Riding Through The Death Rattle

Ridden to death

Ever been through one of those bicycle maintenance episodes that leaves you wishing you hadn't bothered/had just bought a new bike/had taken up jogging instead of cycling?

Mine started three weeks ago with a new headset. I tend to ride my bikes/components to death. The headset on my trusty 10-year-old Scott CR1 had died and been reincarnated four times over. Off to my local shop (Bicycle Works, Edinburgh) I went. On the way there my chain snapped.

Polychrome People

Eight stories, one massive, multi-coloured cloud 

PolychromePeople 

To each their own view of the mysterious cloud's innumerable, shifting shades. For some it's a brief distraction — snap, swipe, share — for others an excuse to party, a nuisance, an evil portent or an act of international terrorism. For an exclusive few the fog is an opportunity, a moment of enchantment and a chance to change.

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Middle-aged misanthrope Spike is spying on his neighbours, cursing the passing of time, the indie kids and his useless crippled legs. 

Alina is a Polish emigrant with an unshakable belief in art, romance and the meaning of names. 

The Things are morbidly obese, housebound chain smokers who owe it all to Granny's gargantuan pile. 

TV journalist Sara's personal crisis crashes head on into Haruka, the most glamorous weather girl in Japan. 

Octogenarian war-veteran Walter is crippled by the fear of a secret past that's fast catching up. 

Mikey is an ex-pro footballer, cursing the cloud, the career and the goth girl that got away.

Travellers Sean and Ruth are stuck, grounded by a mess of blue felt and a momentous decision. 

Leila is searching for a little shit of a dog called Arthur and the last few scraps of her evanescing self.

The Breakaway - Cycling the Mountains of the Tour de France

Cycling the Mountains of the Tour de France

Click here to buy the book or download a sample or just search "The Breakaway" at Amazon.

At some point in their life every amateur cyclist dreams of riding the high roads of the Tour de France,
discovering first-hand what it’s like to tackle Alpe D’Huez or the Tourmalet.

Not many cyclists ever get round to turning that notion into reality. Author Rolf Rae-Hansen and his best friend did just that, and to Alpe D and the Tourmalet they added another 33 of cycling’s most feared and revered mountain passes.

Just days into their adventure it became clear that these two distinctly amateur cyclists had bitten off more mountain than they could comfortably chew. As they ticked off the climbs one by one, their friendship was tested to, and then beyond, destruction.

Through moments of laughter, sadness and exhilaration, Rolf Rae-Hansen documents the highs and lows of tackling the biggest names in cycling, from the Stelvio to Alpe D’Huez, to Mont Ventoux and the Tourmalet.

With themes both personal and universal, The Breakaway is a book for cyclists and non-cyclists, a story of (mis)adventure, friendship and overcoming grief.

“Not only had I an insatiable desire for the mountains, I also had a newfound respect, a realisation that from now on the names I would champion would be those from the parcours and not the peloton. The paint on tarmac will fade to be replaced in a continual cycle of renewal but the names printed white onto brown summit signs will never desert me — always there, for all of us, and future generations too. In essence, the climbs that Drew and I had tackled were the very same routes ridden one hundred years ago, the same arduous ascents cyclists will be slogging their way up in another hundred years to come. Tourmalet, Ventoux, Galibier, Stelvio, D'Huez ... those are the sport of cycling's true legends. They feature in races (and the headlines) year in year out; they never lose form, can't retire. More importantly, in this era of doubt, the mountains won't test positive — solid as the millennia of rock upon which their roads were laid, guaranteed to never let you down.”

Click here to buy the book or download a sample or just search "The Breakaway" at Amazon.