Diary: Bikes in Barnstaple

We were in Barnstaple yesterday for the Tour of Britain, stage 2.

Barnstaple is the main town of North Devon in the southwest of England. Old and quaint, it's been ravaged by post-war planning: the old medieval streets pierced by a throbbing, flashing dual carriageway while sixties brutalism - white slats and breezeblock - infiltrates streets of older, fading yet more humane architecture.

The town seems on a cusp. There are pockets of gentrification, where the facades, decor and offers (coffee, food) are just as urbane and hipster as any bubble metropolis. Elsewhere you encounter boarded-up shops on the High Street, a general shabbiness and too much litter. There are beggars.

Barnstaple needs an injection of capital, a spring in the step and a sense of civic pride. As a typical English market town, it's far from alone in lacking these things.

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So this is the Tour of Britain swishing through their first pass of Barnstaple (the finish was also here later).

As you can see, Clare and myself were encouraged by the motorbike-marshal to join with others in blocking the main Alexandra Road so that the riders would continue straight on to Victoria Road.

Chris Froome leads the peloton on to the roundabout

... closely followed by the rest of the Sky team: G is third in the picture

We passed Chris Froome and the rest of the Sky team later in the afternoon. This was on the M5 near Taunton heading up towards Bristol (stage 3): they were in the team bus and we were heading home.

"Why I didn't cross the line" - Dr Richard Freeman

Amazon link

From The Guardian last month:

"Dr Richard Freeman did not appear at the digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) committee last year, citing ill health, after being summoned over his involvement in a package given to Sir Bradley Wiggins after the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2011. He replied in writing but did not appear in person before the parliamentary inquiry.

The UK Anti-Doping Agency spent 14 months investigating allegations that the package contained triamcinolone, a banned corticosteroid. In November 2017 Ukad closed its investigation, saying it was unable to prove or disprove that it contained a banned substance because of missing medical reports.

The DCMS report concluded in March that Team Sky had “crossed an ethical line” in their use of the powerful drug. Wiggins, Freeman and Team Sky have all categorically denied cheating and insist the package contained a legal decongestant.

Now in an interview with BBC Sport, Freeman reiterated that he, Wiggins and Team Sky never “crossed the line”. Asked if he ever “flirted with the line” or sat in a “grey area that falls somewhere between the rules and cheating”, he replied: “Never.”

Freeman, who resigned as British Cycling’s head doctor last year, said he did not appear at the select committee because of a “breakdown” brought on by the investigations."

This is a bitty book. Chapters alternate between

• Freeman's personal history training to be a doctor
• His subsequent career as a sports doctor in football and cycling
• A diary of a typical day with Sky on a Grand Tour
• Training techniques (eg sprinters spend most of their time in the gym)
• Marginal gains (room-prep, hygiene, eating and drinking, sleep)
• Stories about particular gruesome crashes where Freeman intervened
• General medical stories about administering to elite sportspeople
• Advice to enthusiastic amateurs.

And yes, there is a detailed account of what was in that jiffy bag and how Dr Freeman came to lose the relevant medical records following a violent hotel break-in having failed to secure backups.

Does Freeman's case for the defence hold water? It's impossible to be sure. His story is plausible but feels partial and self-exculpating. But then, everyone has an agenda around the Team Sky and British Cycling leadership (Brailsford, Sutton, et al). The DCMS came across as the voice of the prosecution, not a disinterested enquiry.

And sometimes you get the feeling that the liberal establishment thinks winning is somehow a value-atrocity and is ultimately unforgivable, especially when it seems to involve a degree of ruthlessness, harshness and being unkind to some of the athletes some of the time.

The book can be read as a psychometric test. Freeman comes across as an ISFJ. His depressive episodes are consistent with that, as is his focus on process, rules and hierarchy. He's a concrete kind of guy (as are many who choose General Practice). He doesn't do theorisation or abstractions.

His writing is passive-aggressive. In his own mind he's been treated abominably and disloyally by his employers, betrayed even (and this may even be true). He's too loyal and decent to reply in kind, he thinks; so we get an aggrieved, long-suffering narrative. There's not a lot of humour or point-scoring to be found here. But if you're interested in an insider's view of a top road-racing cycle team on and off the road, there are plenty of nuggets scattered around .. and in the end it's an easy read.

Froome is of a certain age

There was that notorious incident in 2012 on stage 8 of the Tour de France:

"When he accelerated on La Toussuire with four kilometres to go, Chris Froome left behind Bradley Wiggins, the rest of the group and, it appeared, team orders.

Twenty seconds later, he spoke into the race radio, slowed and the fragments drifted back together.

“They asked me to slow down,” Froome said after the finish, referring to Team Sky directeur sportif Sean Yates."

Back in 2012, Froome was aged 27 and Wiggins was 32. Wiggins cracked on that final slope - this chart might explain why:

Elite cyclists are at their strongest aged 27-29: by 32 they're down by a third

Cut to stage 12 of the Tour this year:

"Chris Froome's brief attack on teammate and race leader Bradley Wiggins that day in 2012 is now the stuff of legend and, though clearly not on the same level, there were question marks over Mikel Landa's role as Froome struggled on the brutally steep gradients.

The Spaniard, Froome's last teammate and himself in the top 10 overall, didn't look around as the maillot jaune lost ground, instead forging on to finish fourth on the stage."

Fabio Aru then took the maillot jaune, Landa forging ahead as Froome cracked. Froome is now aged 32, while both Landa and Aru are 27.

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There were other reasons touted. Richie Porte - ever loyal - said from his hospital bed that Froome had hit the wall due to messing up his feeding. Others noted that Aru (66 kg) and Landa (60 kg) are lightweight pure climbers while Froome (71 kg and a generalist climber/time-trialist) is quite a bit heavier.

But the age-related roll-off of performance is hard to argue against. Team Sky will be looking hard for their next GC candidate. A shame that Landa appears to be off for Astana or Movistar.

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Update (Saturday).

Froome emphatically back in yellow today. Not so much a new-found strength as clever tactics completely bamboozling Aru and his team Astana. Team Sky are head-and-shoulders smarter than most other teams.