling consultant on the film.

Ben Foster who played Armstrong was strong and very convincing, and at times you believe you are watching Armstrong as was Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad) playing ultra religious, Floyd Landis.

What none of the audience was expecting were any surprises or shock revelations, there were none. We know the story virtually inside out; we have watched all the documentaries, read the books by former teammates and kept right up to date with all the news via the net. So were we the target audience probably not, the audience I would say are those who are just getting into cycling and sports fans of all genres who care about keeping the future of their sport honest, pure and genuine. But also it’s the age-old story of the underdog taking on power and money at the risk of being ridiculed and discredited, who doesn’t love that story?

It’s a good watch but seek out the documentaries if you have as yet to see them: “Stop at Nothing” and “The Armstrong Lie” for a greater insight as to how this man operated. I would also recommend reading Tyler Hamilton’s “The Secret Race”, a former team mate of Armstrong’s and David Millar’s “Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar” to get an insight as to why young men choose to cheat and how they deal with their downfall.

Real life is much more gritty and harsh, the movie was a little too generous to the protagonist. This film was based on the authors personal journey to expose a cheat in a sport he loves, this I understand but now it is time to draw a line under this and all doping affairs and look to a time when this ends. But when fame and fortune are being offered in an arena where only the tough and ruthless survive, this may just be something we all hope may happen.

As a foot note the film has an excellent soundtrack which complements the film.

Chris O"Dowd plays David Walsh, The Sunday Times journalist

Giro de Pilipinas 2015 Day 1

Guest SaddleDrunk Rider/Writer Daniel Carruthers report back to us the first day of the Giro de Pilipinas 2015 from Subic Bay,Philippines.Photos Credit to Jennifer Carruthers.

As part of the re-invention of the Subic Bay Area, this new event Giro de Pilipinas has been staged at a perfect time to raise the awareness of cyclists in this beautiful part of Luzon Island and help stake the claim Subic Bay is becoming the cycling capital of the Philippines.

It is a short flight from Hong Kong to Clark airport and the transfer is only one hour on virtually traffic free smooth roads, a far better option than flying into Metro Manila. The location of this new event could not be more perfect for riders from around Asia wishing to experience the style of Filipino racing and hospitality; there is a vibrant racing scene here and the level just keeps improving with each year I’ve been coming to race. I’ve been racing in the Philippines for six years now, beginning with the Tour of Luzon in 2010, followed by the Tour of Larrazabal on Ormoc Island in 2011. Subsequently I’ve been invited to provide media coverage for the Tour of Matabungkay for the last five years. Unfortunately, culminating with the tragic circumstances involving the Kenyan Riders, the Matabungkay Tour has been cancelled and removed from the race calendar. However, the Giro de Pilipinas replaces this Tour and is organized by the same Baterna brothers.  This event has kicked off with a great start with more than 250 riders across all the categories participating.   There is more for cyclists here in Subic Bay with plenty of good restaurant options and hotels to stay in. It is a proven training ground for many of the Filipino tri-athletes as there is ample flat road riding as well as many climbs to choose from. The new Giro de Pilipinas has arrived with impeccable timing and will help serve to spearhead the growth of cycling in Subic Bay. 

The Racing

Coming off the back of an intense 7-days of mountain bike racing in the Himalayas, where I was riding 6-7 hours each day in the saddle, one would expect me to show up with some tired legs. It proved to be true with a lackluster performance in the 39.2km ITT for stage one.   I had a few mechanicals to sort out before the start of the ITT, which I was one of the first to go at 6.02am! I rolled up to the starting ramp with a couple of minutes to spare without any warm-up and my previous ride was stage seven on the MTB in the Himalayas! The countdown was on and I was off on my time trial. Immediately, due to lack of marshals at that time, I took two wrong turns before I found myself back on track.  Because the first section is largely flat with a few rollers, I was able to get into a nice rhythm and was averaging about 340 watts according to my JouleGPS. But as soon as the road went up-wards, I started to struggle and the legs did not have the same snap that I am used to.  Overall it was quite a lumpy time trial course with three 150m climbs and an interesting forest loop on narrow roads. During the forest loop, a large monkey popped out of the forest and checked me out as I flew by on the descent.  

