JOHN WHITNEY THE READER
IF the worldwide lockdown we’re currently living through has offered anything positive, it’s that it’s given us time to catch up on the things on our ‘to do’ list that have languished there for many years. Catch up on the mustwatch boxset that has always passed you by (hello, The Sopranos), or, for the more ambitious, to learn a new language.
One of the first things I wanted to scrub off my list while being confined to my flat was to finally read the classic cycling novel The Rider, by Dutch author Tim Krabbé.
First published in Krabbé’s native language in 1978, and in English for the first time in 2002, The Rider is the fictional account, based heavily on the author’s own experiences as an amateur racer, of our eponymous hero’s ride in the biggest, toughest race of his season, the mountainous (and again fictional) 137km Tour de Mont Aigoual in southern France. The book is far more than a cult classic – to some it’s the seminal text of road racing. Rapha founder Simon Mottram even credits the book as one the inspirations for his company.
And yet, I have to admit to my shame that it’s sat on my book shelf across numerous cities and apartments I’ve lived in for the best part of a decade. More recently, it travelled to the
