A bit of book reviewing....

What to write in my blog, was the question I kept asking myself? I still have bad knee/s (right being the major pain in the !?@!). This week I have mostly been reading, so today I am writing a bit of a book review, clearly this will be a poor review in the way its written. This will not surprise many. I will also add a few other bits and piece I have been doing since my last write up. Most of you will not be surprised, its not much!

So the book I have been reading (and proudly finished) is “Eddy Merckx, The Cannibal”, written by Daniel Friebe. I was given the book around 6 months ago. For one reason or another, mostly a loathing for reading and the effort I have to put in to read a book I only really started it around 6 weeks ago. I have clearly heard all the talk about Eddy Merckx being the greatest bike rider ever, but he being retired before I was born gives me a bit of an excuse to not be fully sure of this big title. That and the fact I have only really been into cycling for 18 months, I have very little knowledge of the history of the sport.

With recent injuries and being in the gorgeous Cotes d’Azur area for most of the last month I have had a great backdrop to sit in the sun and get some reading done, and read I did! It tends to take my mind off the obvious continuious disappointment of not being able to enjoy the area on the bike.

This book I found a little heavy going in the first chapter or two, I do often do get this feeling with books. Once the story starts to follow the Merckx racing career, well then your hooked. The book is written by Daniel Friebe who is among Britain’s best know cycling journalists. It seems he did try to gain imput from Eddy Merckx himself but it seems he did not agree to this. You may think it effects the book, but I would disagree. It is almost better as you have input from all the friend, foes and rivals of the great rider Merckx.

I really was surprised how good this man really was, and even more impressed by the way he went about winning, not only the many grand tours he won but it seemed he had an incredible appitite to win every single stage...! You can read about how Eddy would just attack 100k from the finish of a 240k stage midway through a grand tour, his rivals turned and looked at each other as if you say “what is he doing?”. They would not then see Merckx until they crossed the a couple of hours later and having lost several minutes as well.

I would certainly advise this book as a good read 8/10. For those of you like me who have not heard the full story of “The Cannibal”, then this book fits the bill rather nicely.

Away from my new favourite hobby, book reviewing I have also been trying to swim every morning. The light riding is not working with my knee so I have decided to give it even more time to rest. There are 2 small bays where I am staying on the Med, I have previously been swimming in the more popular one to the West. Today I decided I would swim in the other one for a change. I have tended to start one side of the bay and then round the coast a few hundred meters, I did this today as usual but in this new bay. Casually swimming along minding my own business, I was looking about the sea bed spotting a few fish, the rocks, generally relaxing. Then all of a sudden just ahead of me I saw a man sat on the bottom of the sea bed, in a crouched position, with one of those spear guns in his hands! This really made me jump, he looked like he had just came from one of the old James Bond films. Immediately (and I do not know why), I spun around and legged it! I certainly swam faster on my way back, and once in the main bay I decided I would not go back that way tomorrow.

We have another awesome day here (sorry I had to mention it), low 20’s and very light clouds. I think its now 10 days in a row with this perfect weather. Saying that I believe we have a bit of wet stuff on its way tuesday.