Eventually, I was caught by my minute-man who proceeded to draft me. It seems whenever I race in time-trials in the Philippines, I always see blatant drafting; riders don’t seem to understand that it is an individual time trial: you versus the clock and nothing else. So, in order to get rid of the rider, I stalled my pedaling but the Filipino would not come past me. So I turned and pulled him past me and gave him a pinch too! That jolted him and he was on his way. A few minutes later I was caught by two more riders and they were working together! They caught the guy I pinched and the three of them started lapping it out and opening the gap on me. So much for an individual time trial. I also saw riders coming the opposite direction on the way back, also drafting.  In the last five minutes I had a late rally and was able to increase my power to finish on a strong note. I headed straight to the hotel and took a well deserved nap to recover in time for the afternoon’s 105km stage. 

Stage two – 105km

 Feeling groggy with sleep, I had a quick bite of a vegetarian sandwich and a pineapple shake literally just 30minutes before the start of the stage. The neutral portion of the stage was 15km, rolling out from the Subic Naval base area out onto the traffic infested roads of Subic. I was in the large wave of 35-45 age group and we rolled along at an easy 25km/h, allowing time for my food to digest before the racing began.

At the official starting point of the stage, the traffic needed to be cleared before the racing could start. The hot tropical sun was beating down on me and I was perspiring like mad. I refueled on the ice-cold vitamin water that was provided by sponsors and the stage began.  We faced a short climb of about 1.5kms, which was done steady and I was near the front.  On the descent, three riders shot clear and had a decent gap on the bunch. Just before the next township, another three riders sprinted hard across and the breakaway became six riders. I sensed the danger, but I was not handily placed to make the jump across myself, besides due to the large 100 plus rider peloton, I thought more riders would start jumping across. But this did not happen and much to my chagrin, the whole bunch slowed down to a 30km/h pace – much like a Sunday afternoon easy bunch ride. This ensured the break group was well and truly gone. I tried several moves to rally the group but I was shut down each time, mostly by the Sante Monte guys in green, with jersey’s that proclaim “I’m on Grass”. I was constantly marked by the “I’m on Grass” guys and I am mystified at their style of riding – they had no one in the breakaway (or I could be mistaken) and they have two sprinters, so they should be amping for a sprint finish. I tried at least six random attacks and some of them were double-attacks as I found that if I coasted, the guys in green would coast also. The double-attack failed to throw them off. I waited for opportunities to go with others, but each time was reeled back in.

The roads here at the Giro de Pilipinas are great, not perfect, but good enough for fast racing and also offer plenty of interesting sights along the way. We passed by brilliant green yellow rice fields harvested by cart-drawn water buffalos against a backdrop of green-covered mountains. It is brilliantly colorful here in the Philippines with wispy white clouds and blue skies, the colorful Jeepnies, and moto-taxis, a smorgasbord of signs proclaiming different things, like “home of the most beautiful women” or “Playboy ice-cream” were two that stuck with me.  The traffic control is markedly better compared with previous years I have raced here in the Philippines. The marshals and the police did a great job of keeping the notoriously bad traffic under control.

I saw an opportunity. It was about 20km to go and the bunch was strung out and breaking up. I was moving towards the front and checked behind me and saw the gaps and also saw the riders in front of me starting to soft-pedal. I attacked hard and in the process, my helmet was kicked sharply backwards by a tree branch that was hanging awfully low by the road-side. Luckily it just skimmed me and I continued on with my attack. I caught the lone rider just up the road and we traded pulls together. Our gap to the peloton grew and we quickly put them out of sight as the bunch hesitated. I soon found that the Filipino rider I was with was not pulling strong enough so I did longer pulls on the front to ensure he would get recovery and pull enough so I could recover for a few seconds. He would pull through and immediately flicked his elbow and soft-pedalled. Regardless, we seemed to be doing enough to keep the gap constant. As the kilometers ticked by, I began to feel we were in for a chance to get to the finish before the peloton and was motivated to keep my pulls hard and steady.

