Books A Corinthian Endeavour

Every year on the last weekend of October the death knell of the cycling season is sounded by the National Hill Climb Championship. It’s been won by luminaries like Brian Robinson, Chris Boardman and Malcolm Elliott, and yet the story of the championship is one of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, of amateur cyclists prevailing against the professionals. It’s a tale of obsession, pain and asceticism – the key elements in the fight against the insidious grasp of gravity.The violence of the race is set against the beauty of the landscape, from the supernatural past of Pendle Moor to the granite outcrops of Dartmoor, from the glacial High Peak to the bucolic charms of the Cotswolds. It’s an esoteric and uniquely British event, a hymn to the clustered contours of this island, sung by the Corinthian exponents of amateur sport. In an era when cycling as a sport has never been more popular, this ideal is more important than ever