With six kilometers to go, we were still in front but my companion seemed to be getting weaker. He overshot a corner and this gave me a gap of about 30m to the rider. I continued to pull hard like I was doing but he managed to claw back to my wheel and this told me he had been conserving all along. With four kilometers to go, he did a big surge and I had to dig deep to get back to him. I told him not to do that again, little realizing that the peloton was in sight behind us and was rapidly closing on us. Three kilometers to go we were swept up into the fold.  It was going to be a large bunch sprint.  Singapore based Brian Jensen (Matador) launched a big attack right on the final short climb and strung the pack out over the climb.  I surprised myself with enough power to launch back near the front and just focused on staying near the front for the sprint finale. 

It was all game on with riders in the large peloton all-jostling for position but no one really taking charge. This can spell doom for a bunch of this size as with less than 1km from the finish, we were all spread across the road and waiting for the first one to sprint. It was a little hair-raising for me but my sprinters instincts took over and I was moving with the flow and making sure I was not swamped from behind.  Right when the sprint was opening up, a rider two over from my left started to go but looked behind and somehow crossed wheels. He went down heavily and took out the rider next to him. The domino effect nearly took me down also, but I was able to “ski” out of the danger. I was coasting and taking an evasive line out, barely missing the carnage. A whole cluster of riders hit the deck just 300m from the finish, leaving just a few of us to contest the finish.

I had great legs and I was ready to open my sprint at least 100m before the crash happened, but was boxed in and had to wait patiently for an opening. After emerging from the danger unscathed, I launched my sprint from 250m out but guys who had more momentum on the far right side already had the gap. The Excellent Noodles winner from two years ago at the Tour of Matabungkay took the bunch kick while I came in forth.  I was relieved that I was not taken out considering I have a lot more racing coming up back in China.

It was a 15kms ride back to the Subic Bay Naval base area as the warm-down to the hot stage!  That evening was a nice dinner put on by the organizers on the beach front together with the award ceremony.  A group of fire dancers treated all of us to a fine spectacle of energetic dancing and some big flames! 

Stay tuned for Stage three’s action!

Thank you Daniel from SD TEAM.

Supporting the New Para National Road Champion

SaddleDrunk Team is pleased to announce the start of an amazing relationship with Alex Jones the New Para National Road Champion.

We have asked Alex and his mother few question about Alex's cycling career.

Introduction

What an amazing trajectory it has been for 17 year old Alex Jones, since he started cycling competitively only 3 years ago! Having been spotted by British Cycling's Talent Coaches winning gold at the London Youth Games TT in 2012, he has been on the Olympic Talent programme Regional schools of Racing,  learning the trade on track and road - and the levels of hard work, sacrifice and discipline that it takes to succeed.  Born with mild cerebral palsy, last year he caught the eye of the Great Britain Cycling Team para coaches and after a successful first Road World Cup in Italy in June he has gone on to become 2015 National Mens para Circuit series winner and National Mens para Road Champion, a remarkable acheivement for a Junior rider. He has also medalled in each of 5 track events at the UK Games and is looking forward to competing with Paralypmic greats at the National Track Championships at the end of this month.  

History

Alex always enjoyed sports as a child but developed an interest in cycling at the age of 14, joining the Kingston Junior Cycling Club. The coaches there advised him to trial for the London Youth Games, (where he won Gold for the following 3 years) and he was spotted by revered British Cycling Talent and Regional Development coach Graham Macnamee who remains an influential mentor and voice of experience.

Mac nominated Alex for BC’s prestigious Regional Schools of Racing, part of the Olympic Talent Programme where over the next 2 years Alex learned the foundations of competitive road and track cycling and the high standards and hard work expected not only on the bike but off the bike too including nutrition, organization, preparation, discipline and the dedication required to be a top rider. Along the way he was supported and encouraged by his clubs (Twickenham CC, HIllingdon and Prestige), family and school, particularly by his PE Teacher and International Triathlete Mark Yeoman, who showed unwavering belief in  Alex’s potential.

Alex’s passion for riding grew, fuelled by fantastic experiences such as meeting the Team Sky riders and Shane Sutton on a training camp in Majorca where he rode up Mount Lluc with them and being taken behind the scenes at the Tour de France with Chris Boardman, Ned Boulting and Gary Imlach.  Off the bike, Alex is a BC level 1 coach and regularly helps teach young riders at Hillingdon CC.  His other interests are cars and music.

Alex did well in regional events but due to his mild cerebral palsy affecting his performance at an elite National level, he missed out on a place on the Olympic Apprentice programme. However, in a stroke of luck for Alex, he had caught the eye of his current coach, Andy Pitt who offered to take him on a one to one basis in July 2014, starting a fantastically motivating working relationship.   BC’s para cycling programmeidentified his potential and  nominated him for his first para Road World Cup in Italy in June this year where he was classified by an International panel as a C5 rider.

Following an impressive performance at his first World Cup, Alex went on, under the effective guidance of Andy Pitt, to win the National Men’s Para Circuit Series and after an amazing season has become National Men’s Para Road Champion in his category.  He has just returned from the UK School Games having medalled in each of his 5 events and is looking forward to the National Track Championships in Manchester later this month where he will be competing with Paralympic multi-medallists such as Jody Cundy and Jon Allan Butterworth.

After an exciting first year competing as a para cyclist alongside his regular racing commitments, Alex is now undergoing assessments  and training with the Great Britain Cycling Teamand his fierce ambition is to continue to learn and improve and earn the opportunity to ride for GBCT at the 2016 World Cups and World Championships and start BC’s four year preparation cycle for Tokyo 2020. Alex is also a Level One BC coach and spends his spare time teaching young riders at his old club.

From next month Alex will be wearing the national champion colour cycling kit made by SaddleDrunk after being approved by British Cycling. 

Good Luck Alex.

SD Team.

Do not forget to vote for us at the Time Out Love London Awards.

Les Enfants a Velo'.London2Paris 2015

Today guest riders from the last L2P are Derek from the beautiful Scotland and Andy from Essex.

A french delicacy,Steak Tartare.

Why did you decide to do it.

I have been riding with SD for some time now and it’s great to be able to ride with like-minded people from an excellent coffee shop in Paperback so close to where I live. 

So, when the Paris trips were announced  signing up was an easy decision to make.  Slightly more difficult was which month to choose. I opted for July as the weather was “ bound to be good”  ( how wrong could I be) and it coincided with the climax of the Tour de France.

What did you do to prepare for it?

Preparation involved a range of different SD group rides comprising Richmond park loops , hill reps and longer Friday rides to Windsor and beyond and of course plenty of Paperback coffee. 

How did you find it?

I really enjoyed the ride and was pleased that the training had put me in good stead for the event. An added bonus was no paperwork such as train/ferry /hotel bookings as this had all been taken care of courtesy of Stefano.

The mileage and terrain were fine the key challenges being the overnight ferry crossing ( ie no bed ) and the shocking weather, both of which I was able to mitigate to some extent with my self- inflating travel pillow , long bibs and overshoes. The rain was biblical in proportions and more akin to Scotland in Spring rather than the south of England in the height of summer. 

It was fantastic to arrive in Paris together adorned in the SD customised yellow kit, albeit slightly weird to have posed for so many strangers’ photographs in the vicinity of the Eiffel Tower !.

Derek landing in Dieppe with Heavy Rain & 42 Knots Wind Gusts

Would I do it again?

I wouldn’t hesitate and would encourage others to sign up.

What was going through your mind during the ride

The full gamut of emotions depending upon heaviness of rain, time of day, intensity of sun, speed, terrain and how the group were feeling but mostly......................I can’t wait to do more of these !!

Next is Andy with his speech.

Why did I do it?

I wanted to do the ride last year but unfortunately an injury meant I had to put it on hold, so this year I set myself some goals; what started out as personal goals soon became a reason to ride for a charity which is ‘Tommy’s.

How did I prepare for it?

I have been getting out on my bike whenever I can mostly during the week days and always on my own, I didn’t know anyone near where I live to ride with, so it has meant a lot of lonely training sessions. I have been gradually building up the miles riding 40, 50 then 70 then doing lots of spinning classes when I couldn’t get out on the road. I have also now joined Romford Cycle Club which is local to me and they are a great bunch of people, very welcoming and lots of good riders which makes the ride outs with them at times hard as they do push you on and I will always try and keep up with the stronger riders!!

How did I find the ride?

I had an absolute nightmare on Friday just to try and get to the start, I set off at 12pm in the car to be dropped off but the horrendous wet weather caused huge traffic problems on my route to the start. This meant that I never actually got there!! With the group setting off to the train station having taken the sensible decision to catch the train to Brighton where I had to meet everyone there. This was not something that I had contemplated we might have to do and was a bit deflated to start with, but the group were really upbeat and I soon perked up when we eventually set off to Newhaven.

I found the ride to be easier than I had thought it would be, maybe my training paid off after all!! Riding in the company of such a nice bunch of people also made it really enjoyable and despite the weather I had a great time riding through some great scenery and pothole free roads.

Would I do it again?

Absolutely!! I’m trying to convince my wife to take up cycling and do the trip next year.

I was also able to stop on in Paris to take in the Tour De France final stage which was a big highlight to be able to watch the professionals do their thing…they are so fast!!

I will be recommending the trip to everyone I speak to, who cycles next year it may well be our own stage of the TDF. Stefano has done a great job in organising the whole thing and was our very own Sat Nav at times.

Andy in Paris

What was going through my mind during the ride?

Mainly try and keep with everyone and don’t fall off!!

OK, so I was the only one to fall off…..!! but I did keep with you all.

The weather did it’s best to dampen spirits but to be honest I don’t mind riding in the wet I see it as just another challenge, I ride a motorbike and have ridden in all weathers including snow, so really didn’t mind it that much. However when the sun came out it allowed everyone to dry out before getting into Paris, I take with me from the trip some new friends and experiences and fond memories. I felt quite emotional riding to the Eiffel Tower where my wife was waiting for us to arrive and seeing the face of Craig when his mum tapped him on the shoulder was an absolute picture!! worth the journey on its own.

My thanks to everyone for making the ride so enjoyable and to Stef for organising, you don’t know how much I have been inspired to ride more often and will definitely being doing more rides and sportives.

Laundry in the room balcony.

Thank you Derek & Andy to pass over to others your experience.

Be safe on the Road.Be SaddleDrunk.

SD Team.

Trempe' Velo a Paris.Part 1.

Ciao a tutti,I hope you are well and enjoying the summer with plenty Kms in your legs,and the virtual cabinet loading up with badges.

Last Friday we departed from London to Paris again with our second group. This time was challenging. Hence the fact that today guest blog riders/writers are Craig Skinner & Chris W. two  of the "Magnificent 7". 

Craig celebrating his arrival at the Eiffel Tower

Why did you do it?

My primary reason for doing the London to Paris ride was to raise money for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, but also to push myself as a cyclist.

I began raising money for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research through cycling challenges following a diagnosis my sister, Kirsty, received of Leukaemia in 2012. She's shown an incredible amount of bravery in the face of everything that's been thrown at her and I'm so unbelievably proud of her. She went through so much chemotherapy and in 2013 she had a peripheral blood stem cell transplant, with a donation from me. This was successful and she's now doing really well.

Research into new treatments is so important and donating money to charities such as Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research can really help save lives. At the time of writing I’ve raised £751.74 from the London to Paris ride and would like to thank everyone who generously donated.

The weather radar before departing

What did you do to prepare for it?

Lots and lots of cycling. Often joined by lots of wonderful fellow Saddledrunk members. That, and I baked a big batch of flapjacks.

How did you find it?

The weather was the biggest challenge on the ride, leaving me shivering and with my teeth chattering for quite some time. Sadly the extreme weather conditions meant that we couldn’t complete the entire UK side of the journey as it was too dangerous but we pressed on regardless, hitting more bad weather when we arrived in Dieppe. Around the 100km mark in France the sun came out and slowly but surely we began to dry off and warm up.

Everything was very well organised by Papa Stef and he took care of us incredibly well, even handing out extra clothes from his heavy rucksack to those of us, like me, that hadn’t prepared for quite such bad weather. He also had pre-planned stops where we could load up on croissants and espresso. The countryside was also very pretty and the roads are nothing like those in the UK. No potholes!

In Newhaven at the Ferry Terminal.

Would you do it again?

Absolutely. Especially as we sadly had to cut it a little short. In fact I think my last words to Stef before riding home were, ‘I want to do the whole journey again’. The ride also left me with a burning desire to cycle abroad more - this was my first time - and my head is full of possible ideas for future rides.

What was going through your mind during the ride?

I can’t say it was always good things as the gusts battered us, the rain beat down and grit flew up in my face flying down the Avenue Verte but cycling with a really nice group quickly banished any negativity from my mind and for the most part I was just so happy to be part of the ride. And to know that my doing it had led to so many generous donations.

Arriving in Paris was a thrilling and wonderful experience too and one that was made even more special by the surprise appearance of my mum, who had got a passport and travelled to Paris from Cornwall to meet me at the finish. I had absolutely no idea that she was going to be there - her and my girlfriend, Katy, had managed to keep it a secret for some time - and was incredibly surprised and moved.

Andrew raising Money for Tommy's Charity

Next on line is Chris W.

London to Paris had appealed to me for quite sometime after witnessing friends and work colleagues complete the pilgrimage to the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. So when the opportunity came about to do it with the SaddleDrunk guys I couldn't miss out, especially arriving in the city on the final weekend of the Tour de France.

I had been keeping a close eye on the weather in the build up to our own grand depart and the forecast was not in our favour, the great British summer decided to drop a months worth of rain in one day. The conditions were so bad a decision was made to get the train to Brighton for safety reasons. 

Having only managed a small amount of riding on the first day in some terrible conditions, the real riding started when we arrived in Dieppe. Fuelled by coffee and croissants following our first pit stop, the sun finally made an appearance and we could really appreciate the beautiful countryside and pot hole free French roads. We really put in the effort and the kilometres were passing by in no time. It was a welcomed change to see how respectful the French motorists were of cyclists, giving us plenty of room when overtaking. 

We had a lot of laughs and jokes along the way and there was a great sense of achievement when we reached the capital. We felt as though we were the stars of the TdF with tourists asking to take our photos underneath the Eiffel Tower! We capped off a great couple of days with well deserved beers and wine over dinner. 

Stretching at Gare Du Nord.

I have to give a huge thanks to Stefano for organising the whole trip (and assisting with that puncture at 5am!!), I have taken some great memories with me and I look forward to doing more Saddledrunk organised trips in the future! 

ook out for Part 2 of the ride.

Thank you to Craig & Chris.

A very well done to the riders.

SD Team

Chris,Stef,Craig,Ale,Val,Derek,Andy.